Duo Corpse Exercise

This is another variant of the Exquisite Corpse exercise, which as we know, was invented by the Surrealists in Paris about 1925, perhaps as early as 1918. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse

The two person version, for me, has been the most fulfilling variant of this form because you can often develop a habit with a regular partner and write after having shared experiences. For me they have involved hiking and backpacking trips in the Northwest wilderness, during jazz concerts and even after sex.

Method:

Each person starts a poem on a lined sheet of paper and continues with a word or two short ones on the next line. Each person then folds the paper along the line concealing all but the word or two on the 2^nd line, hopefully leaving the situation open. One of the great facets of a regular partner and regular practice of this form is that you begin to learn how to leave the lines open for a partner. By starting two poems simultaneously, you have no time to think, but will often find that lines will start coming to you BEFORE the page is given to you by your partner. I really feel that this is an example of Rupert Sheldrake’s Morphogenetic Field theory, because you’ll often find that each poem has a certain resonance and you can learn how to tune into that with practice. Charles Olson, Robert Duncan and William Carlos Williams were poets in the mid-20th Century that understood the importance of seeing the poem as a field and this way of understanding is enhanced with the notion of morphogenetic fields. (Wikipedia suffers from their mechanistic bias, but you can get something from the Wiki entry on Morphic Fields.)

You may want to use shorter pages to create these poems, something about 1/4^th the size of a regular sheet of paper, but once you get into it, it takes on a life of its own. Learn how to fold, rolling each line back while looking at it, similar to rolling a cigarette, so as not to turn it over and get a glimpse of the content, or turn the page itself into something difficult on which to write. You’ll find it is true that folding is the hardest part of this exercise. Two examples:

Blueberry Corpse

They’re all over these hills.

They ’re hard to pass up, these

fat ones in clumps, bell-shaped

are best.   They’re in clumps!

They’re juicy & a whole mouthful

is an opportunity to take what you

need,  they’re on the trail &

on your butt from sliding down fields.

Those are Gentian blue flowers.

Two or handfuls of sweetness still

alive where hills are red & bear

shit is interspersed with their skins.

The juice!  My psora disappears w/ each

mouthful, so different than dead, just

picked low to the ground.  Genetic

integrity. Give me more.  Here’s some

for you another w/ part of its flower still

attached.  The stain’s in my boots, on

my tongue blue/ your ass blue,

we ’re grateful to have them along

our path festooned w/ them our

memory of blue sweetness.

9.15.01, 12:50 pm, Swimming Bear Lake

Not Yet Fred Anderson’s Corpse

The suns inside me explode

when he comes back to his

seat lifted became blur & rhythm

and his hair all the way down

his frame drum Om-like

say he thought he saw a

white fire corona reflect,

become a cloud in which to get

lost in trance state overtone

voodoo happens when he pulls out

that Velvet voodoo blue pant

voodoo again or is it cowbells?

The bow no melody necessary

ONLY one tiny light

across centuries a SLap

a full-grown flower

looks down asks is the floor solid

or look behind & grab another

stick the fork in we’ve

become the sweetest song

every note feels wicked.

9:59P – October 29, 2001

Rainier Valley Cultural Center