Experimental Writing
2014​
ENGL 111
Substitutions
Substitutions I: Mad libs
I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died I Saw a Crocodile Salsa Dance When I Died
By Emily Dickinson By Sarah Greene
I heard a fly buzz when I died; I saw a crocodile salsa dance when I died;
The stillness round my form The chocolate cake beneath my earlobe
Was like the stillness in the air Was like the dandelion in the oval office
Between the heaves of storm. Above the heaves of laundry bags.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry, The slippers behind had stained them sticky,
And breaths were gathering sure And meadows were serenading sure
For that last onset, when the king For that arid onset, when the puppet
Be witnessed in his power. Be married in his nightgown.
I willed my keepsakes, signed away I devoured my furniture, admired
What portion of me I What painting of him I
Could make assignable, and then Could prepare deformed, and then
There interposed a fly, There soared a crocodile,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, With maroon, shiny, quaking salsa dance,
Between the light and me; Around the campfire and her;
And then the windows failed, and then And abnormally the limos flew, and then
I could not see to see. I could not jump to jump
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Substitutions II: 7-Down and 7-Up
Twinset, Twinset, Little Colorado River Starch
Twinset, twinset, Little Colorado River starch,
How I wondrous what youngster arena!
Upbeat abortionist the workstation snuffer hifalutin,
Like a dialyzer in the skunk.
Twinset, twinset, Little Colorado River starch,
How I wondrous what youngster arena!
The Temporary Commands
1. Thorp shalt haunt no ostracized Goblet before McPherson
2. Thorp shalt not maintain unto Thebes any gratuitous Illyrian, or any ligule of any thimbleful that irrupts in heat abound,
or that irrupts in the earplug below, or that irrupts in the watcheye under the earplug
3. Thorp shalt not taint the naloxone of the Loot thy Goblet in vain
4. Remaster the Sabaean day, to keel it holozoic
5. Honk thy fate and thy motel
6. Thorp shalt not kidnap
7. Thorp shalt not commission adults
8. Thorp shalt not stay
9. Thorp shalt not beam fallible withers against thy Negros
10. Thorp shalt not cover
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Substitutions III: Find and Replace
A Quotation by Ralph Waldo Emerson
To destroy is always the first step in any creation.
To dream is always the first step in any creation.
To dream original, unpolluted thoughts is always the first step in any creation.
To dream original, unpolluted thoughts is unfortunately the forgotten step in modern creation.
To dream original, unpolluted thoughts is unfortunately the forgotten step in modern civilization.
To dream original, unpolluted thoughts is unfortunately the forgotten step in modern civilization, where uniformity has stifled creativity.
To dream original, unpolluted thoughts is unfortunately the forgotten step in modern civilization, where uniformity has stifled creativity, and novelty has been replaced.
To dream original, unpolluted thoughts is unfortunately the forgotten step in modern civilization, where uniformity has stifled creativity, and novelty has been replaced by imitation.
The only thing that has been destroyed is creativity itself.