George Woolley

Some Karm

Introduction

Karm are words in a very simple form and consist of five elements of the same type in sequence where:

• the first and second items are opposites (e.g. male and female)
• the third item is a collision between the first two.
• the fourth item is a resolution.
• the fifth item represents stillness.

The type could be noun phrase or question or whatever. But simple.

Long before I started writing karm, I created word squares such as:

Karm arose partly out of my doing Gabrielle Roth's "the Wave" dance meditation (which goes through five rhythms) hundreds of times, choosing my own music for it, etc.

I interpret the karm form loosely. What I am drawn to is what reveals and what moves.

The plural of karm is karm.

grey scale

red, green
black, shades of grey, pearl.

a day

silver dawn, golden morn
red noon, violet dusk, darkest night.

a connection

moonlit woman, sunburnt man
blue lightning, violet dusk, darkest night.

who?

when are you? where are you?
why are you? who are you? what do you feel now?

anyone #1

sun, moon
stars, rain, snow.

being

no, yes
is, were, be.

words

your poem, my prose
TV ad, love letter, this diary.

the flow

lake, creek
waterfall, river, ocean.

some birds

white dove, blackbird
red-tailed hawk, canadian duck, imagined jay.

monsters

monster in the closet, monster under the bed
monsters everywhere, loch ness monster, you.

anyone #2

sleep, wake
hope, and then, eat breakfast.

musical source

blue guitar, yellow trumpet
brass band, harmony singers, air guitar.

mexican flower

red tomato, green onion
hot salsa, chocolate flan, rose water.

karm

are they poems? are they prose?
are they prose poems? are they karm? who knows?

Copyright 2002 George Woolley

More about My Karm

As I said, I view the karm form loosely. E.g. Otherwise, I would change "sun moon" to "moon sun". I generally put the body of a karm on two lines (2 items on the first line, 3 on the second), but other karm (and perhaps even these) might be presented differently. E.g. all 5 items on one line. Or a karm could be presented graphically:

Karm may or may not be viewed as poetry. But karm do have their meaning in the context of poetry and literature and our lives. Some of the items in a karm may be references. E.g. "blue guitar", "turquoise giraffe". Or a whole sequence within a karm may come from elsewhere. E.g. "sun moon stars rain". I see my karm as a family, a tribe or some such. They are related to each other and illuminate each other.