AS I LAY DYING

AS I LAY DYING

Delta Haiku

“Faulkner said that the writer
wanted to distill human experience
into fourteen words”—Joseph Blotner,
“From the World To Jefferson,”
Faulkner: International Perspectives,
Yoknapatawpha Conference 1982

Darl Bundren’s words—
His haunting ruminations
Printed as free verse.

Darl & Faulkner—
Both exiled, cunning poets
Precise points of view.

Each pristine chapter—
I Lay Dying opens up
Yoknapatawpha again.

Fifteen narrators—
Fifty-nine quick short chapters
Faulkner’s tour-de-force.

Mississippi Basho

Lost exiled angels—
Scornful, graceless seraphim
Urgent tragedy.

Each haiku chapter—
Going by at a fast clip
No time to get bored.

Interior talk—
Apocryphal pulp fiction
Conversational.

Delta modernist—
Stream of consciousness time
Time itself fractured.

There is this low ridge—
Beyond Seminary Hill
The Jefferson World.

Suzerain alone—
His solitary domain
Disambiguate.

His ramshackle past—
Pity, honor, sin & pride
Ambition, fear, lust.

Hopes & disasters—
Abnegation & pity
A dreamless slumber.

All bound together—
Yoknapathawpha County
Mapped-out with haiku.