What would it mean to write poem covers of other poems–the way a band might cover another band’s song? Is it possible to re-create written works in a way that transforms them into a new expression while honouring their original authors? April Sigma resulted from my attempts to answer those questions.
After experimenting with a few variations, I came up with a process for writing cover poems. April Sigma is a digital chapbook of fifteen poems, the equivalent of what a band would call a cover album. Using six rules and no quotations, each of the poems draws on another author’s source work to become, I hope, something new.
A year after writing these poems, I kept reflecting on the process and wanted to find some alternative way of thinking about the differences and similarities compared to the poems’ sources. I’ve used a tool called Poemage to create sonic topology visualizations of each poem, which I’ve included in the chapbook.