[stylist] New Moon and Eclipse today

[Lynda Lambert]

Well, after I sent it off to the list, I wondered if I should have done 
that. I was feeling like it was just too new and that it might still have a 
lot of editing to be done and that I should not have sent it out so soon. 
But, then, isn't that what a writer's group does?  Isn't this about helping 
each other and talking our way through our work - sharing beginnings and 
ends of things? And, so, I laid it out here, bare, and exposed for your 
examination. Thank you so much for responding and encouraging me with this 
poem.

This is a "found poem."  It is like creating a collage out of pictures you 
have cut from a magazine, and put them together in an interesting pattern 
that works visually.

I "found" the information on the spiritual aspects of the eclipse/New Moon 
written by a shaman. This is called "appropriation" and it is a post modern 
technique that is used in art and writing.  You "appropriate" another 
person's words, or images, and you rework them to make them into something 
new and different than how they were used in the other person's work.

Last week, I  had been working on a poem about the glorious purple Japanese 
tree in my
Zen Meditation Garden.  I have a very large and beautiful Zen Garden that is 
between my house and my studio - it is a show stopper, here in western PA, 
believe me)

I had been working with that image, and it's relationship to the other 
plants and stones in the garden. I personified the tree, made the tree a 
magnificent woman, and gave her life.

Then, I found the writings by the Shaman - and once I decided to combine the 
two texts, I then sought out some detailed information on the tree, it's 
origin, history, color change pattern, leaf description, etc.

This poem is a mingling of information from three sources.  The entire text 
is FOUND TEXT from the three different sources.

Writing like this is very much like doing a painting, you pick up something, 
combine it with other things, then add in something else to the mix - to get 
where you want to go. It is worked in layers, sifting and shuffling the 
information until it take a shape that is surprising and fascinating to me. 
At first it goes slow for me.  It is clumbsy and awkward for awhile. Then, 
after a few days of working on it, and living with it in my mind day and 
night, I begin to get the VOICE of the piece and it begins to show me where 
we are going together. It literally comes alive to me and it begins to 
direct my path so that I can find and bring out it's persona. It is so 
exciting.

I think writing poetry is the most magical, spiritual, exciting, surprising, 
and creative thing there is to do.
It requires a lot of RISK, and it is uncertain, and even stubborn in the 
process.

I was away all day today, and I kept thinking of this poem. It was like I 
left a child at home and I needed to come back to see it, to be sure it was 
safe.

Lynda River Woman


Lynda Lambert
104 River Road
Ellwood City, PA 16117

724 758 4979

My Blog:  http://www.walkingbyinnervision.blogspot.com
My Website:  http://lyndalambert.com






----- Original Message ----- 
From: <KajunCutie926 at aol.com>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: [stylist] New Moon and Eclipse today


>I love this!  It does have that personal flavor  as well as that universal
> taste that encompasses all allowing each reader to  experience and 
> explore.
> I love the word 'believe' and to end this piece  that way was absolutely
> perfect.  Thank you so much for sharing this gem  with us.
>
> Myrna
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