dash dash

Revisiting Kenneth Goldsmith / Project in Text Mutations

2011-04-03T23:56:00.007-05:00

In class, I remember we were told to "read until we couldn't stand it anymore."

Kenneth Goldsmith is a conceptual writer whose preferred method is transcription. He has transcribed weather reports, newspapers, magazines, and every word he has said for a week. For him, the process of transcription is fascinating, and it is of no consequence that the result of his work is not "original" or creative.

"In the same vein, as I said before, I don't expect you to even read my books cover to cover. It's for that reason I like the idea that you can know each of my books in one sentence. For instance, there's the book of every word I spoke for a week unedited. Or the book of every move my body made over the course of a day, a process so dry and tedious that I had to get drunk halfway though the day in order to make it to the end. Or my most recent book, Day, in which I retyped a day's copy of the New York Times and published it as a 900 page book. Now you know what I do without ever having to have read a word of it."

--"Being Boring"

At its best, it seems transcription functions as a method of extremely close reading, benefitting only the person doing it. After having transcribed a full one day issue of the New York Times, Goldsmith asserts that you've never really read the paper. Does this initially strike you as self-indulgent? Do you unconsciously assume a writer should write in order to impart edifying truth to readers?

I'm sure Goldsmith's projects initially strike most as absurd, pointless, and ridiculous, but I think he has a valid point about the close reading, which gets me thinking about transcription as spiritual practice. If someone transcribes their holy scriptures, or favorite meditations, I don't doubt it would help things sink in somewhat better than merely reading them.

Part of the point is that you have to stick to what the text says, without mutating it at all. (This makes me think of the void preceding creation in the book of Genesis.) Trying this exercise would be a good starting counterpoint for my next project, which will involve texts that mutate as cells do. Imagine, if you will, a "cell" made out of letters, words, and word fragments that interact with each other as parts of a cell do. Or maybe I should focus on the behaviors of DNA, in its replications and mutations. This may involve some study of cell biology and maybe evolutionary biology... and if I were to build a complex organism out of my "text cells," it would require me to also learn code so I could write a computer program to keep track of it all. I might use the creation story in Genesis loosely, as a structure to guide my efforts, or at least as a text to return to when all these ideas start to feel like they don't make sense.

I don't plan to learn code anytime soon, since I think my time is much better spent reading, writing, learning languages, drinking coffee, and learning how to produce art. So if I found a computer programmer who wanted to collaborate, I'd be able to build these "text organisms," and then everything the organisms do would be a new poem at every moment. That sounds ridiculous, but it's true: every time their cells moved, there would be a new formation of text.

New Project Ideas

2011-03-04T00:19:00.004-06:00

For a long time I've found it really hard to focus on writing-- hence, the lack of recent / regular posts here. I do have a new project idea, but I can't wrap my mind around it without refreshing myself on some basic biology concepts. I need to figure out a unit of poetry that can be like a "cell" and have these cells interact with each other, sort of the way real cells do. I'm particularly interested in the processes of mutation and replication, and how I'd depict these visually / poetically. I don't know to what extent this would involve photography-- likely it would have a lot less than my first project did.

Meanwhile, you're welcome to look through my archives and cringe at my old class exercises, but I'm sure you have better things to do.

Book Edits and "Howl"

2010-12-15T23:58:00.003-06:00

Recently I had started working on a new poem/image, but it doesn't fit with the others in the book. It will become part of my poetic / artistic statement for my grad school applications, because it is even more highly abstract than all the other images I'd done. It's about the crossroads between identity and language, and the image features a barbed wire fence. Upon closer inspection, the viewer discovers that one of the barbs is, in fact, a discarded insect exoskeleton curved in deference toward the sky. Right now, the sky in the image bears the words "identity intercepts language."

It needs work, but it has the potential to express my statement of intent in a way that words alone cannot. I can't think of a better way to emphasize my commitment to interdisciplinary art and writing.

The planned edits are as follows, and will be done by tomorrow:

Adding a bibliography
Adding a colophon
Changing the order of pages
Rendering the quotations in scanned images of my handwriting, rather than erroneously double-embedded italic text that caused the black dots / missing text print error.
Maybe adding another Susan Howe quote. She is the main influence on the work.
On a whim, I may throw in a scanned image of handwritten Greek, as a little counterpoint to the Westminster Hebrew computer code thing.
Edit or delete the poetry on the final page, and/or move it to a different part of the book.

The prose sections get shorter toward the end, but I've decided not to try adding anything to them. Things are explained more explicitly at the beginning, and then everything rests in implications toward the end, particularly as the "Birdman subplot" develops.

Someone told me, following the poetry reading, that I sounded "a little preachy." I am unsure what exactly he was referring to. Was it the declarative / explanatory tone I used in the beginning, where I think I lead the reader a little bit more, or the way that I talk about God, or a combination of the two? Well, the microphone at a reading is, and should be, a pulpit from which the passionate poet strongly declares whatever they believe. The last thing it should be is noncommittal and boring. If I read it better, I probably would have sounded more preachy.

I could certainly learn a few things from the recent reading of Allen Ginsberg's Howl, which occurred at Circle Cinema on Friday, December 10th. It was a spectacular first encounter with the poem, better than the reading within the film. As much as possible, a reader should become a conduit for what they are reading, and must read truthfully and passionately.

"Holy Tulsa," indeed.

First Reading / Upcoming Revisions

2010-11-16T22:24:00.003-06:00

My first reading from A Meditation on the Misplaced occurred on Friday, November 12 at Living Arts in Tulsa, as part of the Oklahoma Avant Garde Poetry Reading.

It's probably kind of surprising that such a thing even exists. Nobody would think we have art here, but we do. Walking around the Brady and Blue Dome Districts, I passed by about eight art studios, and I was really surprised.

---

In other news, my goal is to revise the book by December 10th, when I imagine the semester must be ending for those in school. The revisions will be minor, fixing some formatting errors on italicized text by replacing them with scanned images of that text in my handwriting, as well as moving one page from the end toward the beginning. If I feel like it, I'll add some more writing in the end as well.

Ideas for New Projects

2010-11-16T22:13:00.002-06:00

My digital camera doesn't work anymore, so I will rely more on the scanner for now, and develop a few rolls of film.

I have a bunch of Polaroids that didn't fit into the final version of A Meditation on the Misplaced, so I'll have to do something with those. I'm picturing small, handmade books, or at least ones that feature a lot of scanned in handwriting, doodles, and "marginalia." (See, I'm still obsessed with Susan Howe.)

Resurrect an old textbook and try to inject some life into it, and/or let its concepts inform my writing.

Write about the poetics of blending / merging in a way that (sort of) makes sense.

I can see relationships between many different things that interest me, and I want to express them, but sometimes it is overwhelming, and I don't know where exactly to go next. I think I'll let my mind take a stroll through Paul Auster's worlds of urban alienation for a while, and if my identity remains intact when I emerge, we'll see what happens :)

print error + new project concept

2010-07-03T03:40:00.002-05:00

I made the PDF download free, and the book is now $20, to take advantage of a free shipping offer on Lulu. However, there are some black dots that show up in place of some italicized text, so I'm telling everyone not to buy it until I fix the file and clear up this error. Until then, please download and read it! (As far as I know, the PDF file displays all the text and no black dots.) I think it looks better on the computer screen anyway, because that's the way I've looked at it for two years! :)

My next project is to write poetry that mimics the actions of cells, especially mutation. That's all I know so far, because I haven't studied biology since about ninth grade. So I ordered an old biology textbook to help me start this new project.

I might publish a more extended version of A Meditation on the Misplaced later on. As I flipped through it tonight, I wished I'd made it longer. I think part of me still wants it to be as long as Howe's The Midnight- a good 170 pages instead of my meager 30.

My first book is available!

2010-06-09T21:57:00.003-05:00

A Meditation on the Misplaced is now available for purchase here, on lulu.com.

The paper copy is $18.00 and the file download is $5.00. I almost can't believe I have the gall to charge money for my work. But I've been working on it for two years, and I don't expect people beyond my friends, family, and a couple of professors to want it.

Mostly, I'm happy to be done, and I'm finally proud of something I've accomplished! It is a senior project in the truest sense of the phrase, pulling together everything I learned in college, and especially showcasing everything I most loved.

One of my friends, who was an art history major, said it was worth the extra year and a half it took me to finish it. Although much more of that time was spent in procrastination / paralyzed fear than I care to admit, I don't think I could have produced this work last year. So maybe it is okay that it took so long. :)

I guess I finally have to admit that I'm a writer!

sunday morning soundtrack

2010-03-24T21:12:00.006-05:00

sunday morning soundtrack

driving five over
shuffle softly pages fingertips
wailing muffled despair
shoes shuffle fall almost
moist mouths stage whisper
nervous habit
clickclickclickclickclick
no smoke break during service
love thy neighbor
why don't you?

because:
clickclickclickclick
rustle whimper sigh

hands shaking can't write

cough beep murmur chuckle

awkward greetings

smiles fake fade
you're not here.

maybe i can hear you out there--
pray in face of cold wind
hide from invasive others
keep hands still heart open

just long enough to decide

coming up soon

2010-03-24T19:52:00.002-05:00

I finally bought my own scanner. It was about time. I wonder why I didn't think of this earlier, and spent months being intimidated by the possibility of being kicked out of Phillips Hall for trying to use their scanners. I got one that looked similar to the ones I used in Phillips, and it should arrive in a couple of days.

Here's a quick list of what I'm going to scan:

2 Viewmaster reels
puzzle pieces
greeting cards and envelopes
tiny, thumbnail-size Ansel Adams images
philosophy related library index cards (whole and in pieces)
a deck of miniature playing cards
film negatives
Polaroids (I still have a pack of 10 left to shoot)
a chart depicting Genesis 1:1 in computer code, courtesy of Westminster Theological Seminary

That chart of Genesis 1:1 fascinates me because it accounts for untranslatable words by using the symbol '#' as a placeholder. It reminds me of Howe's inclusion of a chart depicting various alphabets, the one I mentioned in an earlier post about a language curtain.

What is a reader's experience of encountering untranslatable words, placeholders, and gibberish? I suppose either your brain must "skip" the word, mining the whole sentence / phrase / paragraph to get a general meaning from context, or you substitute something else that makes sense to you. Maybe this is the Rorschach test of reading, where your own interpretations reveal more about you to you than about the author.

the language curtain.

2010-03-11T16:05:00.002-06:00

Although I'm still afraid all the thoughts I have are rather obvious, I have to start somewhere.

In the section 'Scare Quotes I' Howe presents historical anecdotes, dictionary definitions, and of course quotations.

A bed hanging is a sort of curtain. An 11th century legend of a seamstress who had to discard her embroidered tapestries to evade the witch hunters (44-45) is followed shortly by a chart presenting the alphabets of different languages, which Howe presents as a "curtain" with a subtitle (47). So language is a curtain. Then she provides the definition of a curtain as " 'A cloth contracted or expanded at pleasure; To draw the curtain, to close so as to shut out the light; to open it so as to discern the objects' " (52-53).

This is a wonderful summary of how we can use language. I can't wait to throw open some curtains myself. It seems like Howe enjoys closing them, or leaving them open only a sliver.

on the title, "a meditation on the misplaced"

2010-03-10T22:07:00.003-06:00

This is a place where the unnoticed is noticed, and the unappreciated brought to light. This contains the musings of an archaeologist of nostalgia, complete with exhibits provided for your perusal.

This is a place where seeds are sown, secret messages are sent, and playful life abounds.

There is no ultimate, straightforward answer to the fate of the misplaced, because we do not know yet. We are free to speculate. Any stubborn assertions may be arrogant and wrong.

This is a medium through which the importance of the tactile sense may not fully be conveyed, so go play with some cards while reading, or when you're done. Sow them in wonder.

Fresh poetic statement.

2009-07-23T14:36:00.006-05:00

Because I need one that doesn't make me cringe when I look at it.

--

A body of work should create its own world, which takes on a life of its own. This world can be fantastic and surreal, but should bear a significant relationship to reality, whether in striving to resemble it or setting up in opposition to it. This is similar to Frankfurt's distinction between lies and bullshit: lies still stand in relation to truth, whereas bullshit disregards truth altogether.

The world in the body of work catches fire with a divine spark of truth. It can be a funhouse mirror, casting jaded and distorted likenesses back into our retinas. It can illuminate things that we dare not look at and hold us there, transfixed. It can soften the blow by showing us beautiful things that persist by grace.

Done rightly, it should sound internal silver bells of recognition and clarity.

The world can have mystery, beauty, darkness, ghosts, and passion. The world can have horror and moral outrage. It can contain utopias that shine brilliantly for a few hours or days before collapsing into dystopias. It can sharpen a dull knife into a piercing fear. It can make fun of us. It can have compassion on us. It can try to intercede on our behalf to God, with unknown results. It can be vengeance and wish fulfillment. It can breathe, play, pray. It can evolve and revolve around some author's unknown whims. It can be a book of Psalms. It can stand on its soapbox and denounce relational poverty. It can conspiratorially let us in on the joke.

The world, having taken on a life of its own, should have us frantically flipping pages back and forth to make translucent, spiderweb connections. It should alternately make us forget the physicality of the object we are holding, and then flaunt it. It should show us the virtues of places, times, and things we would otherwise ignore.

---

This is what poetry can do, but I am not sure if I can make mine do it.

2009-05-21T17:22:00.003-05:00

From the mid-semester portfolio. I finally found it!
I'm not sure if this works as a title. It is a line from a rough draft of the long philosophy poem.

she becomes a test case of what true religion is

We need a face and hands to mediate this: women are commanded to be silent.
Please listen: does that verse really mean--
Yes, you've been endless trouble since you could read.
Your lyrics are dishonorable. If you will not be reticent, the marriage is off.
I can't argue against God on your side. I trusted you completely.
Universals work in my favor, so why should I explain otherwise? Truth is convenience and power.
Oh, Lord, he doesn't care what you say. Please save me.
Help me--
No. Did you expect this to be like one of your damned books? Clean the dirt off your face.
Wash off that blood. You are his burden now.

I am devoted. I will judge with truth.
They may be right, but their hearts are cold. They deny us our mediators. Lend them your light while you can, because the day will come when a wall separates us forever. If it is any consolation, God knows how much of your blood is on their hands.

Fingers brushed the edge of his robe. He could be touched.
We need a face and hands to mediate this.

First poetic statement

2009-05-08T13:01:00.002-05:00

Everything in the world is in a state of deterioration, or slipping away. Theologically, this phenomenon stems from the moment creation and mankind fell. Everything struggles to be born in a state of peril.

Faith, in practice, is a stunted and stuttering motion, like dancing with sprained, broken, and bruised limbs. Our perception of reality, also, is like looking through dusty window panes or murky water.

There must be an effort to connect to previous generations of writers and thinkers; failing to do so is arrogant, disregarding all previous human experience as totally irrelevant to myself, now. Poetry can, and should, whenever possible, be informed / enriched / transformed by studying others.

Version 2

2009-05-08T12:45:00.003-05:00

a philosophical commune edited the gospel to suit their theology because exclusivity was another attraction. they held ancient gods responsible for cycling of things do not create something from nothing.

these form a list of abominations
and counterfeit virtues:

we have no idea what we see,
needing scriptures for credibility.

matter was irreformable. fatalistic.

who teaches men to be fathers?
washing would incur even greater guilt.

who is the intermediary who shows us how to live?

does philosophy really dissolve those fetters?

rebind and rediscover.
sacraments are heart turns-

envy has a social aspect
the human city cannot save itself
even in its exilic condition
religion steps in to ease away this resentment,
of communities that fail because of disordered passions.
the wrong kinds of individuals

pregnancy is divine
they aren't sure it's physically their child
love is praiseworthy because of the benefits it yields
children are one result of love, but virtue is better

why is love depicted as desolate?
between understanding and ignorance
between mortal and immortal,
we cannot manipulate it

this good produces happiness
possessing that good forever
yearning for immortality is built in

understand our lives in a form other than narrative
if we became bored, maybe it isn't good
aren't things good because they are fleeting?
the good thing hasn't changed. you have.

this is how we "know" what something is
too simple, cannot be classified by parts or characteristics
therefore cannot be known.

an intermediate step toward no account of concrete love,
distance doesn't commit to anyone

a desire to distort the truth
friends can be dangerous
no passions distorted his judgment
and the person knows it isn't good

account for the inclination to turn away:
objects of love become bitter apart from God
then the soul becomes aware
exposes to us the existing misery
the theater showcases our perversity
what does the rest look like?

to be loved without these pitfalls
he needs to turn away from the mutable world

no lack of freedom
can put order into their love
we need salvation from this creature weakness
we need to reconcile our loves.

he falls off the ascent
makes promises he cannot keep

he orders all other sciences
to see what happiness is

animals can't
come crashing down

downward until God draws us back in
"I loved my fall"

no principle to evaluate
friendship is gratuitous
when speaking of all relationships as friendships
doesn't love himself befriend others?

you can make anyone blame this seeming discontent with modern acquaintances.
the matrix of friendship won't dismiss the idiosyncratic things that would separate us.
people are too weak and inconstant to nourish it into true virtue.
only invitation to grieve. care for the old.

no account needed to be confronted and modified
more questions can be incomplete

transforming providential rule created this knowledge in us
freedom is not necessarily the ability to choose

Coming up next...

2009-05-07T23:56:00.001-05:00

Stay tuned for puzzle pieces, Polaroids, and Ferris wheels.

Sample cover letter.

2009-05-07T18:29:00.003-05:00

Don't know how not to sound like a dork; keeping it short and sweet, here goes:

Dear Sarah Mangold,

Hi, I'm a student of Grant Jenkins who has just taken his Advanced Poetry Writing class at the University of Tulsa. He showed us a copy of Bird Dog, which I enjoyed particularly for the visual art.

My work combines poetry and photography by placing words on top of images. I am submitting "Deep," "Signs," "Post," "Arrow," and "Fence."

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Crystal

Card spread.

2009-05-07T17:51:00.004-05:00

My favorite thing about this method is the fact that I can't contrive the results. On the scanner bed I had to place the card fragments down first, then the intact cards. I could not see the outcome until I had done the scan, which is fun.

--
ence of
Ethics
cm.
dialogue by
in re-
rality
includes bib .dex Psychology
oral
lat
human life by
Library of Congress
ethics
rences
body
ing of
1. Man
2. Act
book of readings
OkTu
1/26/33

Flower tree.

2009-05-07T17:32:00.001-05:00

Etude 9 - The end comes full circle

2009-05-06T23:49:00.005-05:00

Task: Translate a text into a "vocabulary," mentioned in Etude 1.

Random page turn in Augustine's Confessions led me to Book VIII.3. I hope I don't mangle him too badly. It won't resemble him at all, particularly if I try to infuse feminist rhetoric into it. If you are a radical enough feminist, perhaps you impose feminism onto everything, in a heavy-handed manner. (I mean this as observation, not criticism, because people usually impose their most passionate beliefs / thought systems onto everything, a lot more than they realize. I read Christian theology in almost everything.)

Excessive Fear

The soul sounds gender-neutral at first
Until you read it in context:
Book I calls women weak
Shadowing the rest with ominous male gaze.
Souls are male, then, taking pleasure
in the continual possession of women.

Men triumph, glory, rejoice in naval battle
But women too are tossed among tumults
Growing pale, sick in mind, unable to walk
Recovering forgotten at home.

Men seek ordinary pleasures by way of
Women's difficulty and discomfort--
the kind which comes upon them
unexpectedly and against their wills.

The evidence is everywhere,
simply crying out: "It is so."

Etude 8 - Of the Now / Beyond Ego.

2009-05-06T23:29:00.004-05:00

In keeping with the rules, I'm not revealing the identity of this (now-contrived) person. The person is contrived because it is impossible to truly step into someone else's perspective. Too many filters color this reality, but it seems this is the point.

narrator

television screen glow voices drone
i saw the look on her face--
you left her sitting there again.

driving five over
shuffle softly pages fingertips
wailing muffled despair colic cry room
shoes trip shuffles fall almost
sound most mouths stage whisper
nervous habit
clickclickclickclickclick
no smoke break during service
love thy neighbor
why don't you

because:
clickclickclickclick
rustle whimper sigh PDA
awkward greetings smiles fake fade
get me out of here

maybe i can hear you out there
pray in face of cold wind
away from latecomer inevitable
one more trip to the liquor store

Etude 6 - To be read in multiple directions.

2009-05-06T22:56:00.012-05:00

This one will definitely have to be posted as an image. Update tomorrow.

---

[EDIT 7/23/09 ]

Card spread, flower tree, and the entire first draft of the book project fall into this category.

Etude 7 - Of fairytales and trauma

2009-05-06T22:56:00.009-05:00

The original prompt for this one seemed fun and innovative, but I believe the assignment was changed during class. I was confused. I remember writing about actual personal trauma during class, and coming up with absolutely nothing of poetic interest. I also remember a discussion about poetry on trauma, in which it was said that there is no right way to do it. Whatever. I'll just go for it, using that day's brainstorming as my source text.

marginalia

answer for why relationships change
unbelievable consequences
the threat removed when necessary
declawed and pathetic:
I dare you
don't let that happen
myriad, newfound, forgotten
cry, scream, steal
erasure eventually
numbed with ice then sterilized with fire
pages scattered across the floor - [thud]

\\\

Etude 5 - Visual library research results

2009-05-06T22:37:00.006-05:00

Task: Totally open-ended library research, presented in visual format.

Process: I became inexplicably excited about a stack of old, yellowed library catalog cards, like a huge nerd. Then I cut them up into little pieces, cast them like tea leaves or tarot cards, and transcribed some results. The stack of cards I grabbed all referenced books related to ethics and philosophy, which was cool. I even brought these fragments to two poetry readings and gave a little awkward demonstration, which might have been going a bit too far, but I thought the process was more interesting than the results, and the demo may have made my explanation less confusing.

*Note: These are not properly formatted here; I have to figure out how to post them as an image later.

1. Society
problems of ethics
and alive.
a book of graphical rences.
a dialogue. bookshop random title.

2. ethics in Re- press.
Pro edit age of conduct series:

3. Brown by label on t.p.
Washington Public
Requested by 1963.

4. the meaning
of readings
ethics in re-
label on
dies,

5. the language of duct
the meaning of goo
economic
oral
a, Ab, B

6. Reviewed in
conduct
society,
ess
ing
B 07

7. dead and alive
1905--
the rebel.
Includes
Series and
Ethics
sl

8. we live by
ethics in re-
society
Received [and] and
Morality
Studies

----
Here's a list of the word fragments on my card fragments; I've italicized my favorites.

the inner
Problems of Ethics
a book of readings
edited by
Ethics
Title
The Rebel
ordered
received
Edition
Approved by
Requested by
The meaning of good
a dialogue
morality and the language of conduct
list price
Series:
dies
label on
New University
Press
Studies
dead and alive
principles
introductory essay
life: a study
ethics in re-

---

So, I'll try making more, but this time I'm working from the above list, not the card fragments.

1. Press principles
label on introductory
Requested by a dialogue
edited by the inner list price
ordered life: a study
ethics in re-

Never mind, I like the random results a lot better.

Etude 4 - Gathering

2009-05-06T22:33:00.002-05:00

Had this one in my portfolio. Can't access it this minute. Still needs editing.

Etude 3 - Babelfish translator.

2009-05-06T21:56:00.002-05:00

First, a revision of my first attempt, which is about a character in my (ancient) Greek textbook. It ends up having nothing to do with the original subject, hopefully.

a woman can say

this is what it takes, for the intervention in that fight.
the scary histories make her explosion in the teardrops,
but ask you still in order to it finishes,
because the distress overcame the fear.

thus you leave him to be this in order to it decides.
it wanted it plays in the existence.
but it wanted them precisely in order to it.

no one for the intervention has occupied
blind extraordinary fear does grow
histories father the initiated women

individual, too much useless now
walk the thin line behind tiresias.

___

A new one, using a poem from my two year old portfolio. Random snippets of text from prose poem called "the ethics of survival." here are the snippets fused together:

even a hint of fighting each other awkwardly awakened at twilight exodus nightly proceeds could not understand never figure out no one would replenish truth deep brown with intricate something extraordinary only once a glint of broken glass blurry and unfocused manufactured imitation escaping into the earth. there, that's better. elaborate pirouettes claimed lily pads as a defiant public declaration. pleasure she derived haunting the courting lake set aside for her rest.

--

on a whim, I translated it into French:

même un conseil du combat que s'est maladroitement réveillé au montant crépusculaire d'exode de nuit ne pourrait pas comprendre ne figurent jamais que dehors personne ne compléteraient le niveau de la vérité brun-foncé avec complexe quelque chose extraordinaire seulement par le passé un reflet de l'évasion d'imitation manufacturée trouble et unfocused en verre cassée dans la terre. là, that' ; s mieux. les pirouettes raffinées ont réclamé des garnitures de lis comme déclaration publique provoquante. plaisir elle a dérivé hanter le lac de poursuite mis de côté pour son repos.

--
reconstituted English:

even a council of the combat that s' with the twilight amount d' is awkwardly awaked; exodus of night could not understand appear never that outside nobody would only in the past supplement the brown-dark level of the truth with extraordinary complex something a reflection of l' escape d' manufactured imitation hoop net and unfocused out of glass broken in the ground. there, that' ; S better. the refined pirouettes claimed trimmings of lily like causing public statement. pleasure it derived to haunt the lake of put continuation on side for its rest.

--

resulting poem:

after all that a reflection

nobody would haunt that outside
in the past supplement brown-dark complex
a council awkwardly awaked
never appear outside

refined pirouettes of the truth appear unfocused
derived from glass broken in the ground
only continuation
only rest
only broken

extraordinary

Etude 2 - Futurist Sestina

2009-05-06T20:58:00.005-05:00

At least, this comes from a futurist sestina, which turned out to be dull because we weren't thinking far enough outside the box. I'll restrict myself to the phrases Russ chose, because I like them.

I think it was Carla Harryman who used three word titles, in I don't remember which book, in this format: "one. two. three." I can do without that punctuation, but I'd like to try some three word lines and see what it does.

x y z

wrong judgment shatter
pause crumpled before
lie fell green
you will pass
arrow judgment crimson
ball overtakes sky
wrong language forgotten
pierces came sorrow
wholesome trash fell

before happiness sorrow
Lord shatter myself

Etude 1 - Of Vocabularies

2009-05-06T19:55:00.003-05:00

Preliminary expectoration:
I dislike jargon because it is counter-intuitive, confusing, and sounds clumsy, particularly in the fields of politics, law, psychology, and feminism. Gratuitous profanity used for the sake of itself sounds unintelligent. It reminds me of the way I spoke in sixth grade, which unfortunately is the way a lot of adults still speak, and I think it would be nice if they grew up. I am in favor of an effective, well-placed profane word used in the right context.

I like simple and clean words that evoke vivid images. I should use more of them. I like philosophy and religion (so far, Dante, Kierkegaard, and Augustine), literature (Ray Bradbury and C.S. Lewis first come to mind), and the poetry of W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Charles Bukowski, Pablo Neruda, George Oppen, Louise Glück, Fanny Howe, Susan Howe, and Lisa Robertson.

I also like more complex vocabulary that is not jargon. Maybe what is most unappealing about jargon is its use. Jargon uses words in a way that make them seem meaningless and dead. It carries the unpleasant associations of know-it-alls, useless paperwork, and long "Terms of Service" agreements that no one ever reads. I am sure it is possible to redeem words and reinfuse them with life by placing them in different contexts, but I don't know if I can do it.

Process:
Playing with some vocabulary frames. Using Peter Brown's biography on Augustine as a source text, because it happened to be closest, and I like it. Flipping through random pages and using whatever phrases jump out -- unfortunately, my paper-writing process is similar.

five to nine

Some profound and ominous changes had taken place
A slight note of embarrassment lingers
An illustrious precedent described as a country idyll
sudden and unexpected show of independence
culminated in the conversion

paradoxically
the deep hurt of charity
prohibitively complicated
elaborate circumlocutions--
appeal, not to reason, but to the rooted feelings

posing of the unfathomable
she may have been guilty
deliberately defracted
preoccupied by
the existing bonds: so much raw material
to be subservient will fall out of favour
carefully sift fruitful intellectual confusion

----

An aside: After I finished that one, I realized how heavily it was influenced by my feelings about imminent graduation, so I titled it after my undergraduate years ('05-'09).