Random, Abstract Poetry - 12/10/08

I take the Brooklyn Rail newspaper and underline words and phases in the articles that catch my attention. Then circle a word or phrase for the title. It's more of a subtractive process, taking a page of words and editing down to a poem or maybe several. It's kind of backwards from the traditional process of adding words to a blank page. But it works for me. The pieces of newspaper with these random abstract poems get used as collage material in my artwork. I create the artwork. My darker, semi-schizophrenic alter ego creates the poetry.


A Game of Hot Potato
My head questions inside me.
What did I do?

Every afternoon,
I write a letter,
Describing what had happened.

I decline to write anything.
How to explain this?

I felt what had happened.
A sense of articulate realizations.


Even A Single Instance
A moment forever separated.
They hardly belonged.

A different generation.
A generation of people,
With little connection.

Culture, an arbitrary experience.
Paradigms in a world beginning.

Feel the tension,
Rushing sideways.
A sense we were all part of one.
The suffering was most serene.


Drawing Into A Person
It's black and white.
Disturbing values,
Found in ourselves.

Dark subjects.
Reflections of culture.

Antidotes offer dignity.
The definition incomplete.

Stories, a narrative of the parallel.
A line drawing reiterates.

The power to dream and fantasize.
How does it feel?


Contours of Souls
The souls of folk.
Interactions between other worlds.
Unasked questions.
A cloud that hung.

Encounters with those moved.
Circles question sense.

The dissonance of strange feeling,
Through the eyes of others.
How does it feel?

Question and explore what it means.
The lives of seven.
Follow them through.
All the while,
Sketching out a portrait.


Shift Exterior to Interior
It was a form of animation.
A very strange landscape.
I felt the curvature of the earth.
The experience, stuck together with tape.
I could see.

I began making drawings in the mind.
Cutting shapes.
Putting them together.
These drawings led to shapes.

I became aware.
Your drawings,
Looking from the outside.
Very complex.
Could you elaborate?

Drawing.
A different kind of focus.
I draw when I'm dreaming.
Unedited.

The place didn't allow for drawing.
They unraveled.
The drawing,
Very different.
I wanted to change nature.

Aside From Common
The only connection is loose.
For reasons never revealed.

Pursuing his subjects,
Shifting, altering,
What it means to be opposite of reverse.

Life in a way human.
This is depressing.


A Real Introspection
On the following Tuesday,
Question the beginning of philosophy.
Over the weekend,
Read our discussion.

Present one idea,
Which exemplifies the idea.
This approach is pervasive.

The connection between one is reality.
Concepts, the book rarely offers.

Interactions with reality.
Examine the real.