This is becoming a very interesting exercise for me. Revisiting that particular work, skipping around, somewhat randomly choosing a couple to post, then recording myself reading them. I noticed that it takes a few tries before I warm up. But, even warmed up, I have a time reading them properly. I find myself skipping over words, or rephrasing lines. Missing an "s" here or there... So, re-do it, again and again. The goal being that, at the very least, my reading says the words that are actually on the paper.
Today, when I finished the two, I kept going, not recording myself, mind you, but, just reading them aloud, pretty much all of them. Tell you what, I don't understand a good bunch of them. Some even seem to contradict themselves, or, make metaphors that don't seem to fit. Not at first glance, they don't. But, I can see in the periphery how they might. And I also noticed a pattern repeated, not by all of them, but enough of them to matter, where there are 2 realities itertwined. The #13 poem that I posted today is an example of this. It begins as a story where an invasive species of... creatures drive seven half-brothers (sons of what must have been a very popular woman) from their home, then ends with a metaphor to their situation by talking about a lost love. Now, from OUR point of view, it is the story of the brothers that is actually the metaphor to the reality of the writer/reader where love is sometimes lost (and hairless monsters do not exist).
The second poem, #10, is pretty straightforward. some dude that works as a floor-sweeper at a liquor store has a crush on this one lady that comes every couple of weeks to buy expensive booze. He wants her at the expense of forsaking any other who may want him. All I can say is that, although I've had crushes, I've never been paid to sweep a floor.
I had planned on making 8 entries of two poems each for a total 16 poems, figuring that posting 1/4 of the work would be enough for now, and moving on to other stuff I have. I am really interested in reading the actual love poems I wrote my wife during our courtship (these I am currently posting, all 64 were written before we dated, with only 1 of them being about her). Or my current work: a series of prayers for each mystery of the Catholic's rosary. I also have translations from my Spanish poems based on the Tarot. And, of course, various pieces rescued from the flotsam of my life. I am going to keep going, though, with these I Ching ones. I just realized if I finish all of them, I can, well, I don't know what I can do with all the recordings, but I am sure it will be worthwhile to have them...