'Apprentice for the Artist' with Peter Blegvad and Adriano Shaplin - Poetry Without Words
Monday, 12 May 2008 by T.R.Pengelly
Choose one word, that after you're dead, you would like to sum you up:
Irreplaceable
Choose a second word to add to this:
Poppycock
And a third:
Scenery
Now choose three items that you brought into this room with you, which describe you and are the most weighted with meaning:
Welsh gold ring I got for my 18th birthday, the 'little-girl' shoes which I live in, my Maori necklace from New Zealand in the shape of a fish-hook which means 'safety over water'.
Give them their most basic names:
ring, shoes, necklace
Now, write a poem describing the world through the items, you are not allowed to use any of the three basic words, or the three that described you:
I think the world has a heart of swirling Welsh gold,
When it was young it wore little round sandals with flowers.
Land and sea melted into fish-hooks of clear green
And made a small corner for me.
Count the words:
38
Now, write a redraft, without using the six words OR any of the words in the first draft:
We knew Earth had some melted core;
Circling white metal.
We saw Earth wearing children's slippers.
Continents shifted into jasper symbols;
Melding bays next to us.
Count the words:
25
Now, write a redraft, without using the six word OR any of the words in the first draft OR any of the words in the second draft. This draft must at least as many words as the first:
Planets have celtic souls
Which scuffle. Silent. Young.
Toes which wriggle. Clasping. Grasping.
Child's bloomery is chunky sweet.
Counties leaping. Drowning. Bellowing;
Always dancing. Sliding. Grinding.
Small mouth gape. Round eyes eat.
Unfurling ferns, under which is birth.
Count the words:
38
Now, the final draft. No word from the first, second or third drafts, but you are allowed to use the original six words:
Shoes are worn by planets with celtic footprints,
They, being scuffleless, sit still.
Forlorn 'S's swoon fathomable footsteps
While savannahs, mountains, oceans,
Are still runny broken necklaces.
Before, being scuffleless, they sit still.
(Yes, I cheated a little in the last draft...)
Irreplaceable
Choose a second word to add to this:
Poppycock
And a third:
Scenery
Now choose three items that you brought into this room with you, which describe you and are the most weighted with meaning:
Welsh gold ring I got for my 18th birthday, the 'little-girl' shoes which I live in, my Maori necklace from New Zealand in the shape of a fish-hook which means 'safety over water'.
Give them their most basic names:
ring, shoes, necklace
Now, write a poem describing the world through the items, you are not allowed to use any of the three basic words, or the three that described you:
I think the world has a heart of swirling Welsh gold,
When it was young it wore little round sandals with flowers.
Land and sea melted into fish-hooks of clear green
And made a small corner for me.
Count the words:
38
Now, write a redraft, without using the six words OR any of the words in the first draft:
We knew Earth had some melted core;
Circling white metal.
We saw Earth wearing children's slippers.
Continents shifted into jasper symbols;
Melding bays next to us.
Count the words:
25
Now, write a redraft, without using the six word OR any of the words in the first draft OR any of the words in the second draft. This draft must at least as many words as the first:
Planets have celtic souls
Which scuffle. Silent. Young.
Toes which wriggle. Clasping. Grasping.
Child's bloomery is chunky sweet.
Counties leaping. Drowning. Bellowing;
Always dancing. Sliding. Grinding.
Small mouth gape. Round eyes eat.
Unfurling ferns, under which is birth.
Count the words:
38
Now, the final draft. No word from the first, second or third drafts, but you are allowed to use the original six words:
Shoes are worn by planets with celtic footprints,
They, being scuffleless, sit still.
Forlorn 'S's swoon fathomable footsteps
While savannahs, mountains, oceans,
Are still runny broken necklaces.
Before, being scuffleless, they sit still.
(Yes, I cheated a little in the last draft...)
