RANDOM BEARINGS
an epic Pantoum, because why not?
Random Bearings is an epic pantoum inspired line-by-line by no more and no less than 300 individual listings from the now-defunct Missed Connections website, with each listing chosen using the “Random” button that was on the site.
Not bad for a poem set in motion by biscuits and gravy and eye contact.
This poem is also the failed experiment of a storyteller trying to write a lyric poem. Rose Jermusyk takes what is meant to be a short, lyrical form and blows it up to a size meant for heroic feats all for the sake of trying not to write a story.
Yet from one stanza to the next, stories keep creeping into the text: sometimes endearing, sometimes painful, and — on more than one occasion — nonsensical. Tales of wished-for love spin from the voices of those seeking to reconnect. Or connect for the first time.
"Not as good as biscuits and gravy to me, but still pretty great all on its own."
Rose Jermusyk
The Poet