More stunt poetry today! The book Grete supplied me with - Marlena di Blasi's "A Thousand Days In Venice" - turned out to be perfect for this kind of adventure. Her writing is flourishing, elaborate, vivid, a bit pompous sometimes. She is fond of adjectives and repetitions, and it was very tempting for me to make use of this when composing the stunt poems. It's not often that you see writers repeat the same words in one page as often as she does. But it's part of her writing technique, obviously.
Other elements I focused on were, as I said, her embroidering and vivid descriptions - but at the same time I was trying not to actually read the story too well. Of course it was inevitable not to catch the gist of her plot and story telling, but I deliberately tried to compose poetry that was an opposite to what SHE was trying to say. She is a cook and a cook book writer, so every so often she would share food experiences and recipes over several pages, and it was great fun trying to make other combinations of words than the ones meant to be about food!
This is when it started to become X-rated. I've said in my blog posts about the Food Poetry that there are quick and apparent associations between food and sex - and it's so easy to make food-words erotic and loaded! Without ever using a single dirty word!
But it was fun too, when the words I found on a page invited to further exploration of daring word combinations. I'm sure that here she's writing about a flight she's on - nothing more, nothing less:
Doing the stunt poetry reminded me about qualities in myself that I'd nearly forgotten. Being a full-time Big Mama - and a working Big Mama too - for innumerable years, some of my talents have been hibernating. I remembered that I love writing, that I love language and word combinations. And it reminded me that I can be disciplined and - not least - that I function well under pressure. The pressure of a deadline has never been frightening to me, and although all this was just for fun, my pride and my dedication went into it.
Today's title indicates X-rating - but again, it all just depends on associations and interpretations. One does never really have to be explicit about anything - that's the art of intimation, of suggestion. And - without wanting to sound pompous now - that's always the best literature too. The one that doesn't spell it out for you, but leaves you thinking and reaching your own conclusions.
After that deep analysis, let me contradict myself and wrap up today's post with my "Fifty Shades"-inspired poems, which leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. Oh, it's bad - just as the trilogy was in huge parts!
The photos here are taken by Grete - she took a whole series (many more than these) where she made me play with hay bales. I don't know - how old am I really? Good question.
On the 13th December 2012 my poetry challenge was over. I honestly couldn't believe it when I discovered these words on page number 100. I combined them like this:
"...some of my talents have been hibernating" - and now spring has arrived :-)
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