I've always been afraid of restrictions and requirements and expectations. I feel they mire my writing, hinder and shakle my creativity.
But lately I've been reading a lot of Dorothy Porter's poetry - and her style is very terse. She writes of a moment - a few words, a few lines.
It always seems so... truncated... but somehow, whole and complete
I found this was so evocative and suggestive.
Terseness and brevity imbued the few lines with intense energy. Her poetry was cloying and addictive, with a thick, dense, sporadic style.
like liquor. I found it intoxicating.
I felt that her poems were so full, they said so much in such a small space that they shuddered and burst.
We chose haiku as our first form because neither of us ever wrote with any attempt at confinement, at rules and restrictions. And thats what feasts of fancy is all about... trying new things with our writing and seeing how we respond.
Our endeavour thus shaped, we set off in pursuit of restrictions.
In my research about the haiku style I read a line that opined a similar thing.... brevity of expresson is suggestive: 'overtones, potentials and implications' (a note on haiku - garry eaton) And that this brevity fostered a relationship with writer and reader to be cooperative, respond, fill in the poem's empty spaces from their own experience and imagination. 'Elegant restraint' my research articulated - so that it was 'vibrantly alive with suggestive possibilities'.
this was something i was so drawn to about haiku. That unique, vivid energy from tersenss and brevity. the sporadic suggestive rhythm. It was new to both Liv and I... we both value freedom from restrictions so much that our writing is... effusive... torrentual. So i loved the new feeling of this new rhythm.
So, for the first official meeting of feasts of fancy, we met, underslept, not very organised, but with boundless energy for the endeavour. a meeting of minds in a shared pursuit... what could be more delicious!?
Liv was running a bit late, and then i was running a bit late... the usual. To Voyage we went, there was no question about it really. familiarity can be fertile and faithful inspiration.
Liv brought her notebook of sporadic scrawls and sat feverishly asterisking haikus riddled throughout the last months writing.
I had a bundle of scribbles and drafts, and pages haikus, written, re written and then grouped into vague categories, a little list of our 'agenda' (in the spirit of my new resolution of organisation) and a beautiful, large black book of thick, unlined pages... blank and inviting, for collecting, collating and recording all of our feasting.
over soy milk and scribbles, we talked through the journey of our thought process, interspersed with sharing poems.
because we chose a form, we left themes open... its so interesting to see what parts of our life bled into our writing. liv wrote a lot about physical connections, I wrote a lot about physical landscape, and we both wrote a lot about how it felt to write haikus.
something i noticed about liv's poems was how tangible her relationship with words is... i can see it and feel it through her writing and especially hear it when she reads her poems aloud.
its this beautiful delight in language and its uses. I especially noticed this in alliteration and sibilence ... it was very physically evocative.
We both noticed that paying attention to syllables made us paid a lot more attention to rhythm. Usually all i pay attention to when im writing is letting the words express wholistically all that is in me to be expressed of a moment, and that is the nature of my relationship with words.
But it was interesting and valuable to be forced to pay attention to how the words and poems sounded spoken, rather than just how they tasted in our minds.
What i found the most valuable about the endeavour was how it transformed my perspective on writing. I used to be so overwhelmed by what i wanted my writing to be that i missed so many moments that were worthy of unwravelling, worthy of being created with, worthy of expressing. because i didnt think they were important enough to write about.
but with haiku, every moment is a potential poem.
an abandoned tea... a potential haiku
eating watermelon... a potential haiku
writing haiku ... a potential haiku
and that was one of the things i wanted to get from feasts of fancy. seeking inspiration everywhere.
it was also made writing and creating so achievable. 3 lines... one moment.... and youve created. youve satiated your procreant urge. youve achieved. its all about fostering this feeling of creating comfortably.
so now we are ready to start recording and making our feasts of fancy book look beautiful, and launch into our next feast....
theme: body
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