Intentions

It's my birthday today!

Okay, so I've thought about my intentions with this Secret Wars poem, of the idea of collage and building my own sentences. I guess that is what the process has been--one of building, of recreating what 1984 "is." I use the texts I grew up with, the one's that helped me survive, of comic books and D&D manuals. I also use the texts of my now, published in 1984. Lyn Hejinian, bell hooks, etc. The texts that inform my poetry and feminism. Finally, the political texts are important. It was a time of recession, when Dems and the GOP were fighting it out to the elections. Sound familiar? 1984 = now.

Of course, my own sentences, my play with words and with metaphor, come through, too. Then to alphabetize it, because every sentence is important if each one represents a part of 1984. 366 sentences, one for each day of the leap year.

The results? I like how sentences out of context from their original sources create new contexts, especially when next to my memoir-sentences.

I am in the process of making poem-stanzas. It's difficult to find the feel for when one sentence should start or finish a section. Which should continue? It's a matter of the poetic aesthetic.

I've enjoyed putting this all together, so that counts for a quality that others might like--the "fun" of these lines. Maybe poetry is both serious and fun at the same time? Or can be?