I have started by responding to a question posed by Rachel in her latest entry. I wrote three short stanzas. Then I mashed all three stanzas together. Then I pulled out just the adjectives, just the nouns and just the verbs. Then I pulled all of the first words, second words and so on. Then I pulled all the first lines, second lines, etc. What I have right now as a draft is two columns of deconstructed stanzas. It’s an interesting exercise, but I’m not sure where it’s going, even though I like some of the weird juxtapositions of language that are emerging.
Here is the adjective deconstruction as an example:
Dry and dank, algae-slick, gray
and splintered. Alone. Broken
and unpupiled. Solid. Petrified.
And here is a photo that is inspiring me as well:
I have given myself a mail deadline of Friday. Let’s see what happens.
February 14, 2012 at 12:40 am
That is a seriously creepy and wonderful photograph.
February 14, 2012 at 12:56 am
Thanks. It’s one of my best, I think. It’s from Westminster Cathedral.
February 14, 2012 at 1:07 pm
I have a delightful image of you sitting surrounded by adjectives, nouns, verbs, first words, lines… each in its pile.
Sounds like such fun that I shall try this with a poem that isn’t working.
m