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A Dinggedicht or Object Poem, based on the opening scene of Pulp Fiction |
A table, grey laminated slab of medium-density fibreboard scratched, stained, and lick-spit wiped down to leave faint tide marks memories of an indifferent cloth a plate, plain, pottery, though probably not porcelain utilitarian, and piled with breakfast remains, a knife and fork akimbo and a white paper napkin, roughly crumpled and dropped atop the lot beneath the plate a bill two coffee cups in deep saucers, white with two bands of burgundy, the highest a little narrower, demarking the rim, neither is full but both hold coffee One centred beneath a dark blouse of indeterminate colour, maybe purple? collarless to display a cheap necklace, cowboy boot hung from a chain next to this one a stray fork, tongs face down The other to the side of an apple brand pack of cigarettes, and a subdued surf shirt, short sleeved a ring, dark stone lozenge set in gold a lit cigarette held carelessly Stainless steel pot with hinged lid and tiny rounded handle holds milk nearby a cluster glass sugar dispenser, three quarters full, with a silvered spout for pouring lidless bottle of ketchup, also three quarters full small bowl containing pink packets of sweetener a laminated menu upright on a small stand unseen but inferred tall salt shaker, metal lid like a tiny minaret, angled glass sides squat pepper pot, four faces and a well rounded top like the bishop and the rook of some culinary chess set lying next to them all is another napkin, opened, roughly folded and discarded In the centre an ashtray, glass, full of filters Then.. a small revolver. Written as a Dinggedicht or Object Poem for the Poet's Place group
This is a genre of poetry in which communication of mood or thought is made through acute observation of things and symbolic concentration. It was introduced in the early 1900s by Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke while studying impressionist paintings. It is closely connected to the imagist movement of the same time. It appears the difference may be in the subject of the observation. The dinggedicht appears to be more likely to observe man-made articles while the imagist tends to observe more natural surroundings. The story is told through the arrangement of inanimate objects or things from a distance or distracted point of view. |