1
I just popped that pill I got
from a guy who called me ‘dude’
now the signs along the highway
are leaking semiotic fluid
2
and the cacti look psychotic
lizards parse the desert floor
far off in the clint-eyed distance
I see a slowly revolving door
3
and I’m feeling, demotic, neurotic, anecdotal, overused
I’m looking for a sanctuary, the fisherman and the shoes
I’ve got those hallucination highway peripatetic blues.
I’ve been writing/ rewriting this poem verse by verse this week, posting a new verse each day. I think I may have come to the end of the poem, but I may take it up again.
Either way, there is a fascinating prompt from Bjorn over at dverse on the subject of conceit: To quote Bjorn:
“A conceit is defined as an extended and complex metaphor”
From Wikipedia:
“In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison.”
Also from Anna in a previous dverse post:
“Conceits, on the other hand, surprise and shock the readers by making farfetched comparisons.”
Somewhere in there I think my poem fits…….maybe.
Stopdraggingthepanda 
Lol. Are you sure it was a pill that caused it? Reads like your mind on overdrive. Quite the imagination you have, Jim.
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and to think, it all started when I came across the word “semiotic” !
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Well this is psychedelically fantastic, from the signs ‘leaking semiotic fluid’ to the ‘slowly revolving door’ in the ‘clint-eyed distance’ – expect the unexpected!
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Thanks Ingrid!
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Reminds me of the Carlos Castaneda book The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
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I remember that book!
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A heck of a hallucination!
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Call it the pill-popping probably peripatetic pondering with an alliterative bent?
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Thanks Beverly!
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Well, I for one am floating .. higher than a kite. Loved your poem!
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Thank you, Helen!
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This poem seems built out of pure image, and every one you draw in echoes your theme of a disjointed trip taken without leaving the farm, as we used to say. I loved that everything was so visual, and the hammer of the list-like adjectives hits just the right note on the psychedelic xylophone that echoes these electric blues. While I dearly loved feeling demotic with the psychotic cacti, this has to be my favorite line: “..far off in the clint-eyed distance..” It makes you squint.
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Thank you Joy, I had a lot of fun with this one!
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Great lyrics for a song there!
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Thank you!
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Very well written Jeff. I like all your wild hallucinations! Must have been a powerful pill!
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Thanks Dwight!….Jim
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you are welcome!
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The way you write this coming as a drug trip ending in a religious ecstasy is great… the reference to walk from the desert into the company of the fisherman made me think of the bible.
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Thank you Bjorn and thanks for the prompt…JIM
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Hunter S. Thompson vibe ~
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Thank you M!
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I’d like to hear this put to music
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Good idea!
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A pleasure to read Jim, so many clever lines, I can’t pick one to single out. Great work.
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Thanks Steve!!
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