I did some surreal short exercises with Becca Audra Smith and Charmaine Leung today to warm us up for a new year, stop making sense I said at one point before realising that is a talking heads album, however when it comes to writing it can be good advice. To treat writing as merely playing with language for a change and stop worrying about the end result. The following poem came from using an exercise Tony Sheppard did on Arran some years ago whereby you write three phrases and three words on pieces of paper, fold them up, muddle them up and share them without using your own and write a piece utilising as many as you can. I’ll list what I used at the end. This is entirely fictional.
We faced delirium you and I
awake too long, consumed with
seeing each other curled up as one
yin and yang in bed and nearly dark again
having only scratched the surface of each other
I felt I had queued up a long time empty handed
for you to appear in that mustard shirt which
made me laugh, and you, watching me
glug from a glass and declaring
”you were a fish in your last life”
words and phrases: mustard, yin, queue, scratching the surface, we faced delirium, you were a fish in your last life.
The Stirred quad is formed of Rebecca Audra Smith, Anna Percy, Jasmine Chatfield and Lenni Sanders.
Anna, I just wanted to say I’ve read the zines I bought at Afflecks on Monday and thought they were amazing. I have to say I loved For Ruth Betty Blue… especially, not just because you use the rhythms and structure of Howl to such great effect but mainly for the bones section at the end which is extraordinary. It reminded me very much of the hymn/curse at the end of Dubravks Ugresic’s Ministry of Pain. I don’t know if you know the book but if you don’t you would love it. Do drop me an e-mail. I’d love to do a piece about you on the eight cuts website.
Best
Dan