Echo Poems: The Return of The Weekly Tweak
It’s been so quiet and empty around here lately, I can hear my own thoughts echo. In fact, maybe it’s not the heat that’s been driving these dreadful headaches all week, but the echo reverberations may be at fault.
I’ll have to think about that… that… that…
Oh, never mind.
I’ll just take some more Advil, and get on with the Tweakage.
Today’s episode is adapted from a long-neglected little book of mine, “Surrealist Games”. It’s a nice little boxed-book collection of mind-exercises and games from the Surrealist movement, parlor past times intended to show off and expand their creative, seemingly random and often nonsensical thought processes. Most of the games require two players, but I managed to find one today that works alone:
Echo Poems.
Take a sheet of paper (or a word processing document) and divide it into two columns.
- Write the first line of the poem in the first column. Don’t work too hard at this, just plonk something down, ok? If you’d like to cheat and use a song lyric or a favorite quotation, go for it.
- In the second column, build the second line of the poem so that the first part of it somehow echos the last of the first line - the “echo” can be in the sounds, a rhyme, or often, by simply somehow reversing or relating to the end of the first line.
- Now go back to the first column, and echo the first part of the second line.
- Continue until you feel done, and the echo has faded into silence. This last echo becomes the title.
So far as I can tell, the columns are just to keep you from trying to write a straight poem, and to help you with the echoing. And since this IS a surrealist game, the rules are made to be torn to bits and thrown out the window.
Here’s a finished, admittedly dreadful example from me:
Bristling coldly in china cups
The storm boiled blue and green
What do you mean? I’ve already
Not yet seen the sounds
Nor heard the sight of teakettles whistling.
Hey, I warned you that it was dreadful!
Here’s how it was formed:
The storm boiled blue and green
This first line I just tossed out there, randomly.
What do you mean I’ve already
(“What do you mean”
echos the syllables and
rhythm of “blue and green”)
Not yet seen
(echos and rhymes with
“what do you mean”)
the sounds
(seeing sounds just seemed
surrealistic, you know?)
Nor heard the sight
(this reverses “Not yet seen”)
of teakettles whistling
(I was thinking of the storm and tempests in teapots)
Bristling coldly in china cups
(bristling rhymes with whistling,
and cold china cups are meant
as an opposite of hot tea kettle)
The last line became the title.
Got it? Your turn!
Your tweakish assignment is to make an attempt at an echo poem, and post it in the comments. See if you can create one more dreadful than mine - I’m not sure that’s possible, but go on… give it your best shot!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
A thousand tiny tragedies
One horrendous cacophony.
Meeting in the strangest places
Strange looks on stranger faces.
Faces that know no grief
Faces that need relief
Leaves that fall upon the ground
Buildings become lifeless mounds
Rising up to meet the sky
We rebuild and live to try.
It is really really bad, but I just read a short story about 9/11 that keeps creeping into my thoughts…
I always tell my students, start somewhere, just try, anything you write is better than nothing…
I am also shamelessly addicted to rhyming.
Thank you, emf: )
I was worried no one would play along. This sort of thing is perfect for indulging addictions. I think we should all give ourselves permission for “bad poetry” - and remember that it doesn’t always turn out bad!
Thanks for your reply. Looking forward to the next tweak!
I just stumbled upon this blog when considering Thesis. I LOVE IT!
Great design. Funny, funny content. Thanks for sharing.
3 am, still surfing, reading
till 6am I shoulda been dreaming
hungry again, haven’t beeen eating
just filling my brain with instant feeding,
Physics, Sports, enviroment and math
I stumble across your poetry4 the mind path
And pause to catch my breathe and laugh
For all the sites I just flew past
FAcebook, Hotmail, not once did I slow
to park my sweet ass and take in the whole show
I didn’t bother to write onedamn email or post
Talking to them last night should alow me to coast
But my brains getting tired,, morning is close
and my rhymes are starting to stretch,my metaphores smell like burnt toast.
So I bid you adeu(scrape my toast add some jam)
And begin to surf out of here like a gangster on the Lam.
KAllith Dragonna
Haven’t heard form you in some time. Is all well with you?
Hi Reg, I’m well - just having a wee bit of an overstressed-withdraw-from-the-world period! Hopefully I’ll be back tweaking brains as soon as mine is tuned up again.
To KAllith Dragonna,
Sweet!
eileen
I am very impressed with the layout of site.
Chocolate Linoleum
Simply folding paperclips,
Swinging hips slide fully westward,
Ankles move and glide to notions,
stiffen joints and lock in bone,
Powerpoint anoints fact and figures,
Open Office jezebel.
First time at the blog, gave this a try. I wonder why themes of office work and sexuality seemed to come through. I don’t even WORK in an office!
I need a little practise on this surrealist game