I've found the title of my second manuscript: Bone Echo. I'm relieved and excited about it. I'd like your feedback, whether it appeals to you or not. I'd thought for several months that the title would include the word "acoustic" or "acoustics," as some of you may recall. I appreciate the e-mails and comments I received about the possible titles. But it wasn't happening.
Last night, during a great conversation with a friend whose creative spirit and energy is among the most expansive I've ever known, we were talking about poetry and poets, bookstores and books. We'd talked about book titles before, and last night it came up again. I explained what I liked about the word "acoustic" but why it wasn't working in the title. I won't explain the details of the conversation, but the result was that in some strange moment of synchronicity, we arrived at a title at the same time---she said it out loud, "How about 'Bone Echo'?" --at the exact moment I thought to myself, "Bone Echo." It captures much of the second manuscript's direction thus far---poems about certainty, the body, foundations, simplicity, one's own voice, and resonance or reverberation. There is a certainty or finality in many of the poems, including the more expansive series of poems I've been writing as of late: poems like "Gardening Secrets of the Dead," "Fire," and the new one, "Eschara." At any rate, I'll let this simmer for a while, but I like it quite a bit. Your two cents are welcome.
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5 comments:
Bone Echo would be a great name for any poetry collection and would work really well with your work. I'm thinking back to your poems and how they draw memory out of so many concrete places, how they wrap themselves around music and generate a separate conversation from the notes. Yeah, Bone Echo is a great title for your next set of poems.
Congrats!
Thanks, Oscar. BTW, I enjoyed the great write-up of your work at Letras Latinas.
I like that title!
And if that doesn't work out, word verification offers this: fleabanger
:)
Hi Lee -- my purely aural reaction to "Bone Echo" is very positive. I like the way the two words flow together, the convergence of material and sound which is more sequential than colliding. I also like the sense that one would need to incline closely to hear such an echo (if it is audible at all). Of course I don't know your work that well, so my reaction is that of an unknowing potential reader. Very nice!
Thanks, Collin!
Sonya, I appreciate your thoughts on the sound. I too like the sequential convergence, and I also like how the last part of it opens up. Hope all's well.
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