From: rjwalsh@maths.tcd.ie (Robert Walsh)
Subject: if you're standing on the edge of the net, step on in... / cal
Organisation: Amalgamated Durables
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 21:24:15 GMT

In <1992Sep13.163001.16953@leland.Stanford.EDU> jchien@leland.Stanford.EDU (Jennifer Crystal Fang-Chien) writes:

>	Well, that's all for now -- anyone else, throw in a word on
>what you do when dry for words!  =)


about not getting ideas and about getting ideas...

the same thing has happened to me recently - i've been having a really
wonderful time, *and* i also left dublin, so i've no inner city to
witness these nights. reading published poetry (you know, those things
called 'the classics' (yeah right)) it always surprised me how much of
it was positive - as far as i could see, rarely is life so bright that we 
are compelled to write poetry, but how often its darkness brings pen and 
paper (fingers and keyboard) together.

when i get guilty from not having written, here are three of my techniques,
all for rapping on words and thus forcing ideas from that...

i say the line 'ok so this guy walks down the street ... and what?' the
line of a person who wants to hear the rest of a story or a joke being told.
or alternatively, i pretend to be a person who's doing their best to spoil
the joke-telling 'what's the street like? what's the weather like? what 
country are we in here anyway? what's he wearing? ok, so then what happened?
it's not very exciting so far, is it!?...'
we've all done that to someone or had it done to us!

[if it's of any information, i use the line 'the pink elephant walked through 
the jungle... and what?' to go to sleep with - i'm trying to activate my
fantasy/dream mind rather than my very logical thought processing mind. (isn't
it awful when thoughts run through your head at night? - it's a very subtle
form of the chinese water torture - you can't even get out of bed and turn the
damn thing off!)]

another - if you have a medical dictionary to had (or a physics or chemistry
or similar dictionary) to hand - try rapping off words in it. it's not much
use if it's a topic you're familiar with - if you're a computer buff looking
at the index to a manual you're going to associate 'pointer' with 'address'
or 'variable' (YAWN!) instead of 'teacher's pointer' (leading to 'cane' 
blakcboard, beating, chalk, and a whole host of childhood remembrances i'm
sure you're just dying to recollect) 'pointer dog' (leading to images of
hunting, sunsets, ducks, cottages, water, etc) 'direction marker' (in a 
physical road map sense, images of journeys, travel, how you'ld like to
travel, etc) 'prophetic sign' etc etc etc

here's my fave though - you know that game boggle, where you through sixteen
letter cubes onto a grid and then make words - yep that's the one. this rarely 
fails for me - at this stage i just write random letters on a page, so if you 
can't get near a boggle set, just write the alphabet out, close you eyes, and 
stab with writing implement. if your at a keyboard, close your eyes and pretend
you can touch-type ;-)

i also use ms. chien's ideas - esp. the 'looking closely at a detailed object'
one (my first study was a nail in the wooden floor in secondary (high) school -
as you can guess i had a pretty thrilling time at school (sarcasm there - for 
those in any doubt)
secondly - fragments of people's conversations: drunk friends (or drunks
generally) are good for this, but if the former, don't forget that you have
to be sober to remember them! then try and put them in a serious poem - ok,ok
so you might have to tone them down but.... almost equally good effect can 
be achieved by standing in the corridor/canteen/supermarket/street. there was 
a good poem on here a while ago called synapses (by jodybean??) with this 
kind of effect, though i don't think it was strictly quotations.


alternatively, you could just get depressed again ;-( just watch the news - 
that should be enough to depress anyone. ;-)



[to all those who know me and want to write, (and to all those who don't
and still want to write!), i'll be at my vax account for one day (until 
six pm BST monday) rcwoods@vax1.tcd.ie
my s-mail is cal woods / 22 glenhurst parade / newtownabbey / co. antrim 
n. ireland / bt36 7jr               ]

take care y'all  - i've missed, and will miss, r.a.p enormously (truly) 
(one-two-three  'ahhhh'   ;-)    )

cheers!

cal.



and an impromptu poem....about right this minute in my life - getting
a long overdue and badly needed net.fix ;-)


you came and went and now you're here,
tapping on a keyboard in a hurry,
racing fingers moving in a flurry,
writing greetings, and goodbyes,
together.

can't last long without this net,
caught up in a tug-boat trawl,
with-out it flounder in withdrawl,
reeling, without line upon line,
of poetry.
 
see the scars and marks - i'm hooked -
desparate intervening time,
feed me, fix me, in a while,
needle friendship, and life blood,
intraveining.


if your standing on the edge of the net, step on in. don't be afraid
of the dark - here be dragons but also many friends. you're stepping
on high-wires in the dark - don't look for them, feel them. 

cal.


(thanks to rob walsh for use of account.)
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