FPR Impromptu 15 Love What You Hate   Joel Katelnikoff

In this technological era of direct textual manipulation, we must always acknowledge our own agency as readers. If we hate a text, we may no longer blame the text. Instead, evaluate the text with a particular eye for discovering, within it, that which you can love. Because the thing has not failed you. Rather, you have failed.

Instructions:

Reread the last book that you’ve hated, committing yourself to love it.
Do not expect to experience this love in a linear and continuous manner.
Read quickly, ignoring every element of the text that you might detest.
Flag every element of the text that you are capable of appreciating.
Transcribe all flagged materials.

Not a book I hated, but one I had set aside as a difficult read. A book of essays, some about poetry, others about other forms of writing outside my interests or range of reading. I’ve chosen to select text from Edge, Essays, Reviews, Interviews, by Mary Dalton, (pp. 178-182, 185-186) a Newfoundland poet whose work I greatly admire.  This is from her discussion of the Boatman series of paintings by Newfoundland artist, Gerald Squires.  This exercise has given me a different way to approach the essays when I resume reading it in the next week or so.  It also made me realize that the difficulty is mine, and is one of focus (and that I should not try to read a book with the television on, volume turned down or not).

Sea angel (Clione limacina) (Wikipedia)

Nothing Left

The figure hovering
chaotic and ill-formed
a smashed skull

within this mass
the tumult of water
an angel crying out in

the otherworld of corkscrew forms
the spiral evolution of universe
flux beneath the sea

a fish rides the great wave
all ribs and bones
nothing left but its sound

and the wild waters
drowning the moon

a big fish (Wikipedia)

Carol A. Stephen
April 15, 2016

For April 14, the Found Poetry Revew prompt is from Brian Oliu.

It’s a little like Wildminding and a little researching, but from within, as you examine in detail what you want to write about.  Brian says it better though:

Set aside about twenty minutes of your day with the intention of “doing research” for a piece. Do not allow yourself to write about anything that you do not experience firsthand: if you are writing about the feel of water, or the taste of an orange, run your hand underneath the sink or get to the supermarket as soon as possible. Allow yourself to be immersed in your project & only trust “first hand research” instead of cobbling things together from various sources/the Internet–it will be there later for second drafts. If you are writing about a scene in a movie, watch that scene. If you are writing about a trip that you took, try your best to replicate that trip to the best of your abilities. Take notes, but don’t let the notes dictate your experience. After you have concluded your “research” begin writing immediately & without prejudice–don’t stop, don’t worry about linebreaks or punctuation, or word choice: capture whatever fleeting magic you have conjured until the feeling is gone.

To read more about it, and to read about Brian, as well as the poems from other FPR Challenge participants: FPR Impromptu 14 

At first, this sounded rather complex, but as I thought about it, while eating a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut Bar, I realized how it was going to work!

14 Lines, Chocolate-Coated

Anticipation. The wrapper rustles, resists
downward pull on paper, corner-torn and open—

the flat brown of chocolate impatience and a second tear
pulls the paper free. One square at a time slides onto tongue.

Instant warmth and saliva melt the surface, teeth feel resistance
as almond remnant cracks free to float a moment in the mouth,
joined next by wrinkle of raisin, the next solitary square.

Each melt of chocolate sets tongue tingling, anticipation still–
for the next and the next and the last, leaving only a vague

memory of how it soothes touch, taste, scent. Only sound and sight
not satisfied by the mere proximity of a bar of chocolate.

Short-lived. In a moment or two the lingering taste fades
to less than memory. And now the struggle to resist attacking
the second beckoning bar.

A chocolate bar and melted chocolate. Wikipedia

Carol A. Stephen
April 14, 2016