I
seagulls and the smell of fish
the earth smolders and smokes
there is a fine line between solitude and loneliness
I like to walk that line
pink syrup flowing over rock
the wheat field consumed the trees
sandwich of bodies
II
nothing’s stable, everything shifts
I fly through the clouds
down below a brown landscape
where am I going?
helpless helpless helpless
i see wild stallions galloping
mountains can look like horses, can’t they
I climbed all this way and now cannot find the valley
tree figures run away
froth on chocolate milk
shadows of Stonehenge fall across the snow
III
pieces of cloud fall from sky
I think of traveling, being places where I don’t come from
soft edges on formerly rugged rock
salty lips, the waves pushing me back to the shore
IV
in my memory I see the waves
the colors pink and blue, like a gentle sunset in summer
black rock on a craggy coast
the sea rushed over the village
I think of strangers, and how much I am like them
there were children crying and colors flying
V
my slopes are cooling down
land melting thinning, what’s beyond
I think of the ocean, which I love and fear both
where the clouds meet the land
setting sunlight captured in liquid love
my edges are hotter than my center
papers fall from Heaven unnoticed
I see nothing for miles, I feel empty inside
some days I go back to the beach
I am flying apart
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These poems came out of an exercise suggested by red Ravine guest writer Judith Ford, and modified from an event she attended and describes in the post lang•widge. Guests at that event, which was held this past March in Bethesda, Maryland, was an “evening of art, jazz and spontaneous poetry, featuring paintings by Freya Grand.”
Freya Grand’s paintings, pictured above, became the inspiration for our own red Ravine “blog happening,” created and curated by Jude:
So here’s an idea: How about trying a little mini da-da poetry writing sans Steven Rogers’ music? Take a look at any of the Freya Grand paintings in this post (or visit her website). Pick out a piece of music you currently like a lot. While the music plays, quickly, without much thought, jot down five (or so) lines or phrases…. Let’s see what we come up with.
Jude received free form lines and phrases from three participants (including myself). She printed them, cut them apart, and scrambled them. Then, she used playing cards to generate the poem, picking a card, choosing that number of lines, then picking randomly from the bunch. Jude took the liberty of creating stanzas as she typed the results. She did a beautiful job.
Thank you, Jude, for sharing this creative fun with us!
This was so much fun to do! And I think our poems turned out even better than the ones from the Lang*Widge event.
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Jude, how did you come to the process of using playing cards? The poems came out beautifully. I like not knowing who wrote what. It’s a true collaboration. There is a randomness to it. Yet, a common theme. Fascinating process.
Lines that stick out for me:
the wheat field consumed the trees
I climbed all this way and now cannot find the valley
my edges are hotter than my center
shadows of Stonehenge fall across the snow
I am flying apart
I wanted to ask you, Jude, if participating in your poetry group affects the poetry that you write. How does the study of poets play into the poems? It’s not a directly related question. But it just came to mind.
ybonesy, what did you think of the process, of being a participant? How did the music impact your poetry?
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I love what Jude did with the poems. Each one has a certain cohesion, which makes me believe that looking at the same paintings must have held us together. Nature is a big theme, not surprisingly given how well those paintings captured nature.
I enjoyed it. It was easy to do. I used the music that I listen to all the time when I do art (k.d. lang hymns of the 49th parallel). I still don’t think I could actually write narrative/prose while listening to music, but capturing phrases, those came naturally. the words of the music kept weaving in and out.
My favorite was the last one. Fun. Thanks again, Jude!
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QM – I used playing cards because I didn’t have any dice. At the original event, Charlie and Jen had a box of colored dice, all shapes and sizes, and each reader chose which dice they wanted to use. I had to resort to playing cards in order to have a similar randomness.
If I chose a five of hearts, for example, I then drew five poetry lines. I had cut all the lines into separate bits ahead of time. As I drew them (blindly),I stacked them. Then I transcribed them – in the order drawn – into my laptop, using the number of lines the cards had prescribed. I stuck in stanza breaks to make the poems more…well…more poetry-like.
Interesting that there is a certain cohesion to these random lines. I suppose that’s because they were written in response to the paintings. Each of us had different music playing, though, so I guess the music wasn’t as strong an influence.
As to what influence poetry group has…I would guess that the frequent, thoughtful reading of other poets does influence my whole relationship to poetry. Just like reading good fiction influences, inspires, shapes my fiction. The poets we’ve read in group have all been very different from one another so I suppose that’s given me a certain sense of freedom in creating poems of whatever sort seems to want to be created. Anything is possible.
I like that.
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Might just try some of those ideas, thanks.
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Jude, enjoyed this exercise in collaborative poetry writing. They turned out quite nicely and I even recognized some of the lines I submitted. I think the paintings are the unifying force. Fun thing to do. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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I’ve been meaning to comment about this post for a while. I did my own practice with some of Freya Grand’s paintings (which are incredible) and tried some music too. I felt like my mind was trying too hard with all the different forms of stimulation going on simultaneously. However, it seems like with practice in letting go, some very fresh words could arise.
Thanks for sharing. Very inspiring.
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Teresa, thanks for your comments. I’m glad you gave the experiment a try. And especially glad you appreciated Freya’s work so much. I think she’s amazing.
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