Thursday, March 25, 2010

Observation Exercises.

The previous post (Walk in Morris Park ) is an example of what I call observation exercises, a more open variation of the "camera's eye" assignment I would give to my students the first day of class. I sit on my porch or take a walk or ride the el and take notes of anything that registers on my senses, making space for associations and thought, but trying not to let these intrude too much, so not to distract my attention from the physical world around me.

I use these notes as a source for poems. More often than not, what was missed, what I left out but later remember, will figure more in the poem than what I wrote. My poems are more and more about ellipses, about the spaces between things. See "Three Views from my Front Porch (scroll down to page 5), HERE
Sometimes, as with this piece, the notes themselves resist further editing, satisfying in themselves whatever need I had to write them

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