So Ambition Falls

02 June 2021 Wednesday Prose Poem: major philosophy

Flaws arrange themselves — made up like cigarettes and ash, the soldiers on the lines of next loss — arrogant opening, a mouth filled dirty anti-lubricant with medicine on tongue —

sublingual, too, but that doesn’t mean it’s inventing words — or taking the sublime to task — ah, Lyotard…what makes the postmodern run? — there’s a pointilism in it all, disjunction without

a clue to putting it all back together — first, we dismantle everything, axles block brake whatever fluid is all over the fucking driveway — steering wheel missing spokes

fell recycling bin shivering 5 a.m. sun — I make no secret of falling, do it a lot so I am in my chair — reclining the week a bit — before biting into the screen, ruining the placid white with a few different symbols

J.D. Harms 2021

Prompt:

Let’s get technical, technical…no, I can’t carry a tune. Thanks for checking, though! I’m not entirely certain whether it was the 70’s or 80’s, but the French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard declared that the postmodern (art) aesthetic was not the beautiful, but the sublime. If I recall his paper correctly, and it’s been awhile since I read it, but he mentions Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain”, a free-standing urinal, I believe; anyway, without going into all of Kant’s third Critique, the beautiful is that which carries universal agreement, form without function (sort of…long story); the sublime could be understood as the sensation we get from watching some terrible force (i.e., hurricane) from a place of relative safety. The surreal, a breakdown of what was once “rational”, becomes something more akin to the sense of the sublime, rather than the beautiful. Ok…on to the prompt. I would like you to write a prose poem inspired by a philosopher.

N.B. It must be a philosopher, a member of the western or eastern canon. Not someone who writes quaint philosophical sounding sayings. You could select from many (gods, there are many): Kant, Aristotle, Rousseau, Foucault, Sartre, Confucius, etc.; any of these would be acceptable. Ekhart Tolle is NOT in the acceptable camp.

None of this is to suggest you need to write a university level essay; just let the philosopher guide your piece. Tag me in it, and rock on!

Lennie Varvarides Rowen Veratome rowen maeve Dennett Viraji Ogodapola Zay Pareltheon Jessica Lee McMillan Eli Snow Daniel Barry Carolyn Riker Joseph Lieungh Mimi Bordeaux Alex Guenther Caitlin Rebecca Niki Madore Era Garg Ana-Maria Schweitzer Ann Marie Steele Barry Dawson IV Gabriela Marie Milton Daniel A. Teo Georgia Lewitt Renee Podunovich Joe Luca Paroma Sen Samantha Lazar Connie Song Christina M. Ward Rambling Rose Jaylee Reign Amy Jasek Aaron Quist Justin Haag Evan Wildstein Eva Rotolo Wilfreda Edward Joanna Vang Kristie Darling Aspen Blue jenine bsharah baines Josie Elbiry Amanda Dalmas Kira Dawn Betsy Denson Jesse M. Gonzalez Julia Saha Julia Marsiglio Andrea Juillerat-Olvera Mary Jones Lori Lamothe Gary Chapin Nilla Chen Eddie Becker Gillian Torres Lakshya Malik Ulf Wolf Jonah Lightwhale Jonah Angeles Jeff Langley Annine Massaro Gurpreet Dhariwal Lindsay Soberano-Wilson anotherpoetryblog Chris Mooney-Singh Vixen Lea Heather M. Shrum Josh Lonsdale Kevin E. Pittack Jr. Iva Hotko Pablo Pereyra Rhonda Marrone Charlene Marron Suzanne V. Tanner MDSHall Aparna Das Sadhukhan Angelina Der Arakelian Frederick Andrew Ian Cunnold