We’re already 10 days into 2015, is it too late to make some literary prophecies for the year? I don’t believe it’s ever too late to prophesize. There’s always room for literary prophecy.
I asked the Bibliomancy Oracle to give readings for a few literary organizations, movements and some of my favorite magazines & publishers. As of this writing, there are 2715 possible prophecies/readings/answers/messages/etc. New ones are added to the database each week. As always, I ask the question once and use the first response offered. I’m not clicking the button multiple times until I get something I like.
Nope. This is pure oracle wisdom. Like it or lump it.
So let’s begin, Queen before the rest, Queen Mob’s Teahouse:
This is a sorry culture, babe. You have to make your own.
*
from “A Brittle Treason” by Alice Notley
Don’t we know it! That’s why we’re here.
For our sister site, Berfrois:
Why not stay a while
where everything grows larger
than you’d think it could?
*
from “The Legend of Quintana Roo” by Shirley Stephenson
Whoah, Berfrois is already pretty big. It’s like they spend all night in front of the mirror chanting, “We must, we must, we must increase our bust.”
My publisher, Coconut Poetry (and Bitter Cherry Books):
You better hope you never see angels on the rez. If you do, they’ll be marching you off to
Zion or Oklahoma, or some other hell they’ve mapped out for us.
*
from “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation” by Natalie Diaz
Let’s all pray that Coconut doesn’t bump into any angels. Anywhere.
This seems apt for Similar Peaks:
I could spend hours searching the mirror
for clues to my truer identity,
if someone didn’t pound the bathroom door.
*
from “Thirteen Year Old American Negro Girl” by Marilyn Nelson
There’s the AWP Conference in Minnesota coming up, I’m not sure if this is advice for the conference itself or the attendees:
Keep your units pliable and folded,
the recourse a mere specter, like you have it coming to you,
awash with the new day and its abominable antithesis,
OK? Don’t be able to make that distinction.
*
from “Mottled Tuesday” by John Ashbery
The oracle has this wisdom for The Poetry Foundation:
Blessed be. Or else at least to try.
*
from “from PARAGRAPHS FOR DOLPHINS (AND OTHER ANOMALIES)” by Jesse Morse
And I’m not sure what to read into this for the Academy of American Poets, but it sounds kinda bitchy:
You might enjoy a dinner of sandwiches
with the neighbor who makes concessions.
*
from “A November” by John Ashbery
Finally, I think I understand what Metamodernism is about:
How exciting! A misunderstanding.
*
from “Dear You Boats,” by Laura Eve Engel
Or maybe not. Dunno.
Interestingly, Conceptual Literature and Amazon received the same prophecy:
The lesson today is: someone always gets hurt.
Will it be you or another fool? This is a choice.
*
from “High School: Industrial Arts” by Cate Marvin
We all better stop our uncreative, plagiarizing ways and do our book shopping through indie booksellers from here on out. We don’t want to get hurt, do we?
Don’t see a prophecy for something you care about? Go ahead and ask the Bibliomancy Oracle yourself and if it’s good, share it with us in the comments.