Gossip & the Devil

the first step is getting rid of what’s poisoning you.

I’m working to slowly rid this site of outdated links, former friends and things I generally have lost interest in. This means I need better things to put in their place – I’m always looking, but, as always, drop me an email and/or a comment if you’d like me to check something out. I need the sort of stimulation that only comes with begging and well-pointed advice.

It seems that inspiration is so few and far between anymore. Stepping outside my front door affords me very little save the cigarette slowly burning between my fingers, and the irreparable damage I’m doing. Many of my old tricks just seem, well, old, and even the snippets from my phone are as tired as soggy eggs. You look around and find your friends bore you beyond your capacity to accept such things, the art on the walls becomes desaturated and mute, movies blend together, even the music you listen to becomes one long note in one ear, through the brain and out the other, taking any patience and passion you had with it. Even albums that have never failed you before numb your senses, like the frustration that builds when your method of masturbation just doesn’t work anymore. Winter has begun, the season to button down and get to work, but instead you button down, layer, button again, layer, take a benzo until finally you’re in a cotton cocoon, relaxed thanks to the chemicals and not because you’ve accomplished anything real. Night and day mean nothing behind black curtains. Aches and pains are your ghosts of Christmas present and, as far as you can tell, the future as well. Sparks try to light, and for a moment you’re sure the fire will roar to life so you’re forced to remove the aforementioned layers with deft fingers to lie bare against the carpet.

Life becomes frozen pizza, and computer crashes. It becomes dust and almost’s. Your heroes are getting married, or overweight and droning on and on about God, or their underage girlfriend, and their simply FANTASTIC relationship with both, or throwing out scraps that try and pass as art, bullshit.

No city waits for you, no one waits. As a good friend once said, “no one dreams anyway.” You’re overweight with the things that don’t matter, starving for the things that do.

Any healthy man can go without food for two days – but not without poetry. – Baudelaire

The aeroplanes sound so far away.

for two seconds / one syllable
/ takes so much
effort. my  / therapist suggested i try
but she’s /getting
paid
and i’m not. - jmt

Where do the Orphans go when the shops close until further notice?

the art of :: reversal :: writer’s block techniques

The reversal technique is one of the more under utilized in trying to break away from writers block, likely because often you’re faced with a jibberish of words when you’re done. The art is simple, is there a poem or narrative you can’t quite bring to that break out level, is the language staying stale and dated? Take it and turn it upside down. Make the last line the first, and continue down the line. The last line of your new poem should be the title of your old poem. Make sense?

A poem called "Brown-Eyed Voodoo" Set in reverse.

Now you can edit as you reverse, since some sentences aren’t going to make a bit of sense, but only lightly edit, try to leave the integrity of the exercise intact. We’ll look at a poem called “Brown-Eyed Voodoo” for as an example.

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the art of :: cut [&] paste :: writer’s block techniques

Much like twin poems can help you when you’re in a slump, looking at a piece of work in a different light can help you as well. Lately I’ve taken to yet another age old teaching: the art of the cut and paste.

Basically in a cut and paste you do just that: you take your printed poem, cut each line out and tape them on a board or simple sheet of paper. Sometimes you can find sentences that don’t belong, or whole stanzas that need moved. Sometimes you lose a sentence and the poem changes entirely. I’ve found that this method works with visual arts as well. If you aren’t happy with a particular painting and don’t mind cutting it up, then try it. Dissect into a few pieces and re-arrange them. You’ll be surprised at what you find.

Sometimes the cut and paste can be simple, like so:

A cut and copy technique I used on an poem called "Dread."

This is an upcoming poem entitled “Dread” that I had no clue what to do with. The language was boring, the images weren’t coming through and basically it made no sense. But I knew there was something in there. I was sick to death of staring at my computer screen. So I cut the whole thing up, re-arranged it, scrapped the entire last half and still can’t figure out exactly what it means, but now I’m a hell of a lot closer.

Sometimes the cut and paste can be a bit more colorful, like so:

From an upcoming poem entitled "Sleep"

Sometimes stepping away from your chosen medium can work wonders. Can’t find the right word? Paint a picture of what you want. Can’t find just the right angle to photograph that lovely boy who eats lunch in the courtyard every day? Then write a poem about how you want the light to hit his hands, face or legs. It can help and relieve your mind of the pressure to perform under its chosen duty.

Quickly, in other news, I have a new–and I mean brand new–piece up over at Troubadour 21 entitled “The Introduction of Rose – Part V.” Head over there and let me know what you think! The Billy series is one I always wanted to finish but could never produce the drive so, once again, thank you T21.

the art of :: the twin poem :: & writer’s block techniques

The Practice of Poetry :: A great resource for overcoming writers block.

As you know I’ve been going through a bleak depression/writers block. To counteract this I’ve went back to one of the earliest writing techniques I learned in high school: the art of the twin poem.

For any unaware writers out there,  a twin poem is basically just like it sounds. You find a poem and write it’s twin, opposite words and situations. More often than not you wind up with a poem totally different than your twin, and something to add to your portfolio. I’ve also signed up for a couple “word a day” programs in an attempt to expand my vocabulary. Every day I get a word and I use it in that evening’s twin poem. I hope that soon they’ll sound/read natural because my language will be elevated.

7 Poets, 4 Days, 1 Book :: The book I'm currently using to write twin poems.

This has produced me some of my best work to date and I’ve decided to release a book when I’m done twinning  my current book of choice,  7 poets, 4 days, 1 book. My book will nothing but my twin poems and a handful of new work I’ve had in store for a while. Its coming along quite nicely.  A preview of what I’m talking about is found below the cut:

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