AUTISM by Edward Byrne: January 2011

AUTISM: A POEM

This blog has been created as an open experiment of poetry composition, perhaps a glimpse at an emerging manuscript as it matures. This working manuscript should not be considered as complete or published. Instead, this should be viewed as merely an early stage in the process of creation.

I have placed below some of the pages from an isolated venture in one of my typescript loose-leaf folders. The contents here represent portions of an ongoing personal project with a particularly narrow focus intended to eventually develop toward a book-length poetry sequence with the tentative working title of Autism.

The poem will grow as new sections are added. The individual posts are designed so that they may be viewed as independent items; however, I have consciously carried themes, images, and similar language through the extended sequence with the hope that connectivity and continuity will be preserved among numerous sections of the long poem.

Readers are asked to regard this piece as a work in progress, a partial or rough draft rather than a finished product (even if some selected segments previously may have appeared in print), and I request everyone realize various edits, emendations, or expansion may be made to the posts at any time in the future. Moreover, at some point the entire sequence will be removed to undergo a complete revision.

Therefore, I urge visitors to become followers of the blog by clicking the link in the sidebar, as well as to follow on Twitter for updates. Readers are also invited to browse my personal web site for additional information.

Indeed, a significant part of this experiment involves a certain amount of transparency that includes the possibility for readers to communicate responses and offer constructive suggestions, both of which I welcome through post comments or e-mail messages.

Also, I advise that the order of the numbered sections is not meant to be at all definitive since the long poem’s sequence will certainly be reorganized as the work in this temporary format starts to resemble a completed manuscript and begins to assume a more formal shape that might eventually be suitable for publication. In fact, I welcome interest from book publishers as well.

Thank you for taking the time to examine this trial stage, a test which I perceive as a preliminary process in the composition of a possible poetry manuscript. —Edward Byrne

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

AUTISM: A POEM

. . . . . XXVII. At the Outdoor Concert

. . . . . 1

The brass band plays favorite
. . . . . holiday tunes, festive music

in late afternoon one weekend
. . . . . ahead of Independence Day.

A blanket spread wide, we lie
. . . . . on the lawn, watch darkening

blue sky above, horizon tinted
. . . . . with the hint of a new bruise.

A sudden file of black clouds
. . . . . crowds out the sun. Someone

runs quickly across a distant
. . . . . meadow now becoming lost

in shadow. Already, distinct
. . . . . arrows of treetops disappear.

. . . . . 2

As the squall line edges near,
. . . . . my son listens for the far off

rumble. As always, he knows
. . . . . to expect a change in plans—

again he learns of uncertainty
. . . . . that often accompanies him,

aware we cannot even count
. . . . . on this calm summer setting;

and so he wonders how close
. . . . . the storm front’s swift winds,

how soon before we’ll leave,
. . . . . hustling under heavy rainfall,

how much longer until a last
. . . . . note lingers with the thunder.