as those of you who follow my posts on
facebook will already be aware, i have taken it upon myself to word one hundred poems under the collective title of 'shallow pools', which i intend to be revealing to the world before too long. still, before i do, i wanted to spend a moment briefly outlining the facts in the case and offer some insight as to my motivation behind the project as well as a little insight into my methodology and practice.
by pure happenstance, i find myself temporarily in the possession of an old mechanical typewriter, and wanted to take the opportunity to put such a glorious device to use, by way of utilising it to compose some new literary pieces. there is surely some truly wonderful tactile pleasure to be had in tapping away at the clattering keys, not to mention the delight of being able to produce entirely unique results with each new piece of paper.
still, the typewriter offers me a slightly different ingress into my own creative enterprise. my thoughts are drawn to
david cronenberg's
film adaptation of
william s burroughs' '
naked lunch' and specifically the scene in which our fictionalised versions of
kerouac,
ginsberg and
burroughs are collected in their favourite cafe and discussing the nature of 'true writing', if i recall correctly.
ginsberg cannot be sure if 're-writes' can be seen as acceptable, as 'true', or if
kerouac is right in saying that they are a form of self-censorship, of denying the truth. naturally
burroughs then weighs in with his 'destroy all rational thought' motif to swamp their debate.
for my own part, i have always erred closer to the
ginsberg methodology; initially outlining my themes, wording my text and then returning to perform, usually minor 're-writes' to achieve my desired aim, and how the modern personal computer is by far and away the perfect tool for this approach to working. we can clatter away, filling up whole virtual reams of paper, whilst safe in the knowledge that limitless editing options are available to us after the fact.
the typewriter, however, holds sway over our work in a very different way. this permanence of every keystroke, this rigid pattern of indelible words forming across the page, each one set in stone from the very first moment, not allowing us to go back, to make alterations, save for bringing correction fluid into play. we are forced to work with how the words first arrive on the page, and that is something very different indeed.
so, these 'shallow pools', this series of one hundred poems, is an exercise in my trying to lean further towards
kerouac's approach, to let the words arrive as they do, in the order that they do, not looking back, not allowing myself to perform 're-writes', to dilute the 'truth' of the lines as they leave my fingers. it is a strange and fascinating exercise for me, and one that i keenly look forward to sharing with you all in due course. til then, 'destroy all rational thought'.
take care
jamesreindeer
