My First Workshop

OK, I've been to poetry workshops, but that was the first time I'd run one - co-hosting with Ben Lawrence (poet, friend, beard, quidditch champion) on the theme of Oulipo. If you don't know what Oulipo is, it's a contraction of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle which roughly translates as "workshop of potential literature" (so, technically this was a workshop-workshop meta-thingie) where writing constraints are used to inspire new writing. Founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, it started as was a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who sought to create written works using various constraining techniques. So, think univocalism (only allowing yourself to use one of the vowels) and that kind of thing, often in cool Parisian coffee-houses- highly appropriate as the workshop took place in an independent cafe-gallery albiet in Southampton.

We worked though a variety of tasks and prompts, one of which was to create a snowball poem. This means starting with a single letter as the first line, two letters in line two and so on. You go as far as you want, then, if you wish, back down again to end with a single-letter as the last line. In a spirit of camaraderie, me and Ben did the exercises too. Here's my snowball output:


Snowball Earth

I
am
the
last
human
on this
fateful
dying orb,
sun-fusion
sucked away
to power – what?
Great engines,
gravitational
arrays that open
spacetime rips to
nowhere, a pure void
vampiric upon solar
energy, and we couldn’t
close it, so our giant
companion star got
cooler and cooler
‘til candle-faint,
a lonely cinder
lost in vacuum
without fuel,
so Earth now
chills and
darkens, a
funeral
for all
of our
kind
and
so
I…

Well, I got all dystopian and bleak there, but you see how it works... If you like constrained writing you can set yourself whatever rules you wish as long as you enter into the spirit of Oulipo and stick to them rigorously. A great book containing numerous examples is Adventures in Form, and you might like to check out Ross Sutherland's univocalist and N+ (more about that later) works, as well as the famous Eunoia by Christian Bok.'Til then, here's an image of poets attempting Oulipo-ness...

WORdS, InNaRdS

A pair of medical/biological offerings in elementalist form i.e. made solely from the symbols of elements from the periodic table (because I do like tinkering with forms and constraints)


VErBaNAtOMoUS

AmYGdAlAs, PINeAl,
CePHAlISAtION OF
PrIMoRdIAl AmPHIBiC BRaIn,
OPTiCAl ORbS OF VISiON –
ReTiNa, SClErOTiC LaYEr,
BrOWS, LaSHeS,
NeAr NoSe, LiPS, CHIn,
SHoW UP As FAcEs.

In ThORaCIC SPaCeS,
ICKY OFFAl –
LiVEr (No ONiONS),
PaNCReAs GeNeRaTeS InSULiN,
ReNAl, HePaTiC, ILiAc,
SLiPPErY InTeSTiNeS,
BrONCHI, OEsOPHAgUS,
OVArIEs, TeSTeS (KNaCKErS).
FrAmEs OF OsSUArY SUCH As
TiBiO-FIBULaS = SHINbONeS,
CAlVEs UNdEr KNeEs,
VErTeBrAl STaCK,
CErVICAl, COCCYXeS, BAcKAcHe,
SCaPuLa, CLaVIClEs (PaIr),
CArPAlS, InSTePS, ArCHeS
CArTiLaGe, TeNdONS,
CIrCuLaTiON, NErVEs,
SKIn CoVErS GeNeTiC FOUNdAtIONS.

SiCKNESS

AcNe, NErVOUS TiCs,
FLu, BaRd’S AgUEs,
HErPEs SCaBS, SYPHILiTiC SOReS (YUCK),
BrONCHITiS, Tb,
PNEuMoCoNiOsIS
LuPuS (RaRe BeYONd ‘HoUSe’),
HIV, OThEr VIrUSEs,
CaNCEr (CHeMo, PRaYErS),
GeNeTiCs CaN Be UNKINd,
SErIOUS CoNdITiONS,
HoSPITaLiSAtION,
BiOPSiEs, SURgErY,
ReCoVErY?

Nod to 'Two Moons for Mongs'

Last night at The Art House, I saw Ross Sutherland perform a splendid set which included one of my favourites of his, Two Moons for Mongs which was (a) wonderful and (b) made me glad I didn't pick a univocalist poem during the open mic section (I was going to but then I wondered, 'what if...?' and did something else instead). Anyhow, I wrote this a few months ago as a response to Two Moons..., also as a univocalist piece in the key of O (the only vowel used). Now seems the right time to let it be read. Some day I may perform it...

Hollowtown

Long rows of blocks soon show
Tomorrow’s World looks old now,
bros roll pot, stroll,
stow stocks of loft-grown blow,
bohos on ‘shrooms,
top dogs snort snow,
‘hood-brood yobs cook hot spoons –
brown smog, not gold,
(soon off box)
two OD, go cold-doggo,
poor dodos,
boohoo moods bloom.

SOCO door-knock,
sort rooms of dross,
non-PC PCs stop wogs, coons,
low-down cops
nod ‘Dobro’ to Moscow mob-lords,
boot-shod boors who
boss pros to go down for no dosh –
now cops got pox, STDs, cock-rot,
hos ROFL,
tho’ crows not storks
for Coco, Lolo –
most snot-snook sprogs who’d yowl
torn from womb so not born –
poco tombs.

Poolroom folk go ‘tock, tock, tock,
pot browns
B-boys drop mojo,
Shlomo b-box vox, b’boom-boom,
cool Moloko,
Floyd’s LSD woo,
not rock’n’roll, Toto or Bono (knob),
or too-smooth bollocks-R’n’B pop-songs
not known
to old crooks who got form,
lots of Lotto sorrow,
sob,
lost so rob loot,
worst combo.

Yoofs mooch,
gob-lob ‘sod off, mofo’
(no bon-môts)
to oppos –
post-work droogs,
cogs of dotcom toffs who pop corks
to corps-logos (wrong gods)
storm to BOGOFs on alcohol
from lo-cost shops –
hobos go loco on grog,
posh sots down rococo plonk,
borrow vs stock
for Goodwood loss (vow to stop),
blotto clowns throw rocks
to crock front of motor showrooms,
hot-foot off,
soon toros lock horns,
bozo-kwon-do, chop-sock, boff!
tosspots' bloodsport,
tomoz, novo-pro-codo-mol.

Dorks (oft Frodo-short)
shoot X-Box Doom
or solo to porn –
Cor! Norks!
Swots post tosh on blogs,
sort Roblox,
words blossom on rooftops – pshht –
‘Robbo 4 Koo’
‘Morons rool OK’
‘Wot no shoggoths?’
Fox scoffs lost food,
popcorn,
pork blobs con pollo – nom nom nom,
dogs growl, woof, drool – shoo,
owls hoot, wolf howls, cows moo
on CBBC ‘cos town holds
no woods or moors.

Tom, Jock – two homos who got horn
smooch, snog, blow x x x,
Jock drops L-bomb shock,
slo-mo romcom.
Fools follow bonobo-bottoms,
ro-ro molls,
hook-worm dolls
from Mondo Go-go
O2 photo-ops,
OMG Botox botch-jobs,
schlock-horrorshow.

CCTV looks down on Hollowtown,
moon too
glows SOS,
dot dot dot.

Ross Sutherland performing Two Moons for Mongs

A bit more elementalism

My second attempt at a form I've dubbed 'elementalism' for now - poems formed solely from the symbols of chemical elements.

BrITiSH CuISiNe

RuBBErY RaVIOLi,
RaINY BeAcH-CaFe,
PlaSTiC SeAtS,
TiNY SiNGe-BLaCK SAuSAgEs WITh SmAsH,
HP SauCe,
GeLaTiNoUS VINdAlOO,
LaRdY PIEs (ReHeAt) –
ThErE’s CaSH In CraP-InNA-tRaY,
CoRnErSHoP BOURbON,
HIPFLaSK,
ReHaB –
ReAl AlE’s NiCEr;
BY ONe A.m.
SNOW-WHITe BrITiSHErS
CHUNdEr CHIPS BY PuB,
UPCHUCK YUCK, CaUSe RuCKUS –
OthErS PReFEr
CrAcK-HoUSe WArEs,
CInNaMoN HAsHCaKEs
ChoCoLaTe MoNeY,
SmArTiEs.

Free-verse texticonography

Following a recent workshop on using 'new media' to generate poetry, here's a short one using emoticons and similar, plus its associated explanation...

Took a dip in a \___/
found an old Black Sabbath LP –
playable
\m/>.<\m/
u like CraaAAaiiIIig DaaAAaviIid
:p

Translates as:

Took a dip in a skip
 
found an old Black Sabbath LP –
playable
 
[symbols indicating listening to metal - it's two hands raised with 'finger-horns' either side of scrunched-up eyes]
 
u like CraaAAaiiIIig DaaAAaviIid (mocking Craig David's uppy/downy, oversung-but-bland vocal stylings)
 
blowing-a-raspberry smiley

NaPoWriMo day 25

NaPoWriMo day 25 is ballad-day – I’ve amended the traditional abab rhyme-form slightly by putting in alternate abcc-rhyming verses – kind of half way between a ballad and an ottava rima, and back to one of my fave topics - nature…

The Ballad of Woodland Pond

Lacustrine waters gladed,
Away from public gaze,
Kingcups burst unfaded,
Into golden sunlit rays.

Tadpoles hide enshaded,
In tiny hidden bays,
Confound the heron’s stabbing beak,
They’ll all grow legs before next week.

Sylvan pool a-shimmer,
Rippled by the breeze,
Surface-world pond-skimmers,
Dart beneath the trees.

Brimstone’s yellow glimmer,
Flutters past the bumblebees,
The pollen and the nectar sweet,
From flowers bloomed in April heat.

Sticklebacks swim figure-eights,
Between the cut-stem reeds,
To claim their patches, so to mate,
Amongst the silted weed.

Manic whirligigs gyrate,
Spinning black-shine beads,
Then, briefly glimpsed splay-footed newt,
Clasping yellow-iris roots.

Jut-jawed dragon-nymph appears,
Basking in the glow,
Unexpectedly it’s speared,
By Nepa from below.

Blade-legs grip and grasp and shear,
Spike-mouthed, deceptive-slow,
Above, a mallard pair take flight,
Into the air and out of sight.

So we leave too, our day is done,
Mere watchers of undine’s domain,
Her history told, her tale fine-spun,
When will we see her realm again?

NaPoWriMo day 23

NaPoWriMo day 23. Another previously unfamiliar (to me) verse form – the triolet. These are 8 lines long, 8 syllables per line, rhyming pattern AbaAabAB with lines 1, 4 & 7 identical, ditto lines 2 & 8 which means the first and last couplets are the same. So, in a spirit of poetical rigour, here’s a ‘Trio of triolets’:

Verse me slowly and verse me quick,
Three poets weaving – speak, speak, speak,
Your words will show what makes you tick,
Verse me slowly and verse me quick,
Give my behind a verbal kick,
Let moth-light phrases kiss my cheek,
Verse me slowly and verse me quick,
Three poets weaving – speak, speak, speak.

Know you your place, systematised,
Pin through the back, left of centre,
Held fast in forceps, scrutinised,
Know you your place, systematised,
Described by parts, taxonomised,
Stroke the needle, feel it enter,
Know you your place, systematised,
Pin through the back, left of centre.

An epic fail was Pavlov’s cat,
However much he’d plead and beg,
And tempt with chicken, cream and sprats,
An epic fail was Pavlov’s cat,
Who, when the bell rang, simply sat,
And washed beneath uplifted leg -
An epic fail was Pavlov’s cat,
However much he’d plead and beg…