Inspired by Dave Bonta’s one-minute video poem, here’s my first-ever attempt at mixing video and poetry.
Here’s the text of the poem:
sideways world
I ride my bicycle in a sideways world
keeping my balance while the cars pass overhead
and the cars path beneath
I wear a helmet in case I should fall
though I don’t know in which direction
gravity would take me
I am the only inhabitant of this sideways world
everyone else appears to be walking
at a right angle to me
we don’t make eye contact
I asked you once to go for a ride with me
you tried, but you couldn’t balance
and so I ride by myself in this sideways world
looking for a sideways companion to join me
[…] (You can read the text of the poem and see a video poem by another poet at jasoncrane.org.) […]
Hey, alright! This was a lot of fun, and took me right back to the way I used to think about things as a kid (which, sadly, is also almost the last time I rode a bicycle). Glad I could spark something.
Thanks, Dave. I had that footage — shot sideways by mistake — and decided to turn it into something. When I saw your one-minute video, I knew what to do with the footage.