Koinophobia



  Koinophobia: The Fear of Being Ordinary

  Copyright 2016 Hayden Pearton

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Visit my website at https://newedenchronicles.wordpress.com/

  Contents

  Introduction

  What is a Technical Poem?

  The Quickening

  Spiral

  Five

  FLSKHU

  emiT

  Choices

  Me, Myself and

  The Question

  SOS

  Repeat

  Distance

  Hidden

  Greatest

  Nothing Rhymes With Orange

  Fade

  Divide

  Twenty

  After the Rain Falls

  Nspkn

  Entwined

  Missing

  ..-. .-. .. . -. -..

  Broken

  Fairy Lights

  Polyglot

  Fight for your Future

  (Dis)Order

  00110010

  Genesis

  Collective

  Closing

  About the Author

  Introduction

  Dare to be different.

  In a world full of infinite possibilities, why settle for the ordinary, the mundane, the well-trodden path?

  Create something new, build something unique, and challenge the norm.

  Four thousand years of poetry lie behind us. The future, however, is blank.

  Will we continue to tread the path? Or will we forge a new one?

  I am not claiming to be a visionary, an innovator or an inventor.

  I am simply trying my hardest to avoid being ordinary.

  I have Koinophobia, and I am glad that I do.

  It is my hope that the poems contained in this book will inspire you to be different, to think different, and to create something that is different.

  I have Koinophobia, do you?

  What is a Technical Poem?

  First things first, you should understand that the term “Technical Poem” is something I came up with in order to categorize my somewhat unusual brand of poetry. If a more appropriate or official term exists, then I apologize for the obfuscation.

  Moving along, by its inherent nature, a Technical Poem is a difficult thing to define. Whether a poem is Technical or not, in essence, is something that can only be determined by the author. For me, a Technical Poem is any poem that strives to do things differently. This can be as simple as starting each line with a predetermined letter (i.e. following a specific ruleset for the entirety of the poem) or as complex as writing the entire poem in Morse code.

  Where does one draw the line between quirky and Technical? That is up to you to decide. Personally, I try to write poems that encourage reader interactivity. This is seen in those poems in which the message can only be gleamed through deciphering; searching for secret messages or learning 86 new languages (have fun with that one).

  Secondly, as much as possible, I try to have the Technical Aspect of the poem relate to its subject matter. For example, a poem about a man’s last few seconds of life has one less letter on each succeeding line, reflecting his dwindling time and life-force. I do this so that the poem might gain additional meaning and a deeper message than if I simply paired unrelated Technical Aspects and subjects.

  As you read the ensuing 30 Technical Poems, try and keep this in mind: I will offer an explanation for each poem, of course, but don’t limit your understanding to my words alone. Look at each poem, reflect on your original thoughts and your “eureka” moment as you finally figured out the message.

  Read, meditate, question, and hopefully, create your own.

  Good luck, and welcome, to a whole new world.

  The Quickening

  This is it, the last minute of my life

  No! I'm not ready to die, not like this...

  It wasn't supposed to be like this...

  I was an idiot... I believed the lie

  He told me I would live forever

  Yet I have never been so wrong

  All because of one decision

  Why did we drive that night?

  Why did I drink that night?

  So many things left to do...

  I mean, I'm only nineteen!

  I have so many regrets!

  I regret... everything

  I regret... loving you

  I regret... dreaming

  I regret... too much

  I regret... living

  I have... seconds

  I want to live!

  It's too soon!

  Help me mom!

  I'm afraid!

  Someone,

  Please!

  Mommy,

  Pray

  For

  Me

  I-

  Technical Aspect: Each line has one less letter than the preceding line, starting at 29 letters and ending with 1.

  Explanation: The Quickening was my first Technical Poem, and fittingly, one of the hardest to create. The poem had several re-writes and changes which reflected the difficulty in crafting such a constrained piece of literature. One interesting fact is that the man’s age, nineteen, was chosen due to it being the number that fit the number of letters in that line (19). With this poem and technical aspect, I wanted to create a symbiosis of form and story. This decision would lead to the technical poems that followed adapting a similar melding of structure and story.

  In other words, I wanted the technical aspect to fit the story or subject and vice versa. Instead of being a curious oddity, I wanted to use this unusual form to enhance the story being told. In The Quickening, I hoped that readers would start off with a slow reading pace which increased with every line as the lines shortened (this is evident in the choice of the title). This would tie into the man’s mounting fear and panic as his life quickly fades. The poem culminates in a single “I-” which also references the man’s regrets and the fact that people do not pass away at a time of their choosing. Ultimately, this poem opened the doorway in my mind beyond which Technical Poetry had thus far been secluded.

  The Quickening is but the first of many. It was my first Technical Poem, and it will always be a favourite.

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  Spiral

  You were always the one

  One love to beat all the others

  Others laughed at me, saying I was a fool

  Fool indeed, looking at me now

  Now you’ve taken my everything

  Everything I gave, you broke

  Broke my heart, my soul, my love

  Love that was never mine to begin with

  With every passing second, I feel the hurt growing

  Growing stronger and stronger, fed by my pain

  Pain you made me feel, my one and only

  Only I wasn’t yours, and you were never mine

  Mine was never a story that would end well

  Well, I hope that you are happy

  Happy isn’t even a word I can use anymore

  Anymore of this and I feel I will break

  Break up, were the words you said

  Said with a cruel, cold voice like ice

  Ice daggers pierced my heart that day

  Day turned to night

  Night turned to nightmare

  Nightmare turned to dawn

  Dawn has rise
n for me, now that I am free from this

  This heart is broken

  Broken free from your lies

  Lies that I still tell myself every morning

  Morning after morning, I tell myself the same thing

  Thing is, I’m really just lying to protect my heart

  Heart or no heart, I have to be honest here

  Here, I will say it, it’s now or never

  Never will this not be true, but I Love You

  Technical Aspect: The last word of each line is used as the first word in the next line, with the very last word of the poem looping around to become its first word.

  Explanation: Spiral is a tale of heartbreak and despair written by a man who has experienced neither. Seriously, my first girlfriend became my fiancée and is now well on the way to becoming my wife (if you are reading this after 2017, delete: “well on the way to becoming”).

  Moving on, Spiral was one of the most fun poems in this collection to write, namely due to how easy it was. Coming off The Quickening and its brain-melting letter counting, having to start and end each line with a specific word was comparatively simple. The poem itself is meant to be read in a spiral pattern; with no break in-between the lines (add a repeat reading right after the first for added meaning).

  So, could you feel the man’s despair as his world came crashing down? Could you understand what it feels like to lose the one you love? Could you relate to the man’s suffering, and his realization that the love in his heart, no matter how twisted or warped, would always exist?

  Love is powerful. If you are loved or love another, remember this. You have the power to heal a broken heart… or create one.

  Choose wisely.

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  Five

  1)

  All of you may be wondering,

  Exactly what I’m doing,

  I don’t think you understand,

  Otherwise you would know,

  Ultimately I have a plan.

  2)

  Actually maybe you don’t get it,

  Except what do I mean by it,

  It being the thing you don’t get,

  Obviously,

  Unless you really don’t understand?

  3)

  Although it is a bit tricky,

  Everything seems a bit repetitive, no,

  I don’t blame you for missing the obvious,

  Otherwise this would be pointless,

  Ulterior motives notwithstanding!

  4)

  Apparently some people have understood,

  Elementary, isn’t it,

  I think that for the rest, I should explain,

  Or should I see if you can get it,

  Unfortunately I must reveal that the next word starts with…

  5)

  Awesome, you got it, and the next will be,

  Exactly, E is the answer, and following it is,

  I can’t believe you figured it out, that the next has to be,

  Original, don’t you think, using such a simple trick,

  Ultimately, it all comes down to planning!

  Technical Aspect: Each line begins with a vowel in the following order A E I O U; this is repeated for 5 sets.

  Explanation: One of my few light-hearted Technical Poems, Five was created largely as a Technical exercise. As it was one of my first Technical Poems, I was still finding my way with how they would work and evolve. Additionally it was also my first poem to take on a conversationalist tone with the reader (i.e. you) which allowed for a more personal poem.

  So, be honest, did you pick up on the Technical Aspect on your first read-through? If you didn’t, I’m sure that you still had a feeling of “this sounds weird” as you were reading. That feeling is intuition, and it is one of the most powerful pattern recognition devices known to man.

  Keep your intuition switched on as you read the following Technical Poems, you’ll be surprised at how much easier it will be to pick up on the Technical Aspect.

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