Nasreddin Shifflett

Nasreddin Shifflett is book two in Raven Mack’s freestyle sonnets project – to write over a thousand sonnets spontaneously, woven into heroic crowns. With the heroic crown, sets of fourteen sonnets are connected by the last line of one becoming the first line of the next. Additionally, the last line of all fourteen compose a heroic crown sonnet, so it's super-nerdy mathematical poesy nonsense. Nasreddin Shifflett is his immersion into mountain mystic traditions, attempting to become a true Sheikh of the Sonnet. All of these were written in "freestyle" mode, meaning more gut and heart than brain thought, skip conscious mind as much as possible, with minimal editing mostly done just to fit the strict mathematical form of the project. Themes explored mostly revolve around mankind's self-destructive reliance upon technology and brain knowledge, but in honoring the freestyle mode of writing, Nasreddin Shifflett scatters word seeds in all eight directions.