Experimental Writing

I. One-Word Lines:

 

Gelateria.

Genitalia.

               Lateral

Generalizations.

 

 

Maladies

Melodies

Maniacal

Monstrosities.

Mellifluous

Mayonnaise.

 

 

O’clock

Aha

Eureka!

 

 

Shouldn’t

Wouldn’t

Couldn’t

                      Did.

 

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II. Two-Word Lines:

 

 

remember to               write me

write me                      to remember

 

 

you are

rubbing alcohol.

                                      you sting.

                                      I hurt.

 

 

 

Picking petals.               

                                          One two.

                                          One two

                                                                           Loves me.

                                                                           He loves

                                                                           me not.

 

Plastic, aluminum.

                    We are

titanium. You

wrap around

my pinky

like silver

                   coils. My

steel, iron

facade.  My

sterling foil.

 

 

 

 

you crack

I break.

                      Just crack.

                      Ease, break.

 

                      Do crack.

                      Ease, bake.

 

 

 

 

you paint                     I watch

I watch                          you paint

 

 

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III. Three-Word Lines:

 

I adore that

beauty mark on

your right cheek.

Brown, speckled, irregular.

Ugly, to be

completely honest. And

I love it.

I always have,

your one imperfection.

 

 

one venti mochiatto,

please, with extra

whip. I feel

like donning a

milk mustasche today.

 

 

bodies sway and

slosh like the

beer in your

plastic red cup.

you dance like

warm fizzing bubbles.

 

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IV. Hay(na)ku

 

Words that Roll

Letters

tumble down

white-lined staircases,

 

spilling

into pools

of scrambled goop

 

that

sticks to

your combat boots,

 

caking

your leather

soles in memoirs.

 

In

those lies

you regret speaking.

 

In

those unwritten

autobiographies and lyrics.

 

Paraphrases

and apostrophes

and short vignettes

 

reappear

and demand

to be retold,

 

splattering

face first

upon hardwood steps.

 

Sticking,

and seeping

into your scalp.

 

Like

mud you

can’t scrape off.

 

The

ghastly stench

of word vomit.

 

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V. Variant Short-line poems

 

 

Pick apart.

oceans, and train

rides,and road trips

apart.

I’d paddle

to you, if

only you’d

let me.

 

 

you sit there

doting on cashmere

sweaters while

I re-read

obituaries.

three newspaper sections

apart.

 

semi

he only likes

semi-sweet chocolate

chips. I never

understood.

he’s already

too bitter. too

dark.

 

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Commentary:

 

               Reading and writing poems with lines consisting of only a few words was a relatively new experience for me. I often found myself making word associations when reading these poems. Using so few words caused my mind to wander, and I tended to incorporate my own thoughts into the poem, as well as forming connections between the few words used. I tended to look for links between each of the lines and phrases to a greater extent than I do with other poems, asking why these few, select words were chosen. One effect I really enjoy of these short-line poems is their quick tempo and concentrated themes. I also really enjoyed the way each line seemed to build on the former in the Hay(na)ku poems; this was both aesthetically pleasing, and contributed to the poems’ fluid rhythm. My favorite line of all the poems we read this week comes from one of Tom Beckett’s Haynaku poems: “I oscillate between shadows and reflections.” I felt that the structure of the poem made these lines particularly powerful; the word “between” is literally sandwiched between the first and third lines, and the placement of “and” between the words “shadows” and “reflections” on the third line makes the stanza seem balanced. Reading Beckett’s poems, as well as the others, really caused me to consider the effects of format and line length on my poetry.

          In my first set of poems, I created poems with just one word in each line, then two words, and then three words. My main goal in the one-word line poems was to create a sense of connection between each of the individual words, even if they weren’t connected in a sentence. I thus played around with words that visually resembled each other, or words that sounded similar to each other. For example, the words “o’clock,” “aha” and “eureka,” all share an “ah” sound. I also associate all of these sounds with noises and rhythms of the workplace, so they are connected somewhat thematically as well. Forming two-word lines was also particularly fun, as I found myself playing on the words themselves and trying to evoke as much meaning as possible using such short phrases.

           I chose to experiment with hay(na)ku rather than haiku, since I have already created haikus for this class. I found this form less challenging than haiku’s, since I could use words of however many syllables I wanted. I thus had a lot more freedom to express what I wanted to write, and felt far less constrained. In my variant short line poems, I also found myself thinking a lot about how structure affects the meaning and tempo of my piece. I had greater power over the length of each line, and began pondering how I could speed up and slow down my poem by placing words on one line versus another. For example, I chose to place the word “chips” in my poem “semi” on the third line rather than the second, so that the reader loops down to the third line and continues reading, rather than pausing after the sentence’s end on the second line. I tried in these poems to form correlations between the few words I used, and to determine the pace and rhythm through the format I selected.