Apropos Series

A selection of laissez-faire postparnassian poetry crafted at the crack of dawn. Inspiration comes from online dictionaries' freshly harvested words-of-the-day. A poem might in turn tickle the fancy of the painterly muse; often it merely laughs at its own expense. January 2020 was BC (Before Covid), or not, as we know now. As the virus took off, The Island of Doctor Ironymisch Devilish surfaced - this oil painting will be the companion piece to the twelve chapbooks of the Apropos series.

A selection of laissez-faire postparnassian poetry crafted at the crack of dawn. Inspiration comes from online dictionaries' freshly harvested words-of-the-day. A poem might in turn tickle the fancy of the painterly muse; often it merely laughs at its own expense. Covid-19 spread during March 2020. The Island of Doctor Ironymisch Devilish, the oil painting companion piece to the twelve chapbooks of the Apropos series, sits on the easel, weathering the storm.

A selection of laissez-faire postparnassian poetry crafted at the crack of dawn. Inspiration comes from online dictionaries' freshly harvested words-of-the-day. A poem might in turn tickle the fancy of the painterly muse; often it merely laughs at its own expense. Covid-19 emerged from the shadows after February 2020, and insinuated itself into every aspect of life. The Island of Doctor Ironymisch Devilish surfaced - this oil painting will be the companion piece to the twelve chapbooks of the Apropos series.

Laissez-faire postparnassian poetry written in the cruelest Covid month of April 2020.This sample is an extract of a compendium to be published when the year has exhausted itself. Each poem is handcrafted at the crack of dawn, using as many as possible words-of-the-day harvested fresh from online dictionaries. They are later used as inspiration in the painterly studio. This is a work-in-progress, a timeproven panacea to reduce stress while waking up to the fluid concept of time in quarantine.  It is the making of memories.

A selection of laissez-faire postparnassian poetry crafted at the crack of dawn. Inspiration comes from online dictionaries' freshly harvested words-of-the-day. A poem might in turn tickle the fancy of the painterly muse; often it merely laughs at its own expense. Covid-19 continued its rampage through May 2020. The simple exercise of incorporating prompts into pomodoro poems is a remarkable stress reliever, a small moment of control over the variables and chaos of the world.

Jejune Jousting is Book 6 in the Apropos: Epic Poetry series. As with its predecessors it was crafted with freshly-harvested daily 'words-of-the day' generously supplied by several online dictionaries. These crack-of-dawn pomodoro poems of June 2020 were written in a quixotic quest to beat the blues brought on by a chaotic year. 

Seven Embers is the ninth bundle in the Apropos: Epic Poetry series. These are the embers that have sparked many a fire in 2020: Black Lives Matter; Covid; climate change; politics; poverty; violence; intolerance. A fire can be cleansing, and it can also destroy. The poems in this collection were composed with the Words of the Day from online dictionaries, using the Pomodoro technique. They are the break-of-dawn word briquettes that fuel small preventitive fires in the mind, and prevent huge devastating ones from overwhelming us: a poem a day keeps our sanity in sway.

Surely July is the seventh bundle in the Apropos: Epic Poetry series. In this time of COVID, misinformation and seemingly ever-increasing chaos and lies, a stoic would recommend that one accept the moment as is, without complaint. Not even the Word Of The Day can universally be agreed upon, but we can employ them in any way we wish! Stoically, using the Pomodoro technique, at the crack of dawn. Surely, the WODs were selected by emotionless, advanced AI algorithms, taking cognisance of all the happenings in our world, unaffected by pleasure or pain. Poetically uniting them seemed subjunctively humorous.

An August Presence is Book 8 in the Apropos: Epic Poetry series. For many it was a pandemic month of bluster, bragging, braying, and boasting in the political arena, spiced with dire warnings about climate change. We isolated, adjusted our masks, and worried. Words of the Day to the rescue! Harvested at the crack of dawn from online dictionaries, they jumped to the task of taking our minds elsewhere.

Just Weight is the tenth bundle in the Apropos: Epic Poetry series. The scale of the corona virus epidemic was devastating. We had had enough of the virus, but the virus was not finished with us, and our lifestyles felt in the balance, as did our political futures. This collection includes, as a bonus, the daily ink illustrations for the month of October, also known as #inktober. We need creativity to balance ourselves. Words of the day, provided by online dictionaries, and wrought into little poems, helped to lighten the burdens weighing on our minds as we waited for a vaccine to be developed.

Sober Now is the eleventh bundle in the Apropos: Epic Poetry series. Have we been sobered by the almost one and a half million dead? Certainly, the sting will be in the tail. Still, some escape can be found from our daily doomscrolling by nurturing freshly harvested online words-of-the-day for poems. Imagination is built on memory. A writerly habit is built, word by word, creative within constraints. Before you know it, an entire bundle of memories arises from the ashes, like a Phoenix. No, not like a zombie. Geez.

DieVersity is Book 12 in the Apropos: Epic Poetry series. December brought the first vaccine roll-out, hope at the end of a difficult year. The roll of the dice did not affect everyone equally, some suffered more than others. In its own small way, harvesting the online dictionaries Words of the Day and using them for writing a poem every day without fail, helped to sustain a sense of living in the moment, but not surrendering to it. We still don't know how this epidemic will play out, but we will emerge from it with memories of shared moments. May the virus die, and verse go on, when the masks come off.