View the complete Paper Woman Centos project as a PDF.
You never know what can happen when a person cracks open a book. I didn’t know Rae Armantrout’s "New Poems" section in Partly would consume me for the next year.
I had the good fortune to meet this wonderful poet at a Seattle poetry event in September 2017. I purchased her book, Partly, and challenged myself to ask her to sign it. Meeting someone who is an expert at what they do can be intimidating! Because of my history in Los Angeles, Rae shared a humorous LA story with me. It was brief, visual, and revealing, more so for me than her, I think. All I could say at the time was, “That was a great story for me to hear.”
Rae’s story revealed a true LA cliché which caused me to reflect on my earlier life as a young woman modeling and acting in Hollywood. In addition to the story, her poems inspired me to contemplate the concept of personal thingness as a foundational piece of consumerism.
On process: While reading Rae’s book, I noticed the recurrence of the word thing. Wouldn’t it be interesting to collect all of those things from the "New Poems" section and see what this cento might reveal? Her poem “If” created the spark for this activity. “Pumpkin” pointed me to and connected: thing, stuff, woman.
What this means is that I harvested 101 lines from her works and compiled them in random-yet-constrained ways as their own poems. They’re called centos. I created a 56-page collection of cento poems and procedures based on harvested lines from Rae Armantrout’s “New Poems” in Partly.
This kind of poetry is an uncreative act yet very creative for the reader’s interpretation. Initially, I used an abecedarian technique (harvesting all a’s, b’s, then c’s, etc.) while maintaining an objective distance, I hoped to find a chance reflection of self. I let the process determine the content.
Here are samples from the four sections: Abecedarian, Woman As, a Chakra Dialogue, and Mesostics.
Section One, an Abecedarian sample:
Thingy Thing ABCs
i.
As if waking up,
an insult
as if
appearance
and asks directions
as if;
and we don’t know
America doesn’t want to hear you
audience members.
°
But I’ve got bigger things
before an audience
but I’ve played one
but I am reckless,
but it’s one thing
Canaries
dissected
°
In the "Woman As" poems, shape dictates content. I constructed a woman made of paper slips as an aleatory operation. For this technique, I cut sheets of numbered lines into paper slips and created the shape of a woman. A shipping invoice just happened to be on the counter, so I included it. Then I took a photo which made it easier to transcribe sections as chance poems within the shape.
Rae’s lines “hollow bones” and “into topiary” inspired the shape of a woman as thing, a thing made of words. A fierce paper woman.
Section Two, Woman As:
25. when it was that easy
to be cool.
The models
Canaries
served as coq-au-vin.
replicate a woman.
less thingy,
of inattention
or absorption
the punctum.
as if;
That she needs to tell
someone.
using the names
of things
reserved
“How you create
shoulders of the road—
is to be choosy.
with turning experience
(space)
into topiary
“Look at me!”
of itself,
anything?
“The traumatized rats practiced excessive self-grooming.”
°
Additional sample from Section Two:
Paid Invoice
“How you create
using the names
of itself,
the world absorbs
“The traumatized rats practiced excessive self-grooming.”
an insult
invoice date
ship to
practice.
Film is enough
for penmanship
is a form of self-grooming.
°
My great-grandma Minnie taught me about quilt making. Pieces of fabric from many sources, some precious, others only scraps, all stitched together. I remember tying short pieces of yarn connecting the patchwork top through the batting to the green cotton bottom. I cherish this completed quilt and the time with my great-grandmother.
I’m tying together words found in Rae’s poems with routes rambled through in my mind. First, poems using abecedarian structure, then aleatory, followed by a dialogue, and finally mesostic-generated structures. From a concrete yet conceptual perspective, I’ve shaped the literal lines made of paper into a woman. That wasn't enough. I wanted to go deeper into what might’ve caused the body and spirit distress combined with some layers of hope for healing. So, via general Google image searches, I turned to chakra generalities based on my lifelong interest in meditation.
Section Three, a Chakra Dialogue excerpt (CAPs as one voice. Lower-case as the other):
If clear yellow petals
CONNECTIONS
is to be choosy.
YOUR
and think about my choices.
LIFE
less thingy,
ITINERARY
is a form of self-grooming.
WHAT
which no longer
NO
of distraction’s
LONGER
of itself,
SERVES
such anachronistic clothes
°
Section Four, Mesostics (note spine words are bolded). What is a mesostic? See UPenn’s page inspired by John Cage’s process (http://mesostics.sas.upenn.edu/about.html):
thingy things of appearance
of distractions
of inattention or absorption
of past itself
°
past of woman
thingy minus things or
of past
°
“look at me!” less thingy, minus
things most of what
they do
of things minus
of appearance
of
distraction’s
inattention
or absorption
of things of itself,
practice.
replicate
a woman.
°
During the transcribing process (all lines were first curated in the order they occurred in her book using at least one line from each poem), I noticed how my personal notations in the margins fit the thingness within many of these poems; as often in life, we find familiar connections in disparate pieces. I found a version of myself within these lines.
My quest was to see how my poetry Magic 8-Ball conveyed a life reflection on being female. Am I the thing I think I was, or something else? Even a brief, shared story can startle one’s memory and connect personal puzzle pieces. Rae’s Los Angeles anecdote did this for me. Her printed poetic lines reinforced how we, as women, experience the world as creatives with perspectives shaped by many variables, including gender.
Thingy things.
I had the good fortune to meet this wonderful poet at a Seattle poetry event in September 2017. I purchased her book, Partly, and challenged myself to ask her to sign it. Meeting someone who is an expert at what they do can be intimidating! Because of my history in Los Angeles, Rae shared a humorous LA story with me. It was brief, visual, and revealing, more so for me than her, I think. All I could say at the time was, “That was a great story for me to hear.”
Rae’s story revealed a true LA cliché which caused me to reflect on my earlier life as a young woman modeling and acting in Hollywood. In addition to the story, her poems inspired me to contemplate the concept of personal thingness as a foundational piece of consumerism.
On process: While reading Rae’s book, I noticed the recurrence of the word thing. Wouldn’t it be interesting to collect all of those things from the "New Poems" section and see what this cento might reveal? Her poem “If” created the spark for this activity. “Pumpkin” pointed me to and connected: thing, stuff, woman.
What this means is that I harvested 101 lines from her works and compiled them in random-yet-constrained ways as their own poems. They’re called centos. I created a 56-page collection of cento poems and procedures based on harvested lines from Rae Armantrout’s “New Poems” in Partly.
This kind of poetry is an uncreative act yet very creative for the reader’s interpretation. Initially, I used an abecedarian technique (harvesting all a’s, b’s, then c’s, etc.) while maintaining an objective distance, I hoped to find a chance reflection of self. I let the process determine the content.
Here are samples from the four sections: Abecedarian, Woman As, a Chakra Dialogue, and Mesostics.
Section One, an Abecedarian sample:
Thingy Thing ABCs
i.
As if waking up,
an insult
as if
appearance
and asks directions
as if;
and we don’t know
America doesn’t want to hear you
audience members.
°
But I’ve got bigger things
before an audience
but I’ve played one
but I am reckless,
but it’s one thing
Canaries
dissected
°
In the "Woman As" poems, shape dictates content. I constructed a woman made of paper slips as an aleatory operation. For this technique, I cut sheets of numbered lines into paper slips and created the shape of a woman. A shipping invoice just happened to be on the counter, so I included it. Then I took a photo which made it easier to transcribe sections as chance poems within the shape.
Rae’s lines “hollow bones” and “into topiary” inspired the shape of a woman as thing, a thing made of words. A fierce paper woman.
Section Two, Woman As:
25. when it was that easy
to be cool.
The models
Canaries
served as coq-au-vin.
replicate a woman.
less thingy,
of inattention
or absorption
the punctum.
as if;
That she needs to tell
someone.
using the names
of things
reserved
“How you create
shoulders of the road—
is to be choosy.
with turning experience
(space)
into topiary
“Look at me!”
of itself,
anything?
“The traumatized rats practiced excessive self-grooming.”
°
Additional sample from Section Two:
Paid Invoice
“How you create
using the names
of itself,
the world absorbs
“The traumatized rats practiced excessive self-grooming.”
an insult
invoice date
ship to
practice.
Film is enough
for penmanship
is a form of self-grooming.
°
My great-grandma Minnie taught me about quilt making. Pieces of fabric from many sources, some precious, others only scraps, all stitched together. I remember tying short pieces of yarn connecting the patchwork top through the batting to the green cotton bottom. I cherish this completed quilt and the time with my great-grandmother.
I’m tying together words found in Rae’s poems with routes rambled through in my mind. First, poems using abecedarian structure, then aleatory, followed by a dialogue, and finally mesostic-generated structures. From a concrete yet conceptual perspective, I’ve shaped the literal lines made of paper into a woman. That wasn't enough. I wanted to go deeper into what might’ve caused the body and spirit distress combined with some layers of hope for healing. So, via general Google image searches, I turned to chakra generalities based on my lifelong interest in meditation.
Section Three, a Chakra Dialogue excerpt (CAPs as one voice. Lower-case as the other):
If clear yellow petals
CONNECTIONS
is to be choosy.
YOUR
and think about my choices.
LIFE
less thingy,
ITINERARY
is a form of self-grooming.
WHAT
which no longer
NO
of distraction’s
LONGER
of itself,
SERVES
such anachronistic clothes
°
Section Four, Mesostics (note spine words are bolded). What is a mesostic? See UPenn’s page inspired by John Cage’s process (http://mesostics.sas.upenn.edu/about.html):
Another sample from Section Four:
thingy things of appearance
of distractions
of inattention or absorption
of past itself
°
past of woman
thingy minus things or
of past
°
“look at me!” less thingy, minus
things most of what
they do
of things minus
of appearance
of
distraction’s
inattention
or absorption
of things of itself,
practice.
replicate
a woman.
°
During the transcribing process (all lines were first curated in the order they occurred in her book using at least one line from each poem), I noticed how my personal notations in the margins fit the thingness within many of these poems; as often in life, we find familiar connections in disparate pieces. I found a version of myself within these lines.
My quest was to see how my poetry Magic 8-Ball conveyed a life reflection on being female. Am I the thing I think I was, or something else? Even a brief, shared story can startle one’s memory and connect personal puzzle pieces. Rae’s Los Angeles anecdote did this for me. Her printed poetic lines reinforced how we, as women, experience the world as creatives with perspectives shaped by many variables, including gender.
Thingy things.