My Word
First published as the introduction to Ocular Oracle, an ebook collection of “hydrogen jukebox” poems published by No Bones in December of 2021, the fourth of a trilogy. Read the entire ebook in the free PDF below. See also “Wherever They Will: Introduction to Eyeball Kick,” “Wherever You Will: Introduction to Retina Splash,” “Who Knows: Introduction to Vitreous Humor,” and “Courting the Eyeball Kick: A Short History of Suns and Moons.” +
“The different and the novel are sweet, but regularity and repetition are also teachers.”
—Mary Oliver
Here we go with another suite of “hydrogen jukebox” poems, melding high and low. They pair the ordinary with—well, whatever a hydrogen jukebox is. The effect of these poems may amount to apophenia, or the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or experiences. Yet isn’t that what all haiku rely on, even if their juxtaposed elements are not unrelated? But then, who said these poems were even haiku at all? Or perhaps you see no meaningful connections within these poems after all, as you let them wash over you like a summer shower. Here’s to the hydrogen jukebox, and to dancing in the rain.
Michael Dylan Welch
Sammamish, Washington
Ocular Oracle.pdf