Introducing: SPINE IPOETRA: a mini-series of free verse.
The Process
This process involves various books from my shelf (I’m sure my father is having a canniption just looking at this photo), one smelly cat named after Cheese, and this awful mauve carpeting that the previous owner put in and I can only reconcile by vacuuming obsessively. I warn you: do not do this at home. Especially, the smelly cat.
Now, without adieu, the series. Keep in mind, this is a very professional series, meant to only be captured in some NYC gallery where they space each picture out seven feet and ask you to peer very closely at the minute details in order to get the full effect. You are getting a sneak peek on this blog. This involves politely mumbling to the people who are already hovered around the picture so that you can squeeze through and get this fuller image. However, this is not like a concert where you shove your way in and hope the artist falls into your open arms from some stage. The artist, myself, is inevitably walking around holding a martini class, wearing respectable glasses without prescription, and smart shoes (loafers of some sort). Do not worry about those stains on my pants, those came during creation.
Scene #1: Ode to Richard Wright’s Childhood
Black Boy/ Where Are You Going/ Where Have You Been? / Saving Fish / from Drowning / Virgin Soul
Scene #2: Water Birth
This Close / After / Floating in My Mother’s Palm / Becoming Me / The Lucky One
Scene #3: “The slut you are so bent on becoming” – Jamaica Kincaid
Lust & Other Stories / Hotel Of The Saints / One Secret Thing / speak / Roar Softly (and carry a great lipstick)
That one had an e.e. vibe.
Scene #4: Southern Gal
What Makes Us Southern/ Three Cups of Tea / Mississippi / The Same Sweet Girls / Unruly Women / Woman Hollering Creek / Switch Bitch
Scene #5: Adolescents
The First Days of School / Blonde / Having a Lovely Time/ Looking Around / Writing Down The Bones / Drinking The Rain
Scene #6: Memories Before Death
Speak, Memory / bird by bird / Or Give Me Death
Scene #7: War
The Things They Carried / INTO THE WILD / the Language of Flowers / THE THIRD ANGEL / The Autobiography of My Mother / V.o.i.c.e.s FROM THE MOON/ A Lesson Before Dying/ Surrender
Scene #8: Catholic School Girl (For my mom and her endless lectures. There will be no last because I will continue on this tradition).
My Education / The Catholic Girl’s Guide to Sex / The Language of LOVE / The LAST LECTURE
Scene #9: Drowning in my own body (for my grandmother)
We, THE DROWNED / The Darlings / the grandmothers / little beauties / On Borrowed Wings
Scene #10: The Odyssey As Told By Women
Moo/ Monstress
Now it’s your turn: Create your own spine poetry for National Poetry Month and link back to my blog and I will share it at the bottom of this post. CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, COME ON!
Tagged: a lesson before dying, after, alice hoffman, amy tan, becoming me, bird by bird, black boy, blonde, cats, francine prose, friends, gaines, goldberg, hartnett, hotel of saints, into the wild, jamaica kincaid, jenny eclair, Joyce Carol Oates, lamott, laurie halse anderson, looking around, lust, memory, monsters, moo, nabokov, national poetry month, nicholas sparks, one secret thing, or give me death, poetry, richard wright, roald dahl, roar softly and carry a great lipstick, sharon olds, smelly cat, speak, spine poetry, surrender, susan minot, switch bitch, the language of flowers, the lucky one, the same sweet girls, the things they carried, the third angel, this close, three cups of tea, unruly women, ursula hegi, virgin soul, what makes us southern, where are you going, where have you been, woman hollering creek, wong and wong, writing down the bones
