Such Is Our Asylum
A carapace of insight
Built incrementally and revisited anew
An exoskeleton of wordplay
Whose affirmation frames our point of view
A dense network of thought
Fleshing out an informational mesh
Such is our asylum
There's no time for buyer's remorse
Snap judgements galore, we write our own stories
Judicious case studies, arguments by analogy
Feverishly devising impressionistic narratives
Changing the frame with our oblique perspectives
It's a reflection of these fragments of identity
Collecting pieces of a dream in search of community
Crumbs of solace gathered from probing conversation
Forging liminal links while chasing word fugitives
And so we weave together strands of allusion
Erecting barriers of layered protection
A comfort suite of irrepressible storytelling
Refining the mesh that is social living
Toli Theme, a playlist
A soundtrack for this note, consider this a musical manifesto of sorts. (spotify version)
- Strategy by Archie Bell & The Dells
- Stories by Carleen Anderson
- Conception by Black Thought
- Searching by Roy Ayers
- Social Living by Burning Spear
- Weaver of Dreams by Kenny Burrell
...
The book is done.
This note concludes concludes another collection of toli, my fourth collection of poems, a year in the life. I started May 2021 with The Lobby and ending on May 2022 with another covidious folktale. It took in tragedy and its aftermath in South Africa and Ghana as well as my usual meditations on small things. Hopefully it will escape hypertext into physical form sometime soon... I call it Buyer's Remorse.
File under: culture, observation, perception, strategy, creative process, writing, Buyer's Remorse, poetry, toli
Writing log: March 23, 2022