portrait like a swerve into your cornea. unobtrusive vibration and violet edge. capturing. where. history. particular glance on the way out. but you were never there. strange likeness to a daiquiri but pineapple face. your story about curfew and snowballs constructs a new image of your white body. psyche about sight. when I lose my version of you, I will have to kiss my own photograph. stage, curtain, comma. leave a mark. of saliva on me.
8 comments:
Hi. I'm just wondering where you got this style of writing/placement from. I write poems precisely in this style--been doing it for over a year now. Published them in a few places as well. Yours are in fact exact replicas of my poems in terms of space on the page and intent. Just curious.
I love this poem. I love it I love it.
Miss Wanda,
I have, as well, been writing these poems for just about a year. So far, they are taking up a big portion of my PhD dissertation. I began in response to a poet/ blogger friend, Scott Glassman and they have snowballed from there. I find the prose form to be exceptionally vulnerable to the drastic stoppages and fragmentation I tend to use a lot. The main motivation of my project, however, is the "other" who is addressed in these poems. . . the hidden "you" who is constantly elusive. It's not a new idea, I know-- Lacan started the hubub a long time ago, but it's still fascinating to me. My project is about the desire that draws language from the speaker. . . that the poem is always an answer to something, even if that something is not exactly spoken.
The form, also, on the "real" page and not on the blog page, looks more like a cube (3.5" margins) than a column. I find this form very "easy" to write in, be conflicted in, and explore within.
Thanks for reading!
i think a lot of people are writing in this style now, it's the 100th monkey effect, a ripple co-occuring on the unified plain. i think miss wanda is feeling a bit disillusioned that this is not an original discovery, then again, nothing is original in the true sense of the word, is it? everything must come from somewhere and already exist within its cause.
the book came out beautiful by the way! thank you for the 3 copies. your handsewn collection is a quiet treasure
Scott
Well, of course, there's one way to look at it and say that Baudelaire was writing prose poems over 200 years ago, so then the fact that I'm writing them as well shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone. My "intent" on the other hand, is something I didn't realize was so transparent. But it definitely has me thinking. . .but not necessarily re-thinking my project.
Scott, really. . .100 monkeys? I've never really heard that phrase before. Here's tohoping my poems are at least a bit better than monkey script. . .whatever "better" means.
Hey Mackenzie,
I wasn't saying the style or the poem was monkey script at all! The 100th monkey effect refers to an idea of critical mass in quantum physics, a phenomenon where behaviors evolved at the same time over a huge distance without any contact among parties. Sorry, I should have explained that. Anyhow, it goes toward trying to understand the idea of "newness" and "originality" in a quantum frame of mind, suggesting that we are all connected on a unified field, at a very deep unfathomable level, and when an idea enters someone's consciousness it can simultaneously enter someone else's consciousness without those people ever having met or had any contact. It's an interesting theory which re-frames the whole notion of coincidences, as in when you think about someone and the phone rings and it's them! I was mainly responding to misswanda's veiled accusation that you "stole" her style and intent, which is completely ridiculous. I'm quite enjoying your prose poems posted here and in the chap, and love the idea of exploring that elusive "you" and think that the "I" too can be just as elusive . . .
Of course, Scott. No offense taken. I like to make fun of myself. . .seriously. Any opportunity to do that will not be overlooked :)
I like the idea you're describing a lot and it makes a lot of sense also in terms of community, etc. When certain communities or factions of artists are moving in a certain direction, there should be no surprise that two people might be writing in similar styles. It's possible of course that Miss Wanda and I have exactly the same influences for these separate projects and would therefore have similar responses, poetically.
I'm curious. . .where do the monkeys come in, exactly?
The monkeys on this one island were taught to wash sweet potatoes. Then on an island miles away, where other monkeys lived, they suddenly exhibited sweet potatoe washing behavior. With no contact with the ones who had been taught. Amazing to me.
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