November 16, 2005
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An Exquisite Corpse
Last night, I was a substitute teacher for GoJake’s writer’s group. We explored the Dada form of poetry called “the exquisite corpse.” It requires at least a small group of people to write one. There are two or three ways you can write one. You can either pull slips of paper with words on them out of a hat, randomly look up words in the dictionary and write them down, or do what we did which is one person writes a line of poetry, then folds the paper to cover it up. The next person writes a line without seeing what was written before and folds the paper to cover their line. You write and fold until you run out of paper.
Our oldest writer was 51 and the youngest was twelve. We wrote three. Here are the best two. What’s amazing is how well they went together. Even when the imagery goes surreal, a sort of theme pervades. The poetry form is supposed to show how connected the human race is.
Exquisite Corpse #1 (by Janette, Chris, Kathryn, and Judy.)
They looked at me as if I were crazy
the yellow leaves bloom pink in the breeze
She smiled as she died
a cry in the darkness
I wish that I could shake you
and force you to listen
my foolish unshakeable darling
The moon never beams
without bringing me dreams
the moon shines like cold fire
lost and alone.
Exquisite Corpse #3 (by Janette, Chris, Kathryn, Caitlin, and Judy)
The eyes shine with malice
the island untouched by man is callling me home
borrowed from the pages of a long forgotten novel
I want to sing my song to the leprechauns
white pages bruise my fragile knees gently
The moon was red as blood
the silver letters are glowing in the moonlight
swaying to the melody spinning round in my mind
I want to share the secrets of my music with you
I salute those who have gone before
the demon bares its fangs
is there a poet still left in this house?
Comments (8)
Amazing how connected we truly are. ryc: Not too much snow here, but is brrrrringly cold! I thought something by ‘Frost’ befitting-lol. You must like snow-to be in, or just to look at it?!
Hi Jan,
your class sounds so interesting. I like these poem you all write together, they fit perfectly.
I hope all is well there.
Peace and Love:)
That is sooo cool! Really neat imagery … I’d like to try that with you some time … maybe we could do it at karaoke one night!!! Haha … that would make a really cool contest, eh? In order to sing, you have to write a line of the poem …
Has potential …
Nah … silly me … it would never work …
Or maybe …
Neato! Very cool results!
Just checking in. Crystal
That’s so cool. Wow. I’ll have to remember that.
I hope your husband’s grandmother is okay.
Hey Jan, where are you? hope all is well.
Peace and Love:)