Poetry is invading my world again

OK, so there's this research module, that flings tasks at you, that I find irresistible. Write a bibliography... so Harvard referencing which I have always used for essays pops into my head, and i think how pointless it is for really creative pieces, and I'm much rather steer my reader down the same creative path that I took. So this is my (very first...be kind) draft.

Harvard Referencing

Here are the inky footprints

of my research, academic name dropping

on the treasure map of my resources,

in citations and publishers and authors.

References that don’t mention the time

I wrote them, wine-dazed at three

in the morning, book in one hand,

toast or remote or lover in the other.

Citations pepper the text, season

it with the magnitude of the published,

the security of peer reviewed words.

My ideas smothered by a patchwork of texts.

Me (2010) locked into the half truths

and slant rhymes of writers who loom, heavy

tomes shadow me; lose me in their pages,

pressed, library scented until released

in a deluge of post its, fine pencilled notes.

I would rather reference the other

way, through coffees sipped, poems

fallen into, music that drew lines

under thoughts, italicised words, coloured.

Rather, I would send the reader on a journey

to stand in galleries and walk under trees,

stand knee deep, as I did, in spring tides

or row onto the lake, fingers trailing in snowmelt.

Or make them sit by the Aga, with a notebook

full of poems; tear out the least desired

and leave them on the hotplate to singe

and curl; fold into ash by morning.

Or I'll reference the shopping list or recipe,

or words whispered into my ear;

or the lies I tell in-laws—or out-laws.

Blog, unblog, quote friends on Facebook,

pin down praise from my mother

in instructive citations. Draw in lipstick,

cartoons on the mirror, reference the scent

of the t-shirt I wore to mow the  lawn.

Write in cardamom scented ink.

 

References, citations and bibliographies are used in a piece of academic writing to enable a reader to identify and locate the sources which have been consulted by the writer.