Experimental Poetry 16: Random Interactions

One of the most random, experimental methods of poetry writing you can engage in involves conversations or interactions with other people. Everyone is different, has different views, interests and unique personalities so you are just about guaranteed unexpected outcomes. How you interact with people and the extent this happens will determine the outcome. 

Method 29: Encounters and conversations. Yes, if you're bold enough, you can walk up to someone at a party, in a coffee shop or even out on the street and ask them to give you a few phrases or words that come into their head. Or you can prompt them with a question. Whatever they say next will be the first line of your poem.

Method 30: Random responses. Try asking someone to give you the title for your next poem. It can be a topic or a theme. Where you go with that title once you have it is completely up to you...

Method 31: Three random words. Ask someone to give you three random words, and then write a poem incorporating them. The more random the better. If you really want to make it challenging, write just three lines!

Method 32: Favourite things. Ask someone what their favourite pop song is, and write a poem about it. Ask who is their favourite movie star or their favourite movie. The variations are endless. Be creative with your questions. 

If you want a really tough challenge write the poem there and then, in just a few minutes and read them the results. It's interesting what a little bit of pressure can do for creativity.

Go for it if you're brave enough!

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry
Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing
Experimental Poetry 11: Paraphrasing
Experimental Poetry 12: Deliberate Malapropism
Experimental Poetry 13: Breaking Structure
Experimental Poetry 14: Speak out Loud
Experimental Poetry 15: Quantum Elements

Image from Flickr used under a Creative Commons licence

Why are you here?

Several people have recently voiced their disappointment at not being noticed on Invisible Poets poetry group. 

This is quite ironic. We are Invisible Poets and we can be invisible. Most poets usually are! When I originally named this group I did so because it has become a universal rite of passage for just about every poet I have ever known. You start off in obscurity and continue that way until either someone with some clout notices you, or you begin to gain some acknowledgement from your peers. And for many, that never happens. You remain invisible. 

So we all have to ask ourselves the question: why are we here? Why do we join poetry groups, and why do we share our poems on Facebook groups, if very few people ever acknowledge, like or comment on our work? To answer that question, perhaps we should all ask ourselves an even more fundamental question: why do we write poetry?

Your answer to that question will be different to mine. We are all unique individuals and our motivation will be just as varied as our personalities. But deep down inside, I think that most of us write poetry because it is an outlet for our ability to infuse words with emotion and meaning. I know that when I write poetry, it is often because I have an idea or a thought that I want to crystallise in words. Sharing it with others is a secondary thing. I have many poets that not even my closest friends or family have ever seen. Perhaps they never will. Such poems are from the deepest recesses of my heart and mind, and perhaps it's better that they were never seen or read by anyone else. 

But when I share a poem (and many of my best ones are never shared!) on a Facebook group, my anticipation is that I will get some feedback from my peers, even if it is a simple 'like'. When this doesn't happen, it can be soul destroying, especially for those individuals who might be a little fragile at the time. Does feedback really matter? For many it really does. 

Perhaps feedback, acknowledgement, recognition is vital for you. So, when it doesn't happen for whatever reason, how do you cope? What is your strategy?  Do you go off into a dark corner and curse, weep and moan? Or do you pick yourself up and go and write a better poem? 

If you're simply posting poetry because you want to express yourself and aren't too bothered whether others read your work or not, then stop reading now.

For those who crave a little more attention for their poetry, here's something to ponder: 

On Facebook one of the main reasons people may not notice your poetry is because they haven't see it. It doesn't appear on their timeline as they scroll through posts. This is usually because you haven't engaged much with other people's posts. Facebook algorithms are designed to encourage social interaction. The more you comment and like other people's poetry, the more likely they are to see you posts coming up in their timelines. 

So next time you feel ignored on a Facebook poetry group, think about commenting on, and liking a few other people's posts. If you regularly do this and build up connections with others in the group, you'll soon begin to see them offering you comments and likes on your posts too.

Steve Wheeler

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Reconciling Opposites

My first introduction to teaching came to me early one rainy morning over twenty years ago. I was just a bright eyed young man, twenty something years old, taking a job just like anybody else, this time assigned as an attendant in a school for children with disabilities. 

Within the school a desk was situated in the center of three halls… each separating the level of disability. I went to go into the one with a big A sign over it, my green corduroy pants zipping as I walked. The attendant said to me, “No Mister Elmore, you’ll be over in C wing today.” Just then a child screamed and madly ran about, until a guy came, grabbed him rather forcefully, and dragged him into a room. I asked myself “What in the world have I got myself into?!”

What does this have to do with poetry? Everything.

First thing a teacher asked me to do was to help a young fellow 15 years old that had a terrible bathroom related accident. I had to take him into a room and change his protective undergarment and get him all cleaned up. That was my introduction to teaching… eventually as a one on one attendant for a cute little colored boy named Elton that couldn’t speak.

I went on to take over a class for a lady on a long extended absence. That’s when the teaching came in and I absorbed lesson plans to teach autistic kids about the weather, colors, the alphabet, and many other things for months.

After that I was offered a job as a daycare teacher for 3 to 5 year olds. I did that in the morning, then went on rocking in the evening with my rock band playing gigs. What a combination! The things we do for money…Then after a year, I discovered substituting kindergarten through high school paid more, so I did that too in so many places…  in every grade… for quite some time. So many kids…

What does this have to do with poetry? Everything. 

I learned so much from each experience. How younger children saw no differences in race or gender or anything like that… they just wanted to play together. My favorite grades. As they got older… emotions set in. Even older yet, perception. Then on to teenagers… and we all know what that entails!

Years later, I draw upon this awakening everyday. It changed me. My heart opened to us as people. I often look at older folks with wisened eyes and wonder what they were like in their youth. What have they experienced? I see past the surface into who and what they are inside… just a child learning how to get by in the world.

What does this have to do with poetry? Everything.

We live in a world that is clouded in dissonance, collectively divided by so many aspects that affect who we are as individuals. Yet there are also beautiful attributes… divine in form and facility. 

Like the young man who had an accident… we have our accidents too. Faults that are not of our choosing but occur as roots to trip upon on our journey. We are only human.

As poets, we have to reconcile opposites. The good with the bad. Bad poems. Good poems. Poems that divide. Poems that untie. Poems that really say something. Pomes that say nothing at all. We are stewards of our own direction, and our works demonstrate this.

In this three part blog series I would like to invite you to ask yourself… what am I trying to achieve with all of this writing? What am I really trying to say? What is its worth really? Am I just writing for myself or writing for a greater purpose? Am I observing or interacting? And ultimately… does it all really matter when it’s all said and done?

Please join me next week as I begin to address these questions… and even more… start to formulate the “direction” that I believe all writers should, in one form or another, attempt to achieve in order to get to the next level.

Feel free to comment on this blog and tell me your story too. I want to know about you POET!! This is an INTERACTIVE forum, not entertainment. Answer some of the above questions and share your thoughts here. Dig a little deeper we will climb this mountain together. IF YOU CARE, SHARE!!!

See you next week!

Until then… write on! 🚀

Matt Elmore