The second story is fairly similar to the way I behave on any plumbing aisle. All those pipes and fittings, with names so dirty, and me whispering / chanting them to myself until overcome with bawdy hysterics.
In all honesty, this was a fun page to make. It feels a little private/intimate, but not so much as to be excluded from a public blog. They are just boat-building supplies, after all. Continue reading “Story of Sex 2 / boatbuilding supplies”
Which once was Essex, but oh, sex is so much better. Ever since I saw this beautiful headline I have been waiting to use it, saving it up, plotting and planning. And yes, it was just as fun and satisfying as I thought it would be.
But I could not limit myself to just one — it is “storys” after all (Story in this case is a surname, hence the odd pluralization).
This past week I’ve been doing a lot of work on my poetry thesis: organizing it into three possible orders and working out themes and sections and all that. Each time I’d figure out one potential way into the manuscript, I’d take a break to finish a collage / poem.
Diversions like experimental writing can be quite useful for the writer–especially the writer who is entrenched in a project. I’d go as far as to say this is the most lovely stage of editing: the diversions. Continue reading “A Riverkeeper”
Today an image heavy post, with a sparse poem to accompany. In this case, I worked on the poem first, and then finished the image. Sometimes, certain words just pop out. In my case, it was “take care.”
Also, never underestimate the incredible power of white paint piled against yellowed pages. Continue reading “The Interrogation of the Ways”
This week is all about the process, because making this page required more effort than any other page so far. I am going to actually give you a step-by-step for this, so you really can follow along if you like. The following is all one big prompt.
I found one nice, neat page in my magazine. This was originally a review of a series of boat building books. This allowed me to have 5 spots for poems. Continue reading “THE REAL MYSTIC’S MUSEUM of the One WATER, Volumes I-V”
Today, a full page image/poem, meant to be a continuation of “bend and break in silence.”
For this poem I used a very simple process. I highlighted all instances of the word “sound” and then whited everything else out. I love using this technique because it lets you choose to leave some words only partly obscured, such as in the title image.
So, this is your creative prompt. Focus today on one word. Preferably a word that means something to you. Silence / Sound / Bend / Break. Continue reading ““what you hear is a map of sound””
(don’t) Bend and Break in Silence
Not justified. And I drove to the grocery store, the store I visit weekly, past the place where the flags and lights and tributes are still set up. Today, cameras. Today, voices. Today, news. But still, no resurrection.
Too many bodies. Too much silence. Too much broken.
Having spent the past two months caught up in a number of things that required that I abandon my sons to Minecraft.
Having woken in the middle of too many nights trying to shake the terrible feeling of complete domestic failure.
Having finished the first draft of my novel yesterday.
Having finally made Pasties from scratch.
Having missed my last two blog-Wednesdays.
For this page, the eleventh in the “Another Affair with Water” series, I was thinking about congruity–especially across the series.
The title echoes the series’ title.
Visually, it relates to the Broken White poem.
Poetically, both are between satire and abstraction.
Thematically, both come at a time when I am once again defeated by anger and sorrow at the ever-growing list of murdered black men. Continue reading “Library of Water”
Here, a return to the heart, previously explored in Young Fair Hearts… which is where you may recognize the heart stencil from. 
This time I used the cut out heart directly (rather than as a stencil): cutting some words out, leaving others, and inserting new ones. And red paint. And a little messiness, because I like a little messiness. Continue reading “Of Yachts and Men”
Magazines are always filled with letters to the editor. In them, you will find some of the very best language. Seems a shame to waste all those Dears.
In this case, the answer (above) was written first and then the question (below). Continue reading “Letters to the Spectre”
On the left hand page, we have image.
On the right, words.
This quote and last post’s image come from an article in Artforum titled, TALKING ABSTRACT. What better excuse to delve into line and language?
1. Begin with a quote. I chose this:
2. Cut it into lines.
We all need a little recess from time to time. For me, that time was today.
Today’s post and next Wednesday’s are both intermissions from the current project and both are translations.
Abstraction and Experimentation both ask us to find inspiration from others. This image is a complete translation of a work of art by Peter Halley.
As quickly as possible, I translated his image into the below. Mine has an unexpected Americana feel.
Forewarn: Physically uncomfortable as I began this post, I finally removed the snorkel and umbrella from the chair I have been sitting on too long. Which is to say, my youngest son is coughing on the sofa where he has been sleeping for the past 14 hours, the cat is screaming out the window at the oldest two for walking outside without her, and I have probably had less than 5 hours of sleep (nightly, not total) for the past week. Being an insomniac, this last is not really news.
THE SURVIVAL OF THE FISH KING matters now more than ever. If this post is goofy, it is because I am barely here.
Sometimes your art will live in a safe and insular world and sometimes that world will have to open up and acknowledge the outside world too.
This past week has been grief filled. I have often written, in essay or poem, of the unwelcome privilege I have been afforded by the very authority that took the life of a good man, a neighbor. A man who shopped at the same grocery store as me and sat in the same traffic and clipped the same coupons.
Let’s show a bit of formatting today. Here is the excerpt of today’s poem, like I would typically post:
and here is the full page, with words blurred out:
Prompt: This poem came entirely from the title.
It is really fun, whether working experimentally or not, to write a poem from a title. You might choose a line from a beloved poem, or even a beloved line from a poem you aren’t head over heels for.
For a more experimental take on this: Remember the container of words you already created? If not, scroll to the bottom of this post and take a look.
Pull three or more words out of your container and arrange them into a title. Write that poem in the ransom-style. Or just write it, with a pen, the regular way poets do. After the leap we discuss copyright. Blah.
I admit that I adore this poem. Mostly because the finished product reminds me of a John Hughes movie. It is such a misfit, just like he was.
I kind of want to write a million poems about young fair hearts now.
Speaking of young fair hearts… I recently finished up teaching a little poetry in the Hamline YOUNG WRITERS WORKSHOP. (Meghan Maloney Vinz is a genius for many reasons, but this summer day-camp for budding writers is a crystal clear example of how much she gives of herself to support and build a writing community for the people who need it most.) What I want to say about that group of students is Thank You. I was floored by their talent, their motivation, their kindness, and their heavy journals spilling words.
This is where we begin to see the fish king take a real shape. This king is a she, naturally, as she was originally a boat. 
Let’s talk about the way these pages are set up. There is some variation throughout, but this is probably the first place I’ve so blatantly mixed the mediums: handwriting, black-out erasure, and ransom-style composition (which I, in this gallery, consider free-writing). Continue reading “Fish King Part II: step-by-step instructions”
At first, this seemed impossible. But as I stared at it and wondered why it insisted on being so boring, words began to appear that I had somehow missed at first.
Words like SPIRIT, LIGHT, RULE, and RABBET (a step-shaped recess cut along the edge or in the face of a piece of wood) came out of nowhere and suddenly there was some magic in that list. More importantly, there was an invitation for more.
This is one of those poems that threatens to be too insular, too in the writer’s own head to make sense to others, too abstract. I’m all right with that danger. To me, the fish king is a real thing and this is its poem.
And since I have, as usual, worked ahead… I know it will return.
For the first poem in the series of “Another affair with Water,” a more language based piece. I counted the steps (originally step-by-step instructions for building a King-Fisher) and … there are 29. I admit, this is overwhelming. I will have to be flexible, I assume, because I know of no brain (writer or reader’s) that can handle 29 poetic instructions.
Either way, here is the first. I like the way this one came together; I’ve always been a sucker for ripped paper. 
jennieytallman.com 
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