Topic: on poems written by groups

[Bill]

illiterati,

I recall the "halcyon" days of Excite!  Once in a while, someone would suggest a similar exercise.  At the moment, the title assigned to such an exercise escapes me.  But it is silly, at its best and at its worst.  Yeah, definitely a corpse.  "exquisite"?  Nope.  A group poem by any other name is still dead from first word to last word.

But, hey, keep writing.

Bill

[cafeRg]

Bill are you referring to eXcite?

[illiterati]

Sure, group-composition will not produce polished, or very coherent, poems. But Bill, the ultimate goal isn't always product. Process and play are the meat of "keep writing," and evrery shred of composition research shows that regularity and volume are the keys to product.

Exercise. Practice.

But, hey, keep griping (if the comment was meant as a gripe?).

Matt

[illiterati]

Bill - we're moving and i'm pawing through my books. found an old copy of william empson's Seven Types of Ambiguity. it's worth a look. he generally uses examples only from western canon heavy-hitters -- he has a chapter in which he develops a type of ambiguity only on the basis of readings of shakespeare.

i dunno. worth a shot.

-matt

[illiterati]

"Toward a Definition of Collaboration: Collaborative Authorship in the Arts"
Rachel Lehrman

from EOAGH issue 7:

http://eoagh.com/?p=397

[daisyxo]

We did group poems back when we were called, Splash Hall --- they were great - I still have copies of the ones we wrote.  Usually I would start out with some guidelines for format and start the poem with a couple lines -- or choose several words to use within the lines.  These poems kept people writing - they gave some the nerve to try something new, yet they didn't have to write a huge poem by themselves - it gave people purpose - to come in and see what others had contributed.  They were fun to see which direction others would take compared to where you thought the subject might take the poem.  Writing poetry isn't always about getting it completely right - it's about jumping in and getting your feet wet - trying something different - and seeing a puzzle completed.  For some, after the poem was finished - well it wasn't a puzzle anymore, the style made sense.  Others discovered that it wasn't for them.  All were given credit for participating.  I loved the group poems!