Search

jennieytallman.com

a gallery of controversys

Open Search
Tag

Experiment

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

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

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 2 / boatbuilding supplies

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.

sex-2-2
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” →

A Riverkeeper

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.

17-the-riverkeeper-1

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” →

Library of Water

For this page, the eleventh in the “Another Affair with Water” series, I was thinking about congruity–especially across the series.

11-library-of-water-2

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” →

Abstract Talking I & II

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?

PROMPT

1. Begin with a quote. I chose this:

intermission2 - 1

2. Cut it into lines.

intermission2 - 2

Continue reading “Abstract Talking I & II” →

Intermission

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.

intermission - 4

As quickly as possible, I translated his image into the below. Mine has an unexpected Americana feel.

intermission - 1 (1)

Continue reading “Intermission” →

Build the Fish King

This “poem” relies on a list of tools to find itself… as it should.

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.

Continue reading “Build the Fish King” →

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: