My output from This week's Zelda's Inferno:
1) the "IQ test" exercise. In this one, we all make up multiple choice questions with some odd and interesting possible answers. We answer our own questions and those that others in the group pose, then write a poem based on the selected answers.
My questions:
why don't we see stars in the daytime? *they're afraid of the sun and hide / it's too bright to see them / we choose to ignore them / a government conspiracy
why is there a hole in the middle of a doughnut? to allow them to cook more evenly / *to symbolize the emptyness at the center of everything / cooks skimping on dough / a government conspiracy
where might you go to see a painting? an art museum / a men's room / *inside your own head / to the beginning of time
which of these would you go to a doctor for help with? pain in your neck / problems with your boyfriend or girlfriend / *existential angst / a broken TV set
My answers to other's questions:
what is true love? laughing with a soulmate
which best describes the theory of relativity? depends on who you're talking too
why are we here? to drink coffee and write poetry
what happens when we die? the heart stops
how can you tell when your nose is broken? you have racoon eyes
where do my hot flashes come from? withdrawl from pharmaceuticals
what am I most angry about, about being overmedicated? losing my mind and not being able to remember anything still
what do I want to do now? climb, swim, and backpack
what is the first thing you do when you wake up? get out of bed
how do you politely exit a phone call? "oh no, the cat got out"
if you ran out of gas in a rural area...? start walking
what if you broke someone's vase? clean up and hope no one notices...
My piece:
sun comes up and the stars are afraid so they run and hide
sometime later, much later, I wake up, get out of bed
(trip over shit on the floor because I neglected to open my eyes first, still looking at the light paintings on the inside of my eyelids)
let the dogs out so they can pee on the grass, stumble to the bathroom so I can
pee on the porcelan
if I died my heart would stop beating but the beat would go on
like when you eat the doughnut, the (w)hole is still there
but I haven't died yet, apparently
though if the afterlife was just like this life, how would I know?
sometimes when I can't get to sleep I lie there wonering if I am asleep, if sleep is just like being awake with your eyes closed except that you don't remember
it afterwards
you only know what you observe and remember
I think that's kind of like the Theory of Relativity, but that depends on who you ask
I pull on a jacket, slip on shoes, step out into the backyard to play with the dogs, do my morning kata
as real as it gets, I guess
2) working from a wordlist: verbs
pay fuck float stump polish smoke walk wallowing cook douche fire adjusting
some days I float above it
some days I wallow in it
some days it stumps me completely
some days I want to say fuck it all
some days I polish the mirror
some days I know that there is no mirror
some days it stumps me completely
some days its the universe that needs adjusting
some days its me that needs adjusting
some days it stumps me completely
some days I'm one with the trees and the sky
some days I'm not even me
some days it stumps me completely