Search

jennieytallman.com

a gallery of controversys

Open Search

Burning Words: April

Hello there. Late on a Sunday night, and we won the election yesterday (I was and still am a Bernie-bird, but I really have a soft spot for Kamala, and am quicksand for humanity, so yeah: still celebrating), and I am drinking a modified Cosmo (it’s really just vodka and cranberry juice with a splash of bitters and triple sec), while binge-watching Suits and wishing I did not have to go to work tomorrow.

So: here is another of my favorite prompts. The Rearrange. The Mix it Up. The Word Scramble.

Find some words you like—a phrase or sentence—and chop it into pieces. Rearrange as desired. Easy as can be. Feel free to discard any words that are not needed.

Continue reading “Burning Words: April” →
0

….What Will Be Told

Leftovers. After the previous poem used up so many beautiful single letters, I had in my possession quite a few scattered phrases and words. Metaphor for a person’s state of mind after creating? Perhaps.

So this week’s prompt is to:

Use your Leftovers

What this really means, in the context of a writing prompt, is—make some smaller poems and see if you can’t get them to work together. Like buttered peas, cheddar biscuits, and spaghetti.

Continue reading “….What Will Be Told” →
0

in retrospect — some questions

Coronavirus sent me home from my day-job at the hospital on the third of April. I did not get *really* sick until a while later, around the 8th. I am now in some sort of extended and relentless recovery pattern. Short of breath most of the time, coughing, dizzy, confused, and spiking fevers long past the time I had thought I was done with this thing.

These days, I’ve been finding language and sentences fairly difficult. Notes, I can handle. Pictures, graphs, and charts: all fine. But words? Not so much.

temperature
resting pulse

Suddenly, I’m a person with inhalers and meds who has a hard time focusing on anything significant for more than a few minutes, tracking my temps and resting pulse and breaths per minute—I am told to give it time to pass and I trust it will.

Collages though? I could sit and do them all day long. So, here is the first of many.

PROMPT: make a wordless poem

a baggie of cut up words
an image covered in rubber cement

Continue reading “in retrospect — some questions” →

0

Sculpture from the Driver’s Seat

I love the mess left behind after this work.

IMG_7221

I rarely throw the scraps away. When doing this work (which is very controlled: remember, my overarching rule is to use only these two magazines) the value of sentences, fonts, colors, and words—even letters—is greatly increased.

I call this, the economy of words. Some day, I will deplete all of the words in these two magazines—will I? When will I find the last appearance of a word? The last ampersand, the last controversy, the last love?

The other day, I was looking for the word, “GHOST,” and I could not find it. I really needed the word. I looked and looked. Finally, I found ghostly in a very small italic font, which is absolutely close enough, but it freaked me out: no more ghosts in these magazines. The last ghost.

I will probably write more about this, later. For now, consider the economy of words in your writing. They are the one thing we as writers feel are limitless: you get all the words you can type. But, what if? What if we didn’t? Continue reading “Sculpture from the Driver’s Seat” →

0

The Happiness of Objects

Have you ever seen a thing you just loved without question or reason?

That’s how I’ve felt about this small square patch of green and off white stripes ever since I saw it peeking out from page 367 of the ARTFORUM magazine.

happiness of objects before

I left it intact on the page for years but finally, yesterday, decided its time had finally come. Clipped it from its page. Set it beside a random poem clipped from the pages, by WB Yeats (from The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933).

Examined it. Realized the lines remind me of the huge ruled paper from Kindergarten when I was first learning to write, and I don’t understand the Yeats poem. Found some more words and decided to use them all, and nothing more.

process2 happiness of objects

The feeling of absence, a confusing sense of time, will soon become, other lovers, we loved each other, naked and hid-…. these are the words that initially emerged from these clippings. Continue reading “The Happiness of Objects” →

0

The Sculpture of Louise

I am calling this prompt THE FOLDING TRICK.

The folding trick is a GREAT NAME and a simple prompt. But it does require that you already have a stack of cut-up magazine pages. So, if you do not have this, I am not sure what to tell you. Go back to the beginning of this blog and make some cut-ups? *Just kidding; we’ll figure it out.*

For this collage, I simply opened up my pile and grabbed the first thing I saw. Here is what that looked like:

louise1

Seriously! What a beautiful mess. Finding this beauty, I thought to myself, “Can it really be this simple? Can I get away with this?” Quickly, I answered, “Of course you can; it is an experimental blog, not a career.”

Without further ado, I give you the folding trick! But first, a photo of my husband, youngest son, and brand new dog watching squirrels out the window.

dog

For the folding trick I ask you to find a picture in a magazine that is bold—very bold. The only requirement is that there must be text on the back of this page.

Step one: Frame up the image you would like to work with (I recommend about 4 inches wide and 6 inches tall) and fold the sides in (ON TOP OF) said image. I am afraid this will be taken as more complicated than it really is.

Here is a visual guide.

 

 

Fold the side over
Fold the side over
Choose what to leave and what to cut
Choose what to leave and what to cut

Continue reading “The Sculpture of Louise” →

0

The Elegant Conversations

Like old friends who don’t miss a beat when they haven’t seen each other in over a year, let’s just jump back into this blog like we’ve always been sitting at this table, drinking a steady stream of coffee that turns to whiskey as day turns to night.

Today’s collage began with difficulty. After creating an entirely different collage, this one emerged painfully, gradually, and then (finally) with momentum.

perhaps you're seekingThe line above will serve as the prompt.

Seek a different relationship between art and language.

Step One. Choose two things from a magazine:

  1. A small picture (art): this is self-explanatory, just choose something that strikes your fancy.
  2. A passage (language): skim pages until you find a page full of words. It should contain a number of passages/quotes/fragments that jump out at you.

Continue reading “The Elegant Conversations” →

0

What is Done?

Full Prompt Post today. Read on.

Step One: Find a little quote on a page. Honestly, I don’t even read the quotes I choose. I just choose for size. what-is-done-1.jpg

Step Two: Cut it out.what is done - 2

Continue reading “What is Done?” →

0

The Indirect Passage

The return of the Controversy. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I love boat names.  Controversy,  Compromise, Amphibi-Con, Riverkeeper. These names beg to be poemized.

Admission: Sometimes I sit down to do a new piece and feel absolutely befuddled.

My most typical response to that feeling is to choose a passage from the boat magazine and stare at it until certain words start to feel right. Today’s experiment began with just such a passage.

the indirect passage - 1 (1)

The second step here was to choose how to disappear the words.

India Ink won the day in this one, which is for some reason not a medium I’ve used yet in this book, but I can assure you I will be using it again. It is easier than paint, more flexible than marker, and allows the transparency I love so much. Continue reading “The Indirect Passage” →

0

MADEIN

First thing I like about this page: its title. It sounds like Maiden, but is actually referencing the readymades of Marcel Duchamp — one of my favorite artists (there are a lot of favorite artists, but he really is up there) — whose intention was to get away from himself.

Call it a little game between ‘I’ and ‘me’
— from Duchamp: A Biography.

Continue reading “MADEIN” →

0

Space ration

So, for the first poem after the last series, we’ve got a poem that responds physically to the title. Usually, with poetry and other writing, words come first. It is fun and challenging and worthwhile to turn that notion on its head sometimes.

 

Here, form || the space, the design, the architecture of the image || is the driving force behind the poem. I cut words away I usually would have left, in favor of the lovely zebraesque* pattern created down the lower center of the page. Continue reading “Space ration” →

0

MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY

In honor of finishing the 28 (-ish) part poem, “Another Affair with Water,” I’ve finished with a two-page spread.

Usually, when we write in our notebooks, we don’t track our progress according to the weight of our work—ink on a page does not significantly change the weight of a notebook. But look; my little book has gained a little over an ounce!

making sense of history - 7
making sense of history - 6

Continue reading “MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY” →

colors arriving on the banks

Perhaps there is a name for the tendency to find the names of colors as appealing as the colors themselves. Some kind of synesthesia-type disorder. I don’t know. I just know that ever since I was a child I have loved the names of colors, in some cases more than the colors themselves. Pink, for instance.
27-colors-arriving-on-the-banks-31.jpg
In this week’s collage, colors arrive on the banks. This is, after all, the second to last collage in this particular series, which is super awesome and incredibly surprising, and I think it is time the banks of my sad specter and lonely fish king saw spring. Continue reading “colors arriving on the banks” →

0

The Fourth Book of Good Boats

Aphrodite, Baby Bootlegger, Alexandria, and Mary. Four boats. Four good boats.

26-the-fourth-book-of-good-boats-3.jpg

It’s more than a little funny how I’ve come to feel about the little black and white man featured in this gallery. I guess he must be the fish king himself, in his cozy sweater, with his mustache and curly hair. I can’t imagine he is the personification I would have chosen, but there he is nonetheless. Continue reading “The Fourth Book of Good Boats” →

the world’s oldest hobby.

 

It is true, sometimes I start a poem for this book and discard it. The only thing that inspired me about the original draft of #25 was the color I’d mixed on a paint palette.

Failed Draft
Final Page

So, I cut everything but the number and the color and went in a more narrative direction. As it turns out, I am pleased with the final page so I am also fine with the process.

Continue reading “the world’s oldest hobby.” →

Before the Flood

So, here we are at the final five poems in the “Another Affair with Water” series. I’ll be honest. I was not sure I’d make it through 28 connected collage poems. But I did and my little red book has gained a few ounces.

At this point, I started really thinking about how to tie up any loose ends within this series: my dear Fish King, Specter (Spectre), Light, Mistresses, Hearts, and Boats.

The pictures for this page are a little different this week. You’ll be seeing only process pictures, and no final images. Let’s start: Continue reading “Before the Flood” →

Paint Your Own Pictures

I am a pretty big fan of poems that allow the reader to make their own choices about how they should be read. So, that is what I’ve gone for here. Hence the title … do your own damn thing.

The full text of this poem reads: “Sing a song in 1989. I sing in June.”
This would be the most direct reading of this poem.
For the less obvious read, follow me.

paint-your-own-pictures-2Song 1989

I Sin Sing

Sin Son Gin

I sin gin in June

Continue reading “Paint Your Own Pictures” →

Two New Titles

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. Experimental Poetry allows your writerly ego, go-to-themes & stories, and brain to take the day off. Otherwise, why would anyone write a poem called MYSTERY TO THE MAN?

two-new-titles-1

Continue reading “Two New Titles” →

story of sex 4 / spectral mistresses

We have reached the end of sex stories. For now, at least.

story-of-sex-4-1-1
I really enjoyed doing this collage, especially after what felt like a lot of disorder in the previous ones (in this sex series). In contrast, this one is more focused and the black and white arrangement is easy on the eye.
story-of-sex-4-1-2

Continue reading “story of sex 4 / spectral mistresses” →

Story of sex 3: you should

I am feeling less than talkative this morning, so today: a couple of photos and a major prompt.

sex 3 - 1 (1).jpg

ENIGMA PROMPT FOR THE YOUNG AND OLD:

Continue reading “Story of sex 3: you should” →

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑