My prose poem, "Refuse I and II," is set in Mary Mary (as I learned the words) Quite Contrary's world. I immediately knew this illustration, the first one Wikipedia Commons served up, was the one I wanted for this post because the maids look vacuous, the cockleshells appear to be goofy, girl-crazy dolts, and even without hearing them, one can easily see how the silver bells could get annoying. Finding out that the illustrator was W. W. Denslow was an added bonus. Up until now I only knew him as the original illustrator of The Wizard of Oz. How did he anticipate my use of the Mary, Mary poem so accurately?
"Refuse I" was the result of the first assignment in my prose poetry workshop: "Write a surreal prose poem about how to write a surreal prose poem. . . ." I liked it, but I felt there was more to Mary Mary's journey after she got the surrealist's advice. Did the advice work? I believe I failed to answer that question. So what is the meaning of my babbling in "Refuse II"? Maybe that destruction and cruelty are inevitable and insufficient responses to conventionality (which perpetrates its own restrictive cruelty), but despite its destructive side, creativity nevertheless intersects with life in ways that open up new, transcendent possibilities.
That's the best I can do, anyway. The workshop also encouraged us to write whatever came into our heads, and let the chips fall where they might. I did that, and it was liberating, but at the same time, not comfortable for me. I am torn between my love of experimenting and pushing the envelope and my skepticism about whether creative works that embrace the random and eschew structure have any true significance. I believe this is a legacy from my father, who continued to write fugues and sonata form amidst the upheavals of the 1960s and 70s.
The other piece was from a later exercise in the same workshop that asked us to respond creatively to a personality test question. Being an introvert and at least as much a contrarian as Mary Mary, I was happy to shred the first question I encountered, which asked me to rate how much I agreed or disagreed with the statement, "You regularly make friends." Here, I had a clear focus and a recognizable vocabulary from the slow food and slow fashion movements. It's a light piece, but accomplishes its purpose.
Fast forward to a few days ago, when I submitted these pieces to Alien Buddha Zine and, as usual, heard back right away. As always, thanks to Editor Red Focks for his hard work and good taste. I look forward to seeing these poems out in January.
Photo credit: W. W. Denslow, Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary 1, from the Project Gutenberg EBook of Denslow's Mother Goose, by Anonymous. 1902. Wikimedia Commons. PD. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.net.
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