Get Fucked

Sorry if the vulgarity of this offends. This is a imitation of Charles Baudelaire's "Get Drunk". I rather enjoyed the original.

Get Fucked

You should always be in the perpetual state of being fucked. I mean, if you’re going to be the prisoner of everything, of the continuous motion of time and solitude and loneliness and emotion and judgments, then you should be getting yourself fucked.
You may be asking what exactly getting fucked means. You can get fucked with almost anything: a dick, a cucumber, a broken heart, a dastardly curse that has plagued your family for centuries. Try a little lube; it’ll mend those cracks that you’ve lived with for ages.
If the continual fucking gets to be a bit too much, and you happen to black out and wake up where the fairies dream, or in the lake that shows your reflection, or by the backyard slip-n-slide that you used to delight in a kid, look to the water or the architecture and scream “Please sir, may I have some more? I’m dying of reality and it’s beginning to hurt a little bit. Look! I’m bleeding from my aorta.” Hopefully, the buildings will scream back and point you towards the nearest vegetable garden so you can get fucked once again. After all, they understand what it’s like to be tread on for centuries, never shaking their curses, never shedding the emotions, and they can’t get fucked, like you.

Creative Response to T. Berrigan

"Wife Works the Graveyard at Denny's"

it is 7:56 p.m.
but the next time she blinks it is 8:58.
at Vanity,
she retraces the arcs of her eyebrows kissed away
with pillow-talk. she must get at it again,
again, even though the day has left, again.
she will sunbathe in the beams of neon,
letting it wash away the stars,
saturating cigarette smoke with radiance,
feminine marvelous and tough
it is 12:39 a.m.
pours coffee, turning a shy eye to flashing flasks
it will be another 4 hours til she lies, again,
pushes her husband off of her, again.

Sonnet 65

ORIGINAL:
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

IMAGIST TAKE:

Gates of iron slowly rust

but do not fall apart

under the sun

and watch seasons of flowers

come and go.


COMMENTS ON OTHERS' POSTS:
Rheanna: I agree, the book did get really repetitive after a while. I felt there were some real jewels in there, like "Binoculars" but much of it just repeated itself over and over again.

Lauren Rossi: I like your theme of Time in this, its very reminiscent of Sonnet 56 and much of Shakespeare's other sonnets.

Alfonso: Yeah getting the format just right on the internet is especially hard, for some reason it hasn't learned how to hold margins yet.

Response to "Sonnet 56"

I found Sonnet 56 to be a very interesting piece of writing, both for its adherence to/focus on only one concept (Shakespeare’s sonnet) and for its audacity in altering Shakespeare’s work not once, but 56 times. I was constantly surprised and impressed with Hoover’s ability to give the reader versions of the sonnet that were true to the spirit of Shakespeare’s words, while switching quickly between modern—Answering Machine was my favorite—and more classical forms of language. Though at times, the reading became a bit tedious, this is after all the same concept regurgitated more than 50 times, Hoover’s variety of forms allows the reader to find the form that speaks most to them, rather than Hoover himself choosing. Hoover’s work is proof that a writer can produce many different works from even one idea, should they take the time to pursue such endeavors.

Within this Poem there is a word,
a word that I do nOt yet know.
And as I type I rEally hope,
that this lazy Method works.

For I am not a Poet,
tO say the very least.
But if this workEd who knows?
This could be a Masterpiece.

i just wrote a dumb short poem hoping I could find a random word within it and
BOOM
this happened

Composition in Retrospect; BODY

your Body
dOes not
Define
You

BUT
yOur eyes
Disagree
Yet again

(it would not let me keep the format I created for the aesthetics of this poem, so I bolded the letters that should have stayed linear to read BODY)

attempt at get(ting) drunk

One should always be drunk. Since I got drunk I felt loose enough to

rule the world, or loose enough to lose the world.

Drunk with what?

drunk with wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as i please. But I get drunk.

And if sometimes I should happen to awake,

up and out the door

up and to the world

meet life; she's a pretty girl

A pretty world

Drunk pace is pretty now

I got pretty drunk now

Now I'm pretty drunk

and I got a pretty girl

met her, she's nice

yeah she's a pretty girl

think I met life

she's a pretty world,

and she told me but

all i saw was her curved

and graceful mouth

curve the words between her teeth

"One should always be drunk"

yeah, she's got me looking at a pretty world,

a nihilistic and pretty world.

And she got me feeling awake,

so it must be time to get drunk!

with wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as I please.

But Charles, I get drunk.

Response to Sonnet 56

This was really fun to read, although a bit repetitive after a while. I mostly enjoyed pieces like chat room, binoculars, workshop and especially answering machine. As much as I hate to admit that I have a really hard time reading and enjoying poetry, the way that Paul Hoover took Shakespear's Sonnet 56 and gives so many different variations of it kept me engaged throughout the book. one line that has been sticking with me since I read it was "winter, all summer long" and I really liked the piece where he had summer and winter have a conversation. Binoculars was very clever. Answering machine was hilarious as was the writer's workshop.
I was fortunate enough to hear Paul speak about Sonnet 56 this week and it was interesting as to how much information he has about the different types of poem forms that can followed, also listening to him do a reading of Sonnet 56 was wonderful as well, and how he was inspired to write some of the pieces was great too.
I thought it was really witty and and funny at times, all the while using beautiful language.

Something about Nothing

Nothing is an impossible concept, and it is a popularly held belief, outside of the Buddhist community, that to become nothing is to die, to no longer exist, it is hard for me to see any value in this process. Furthermore it is amongst the most impossible tasks, the first law of thermodynamics states that no matter or energy can be created or destroyed, merely converted. To become nothing would violate this core law of existence! This is the thought that I have every time I'm confronted with the concept of Nirvana, it just seems undesirable to me, to no longer be... However I found this piece very interesting, she uses this concept of nothing to illustrate her middle aged angst (very different from teenaged angst, more dramatic, sometimes), she feels it is all for nothing and indeed life can seem like a zero-sum game. But in this piece, as well as The Ghazal of the Better Unbegun, I feel like the speaker is denying experience and the value of that in and of itself. Accomplishment should be measured in the good one does, the impact they make, not what they take with them. To make yourself less each day is to diminish the good you can do for the world, I think.

Sonnet 56 Villanelle response

Out of all of the versions of the poem throughout this book, I was most drawn to the villanelle version on page 12. After looking up the structure of a villanelle poem, I found that the first and third lines of the stanza end in rhyme, with a couplet at the end. The villanelle has 19 lines, 5 stanzas of three lines and one with four. This forms seems to have a very lyrical quality to it and the poem almost sounds like a song to me. The use of repetition throughout the poem also adds to this, after the first stanza all of the following ones only have two new lines. This also ads to the tone of desparation in the piece. "For a day of love, we starve a thousand nights" Love is an on going state, and the lyrical quality of this poem gives it an almost tragic feel.

Sonnet 37

My creative response to Berrigan's Sonnet 18. Tried to follow some of the rhymes and sentence structures, etc.

Sonnet XXXVII

Dear Ezra, hello. It is 2:37 a.m.
Inside my room, air is thick with regret
In my head. Dreams of Grace Potter
At the Independent. The night we met.
Moon, it used to illuminate us two
Now it hangs and shines and mocks
In the city: my mistake is a shadow
Following. "Transcendence," you said.
About our moon. Reminded of Jeffrey Lewis
You clenched your fist over your heart
And made it hard to breathe. You know
Ezra, tonight, and every night, I can't
Listen to that song you wrote me.
It kills me. Now I'm dreading June
Your eyes will shine, no doubt, just
Not for me. At any rate, not soon.
Forsaken: our remorseful incandescent moon.

This day is not today

It is not tomorrow

But yet just a moment in a span of nothing

That sits in texts books of yesterday

Yesterday is always late

My nose is running, and my sense of awareness is hiding

My grandma can’t seem to die

And it’s all because yesterday will never amount to anything

Tomorrow is stunted

We lied and cheated and now

Potential can’t be reached and mama just cries alone

We fucked the future, because that’s all we’ve ever known

The past never seems surprised

It’s cynical, because it knows how humans are

The past takes the angst-y role

So I can try and believe that life is good and happiness is possible

Birthday Wish

I ask my friend Kelly what her birthday wish is, and she says, with a giggle (indicating that she is obviously excited about her upcoming birthday): to go somewhere exciting, to receive lots of gifts... She asks me what I want for my birthday, but I do not want to answer her. I have been dreading my birthday all month, wishing it could somehow be skipped. After a few days of more people bugging me about my upcoming birthday, I think the most honest answer to my friend Kelly would be: for my birthday I want to learn to want nothing. Is this wrong? She wants to receive tons of gifts, and I want to receive nothing from anyone. I know by wanting nothing I may be making her look and feel bad. She may feel like I am trying to be more humble than her to prove my maturity. I feel that I am being caring at this point of my life. Would I be making her look bad if I say that I want nothing even though she wants everything? That's not all. I have been telling Kelly for over two weeks now that I don't need to receive things to have things. After having twenty five birthdays, and receiving numerous gifts from people that may still be in my life or not, I came to the realization that I got nothing. People give us gifts in life. We like them or we don't. We keep them or we wont. What happens to those gifts as time goes by. Nothing. I wanted certain things in life, so I worked for them. Some of them I was able to get, and others were out of my reach. But nothing I ever bought ever made a difference. Why don't THINGS ever make a difference? So, why would my birthday wish be "to receive gifts" when everything I'll receive, will disappear eventually? Maybe this year I will change my wish; to ask for nothing.

Get Drunk creative response

One should always be drunk.

The statement carries with it a high level of improbability, but with a drink in hand I've slowly been working to achieve that mindset for the last two hours. It wasn't planned, it has no reason, no drinking buddies to keep me company, alcoholism just seems best suited for me.

My mother would disagree, saying addiction is in our genes, but she needs two whole days to recover from a single margarita, she knows nothing of addiction. My roommates wouldn't be that happy either, if they ever found out about the tremendous amount of booze I've nicked from their supply, I'd be out on the streets. But each shot I take lets me think about it less and less and the harsh whiskey vapor rising from my throat soothes my nerves, giving me the confidence to waltz into the kitchen, grab a bottle of Jack that isn't mine, open the lid and let it burn a hole through my stomach. And when work comes around and I haven't the slightest idea as to where I am, only able to function because of muscle memory and an intense desire to not lose my job and I somehow manage to avoid my boss the entire shift, then Yes, I would have to agree, one should always be drunk.

Sonnet II, Cage Style

My attempt at translating Berrigan's sonnet into a Mesostic like Cage's piece

Dear Margie, hello. IT is 5:15 a.m.
dEar Berrigan.
He dieD.

Back to books. I read
It's 8:30 p.m. in NEwYork and I've
been Running around all day
old come-all-ye's stReel into the streets
Yes, it Is now,
How Much LonGer Shall I
be Able To Inhabit
The DiviNe

and the day iS bright gray turning green
feminine marvelOus and tough
watching the suN come up
over the Navy Yard to write
scotch-tapE body
in a noTebook
had 17 and 1/2 milligrams

Dear Margie,
hEllo. It
iS 5:15 a.m.
fucked til 7 nOw
She's late
To work and I'm 18 so why
are my hands shakIng I should know better
FuCk I need a C

So yeah it fell apart at the end, also blog wont let me post with the letters in the middle

Creative Response to Sonnets by Ted Berrigan

Sonnet I

Dear God, hello. It is 1:30 am.
dear Mary, she shelters those
Looking in the mirror, I gaze
Its 4:30 pm in Chicago and I'm exhausted walking
up a thousand steps to the top of the attic. Wow, I can see,
When Is The Impossible Just Improbable
the moon is pale blue turning clear
forgetful revealing and memorable
tearing at the mention of Forgiveness
to take a black and white picture
5 by 7 inches
Dear God, hello. It is 1:30 am
doomed till 3, he is sleeping with one eye open, and I'm
just 17 so why am I having trouble breathing I should believe

"Sanity in Retrospect"

My recollection
of whAt happened
is not what happeneD
as everyoNe remembers
nor arE their memories false.
to underStand is to defy time
and Space, as defined by popular convention.

i Must have been
abAndoned by my
senses, formed aD hoc impressions
all and Nothing
of what i rEmember
iS in the mangled wake of
the Situation not at hand.

hallucinations perMeate
what’s lucid, Abstract molds
wrap arounD
transitions, Needing
air to breathE to die
or not die depending on the Season,
So the rhythm goes

suppose the Music
ends inside the plAce of conception
where the minD eats its own tail
even possibility has a patterN
a brain in flux is stability Embraced
so I Said while i was in motion
Stop.

all that I recall reMains
wrong from the right Angle
of the straight-eDged ruler’s point of view.
curvature causes a warped frame of refereNce
and thE thing about this world,
is that it’S all round
and Spinning.

Not soMething that possesses definition
nonetheless explAined
in packageD parcels
delivered by the toNgue
sent from over seas, over spacE,
unwrapped String unwraveled time,
reality disperSed.

NYR-L.Davis

When reading this event I was amazed at the geniune feel the narrator had. The first paragraph or so was typical, talking about generic resolutions, But when he delivers his resolution "I want to learn to see myself as nothing." is when the interest kicks in. The narrator digs into situations where he wants to be nothing yet he has "You spend the first half of your life learning that you are something after all, now you have to spend the second half learning to see yourself as nothing." The concept here is a disconnec with reality, trying, in vein, to become something your not, and can never be. Finally the narrator sees his resolution is beyond his control and reduces his goal, day by day learning to "be a little less then I usually am." With this last line we also get a tiny glimpse into a potential suicidal person.

Jason Yelland

FINAL PROJECT & FINAL PRESENTATION DETAILS

Final Projects
Your final project will consist of a substantial creative work based on any one of the readings we have done for class. The project should be a short story or one-act play of about 10 pages, or approximately 6-10 pages of poetry, prose poetry, or flash fiction. It may be in a single genre, or it may incorporate all three (poetry, playwriting, and prose).

You may interpret “based on” in any way you wish, including: borrowing and/or reshaping the text; re-envisioning the situation, location, or time period; taking the point of view of a different character or characters; placing the text in a central place in your narrative; or borrowing a procedure used in one of the books we read (working with the dictionary, or a Shakespearian sonnet, for example).

A description of your project is due when we return from break, on April 8. I will look over project descriptions and contact you that week if your plan is not suitable for any reason.

In addition to the creative work, the project will include an informal 2-page essay discussing your creative process, the challenges and successes you experienced while writing, any discoveries you made, and the ways in which your creative process or the project itself changed (or not) as a result of working on the project.

Your complete final project and your essay are due in class, Thursday, May 13, 2010. Final projects are worth 20% of your grade.

Project Presentations
On May 6 and May 13, we will present our final projects to the class. Final project presentations should be no more than 10 minutes long, and should include the reading of a substantial excerpt from your project, as well as relevant passages from your essay. It is imperative that you plan to be present these weeks to act as an audience for your classmates.

Final project presentations are worth 10% of your grade.

DUE DATES

April 8
1) A description of your final project. This should be a paragraph or two in length, and include the following details:
• The artistic work that will serve as the basis or inspiration for your project
• The form your project will take (a series of poems, a short story, a one act play, etc.)
• How your project will relate to the text that is serving as inspiration (for example: a series of re-interpretations of a story, a re-setting of the story in a different time or place, a telling of the story from a different character’s point of view, a set of poems starting with or centered around favorite quotes)

2) The first portion of your project. This can be a poem, a scene, or an excerpt from the story, and can be as short as a page, but it should be something that you plan to use as part of your project.

May 6 and May 13
Final presentations

May 13
Final Projects due in class.

Week 9 Assignments

Writing Assignment ~ Due April 8

Note: Please see the final project information sheet for more details, and feel free to email me if you have questions.
1) A description of your final project. This should be a paragraph or two in length, and include the following details:
• The artistic work that will serve as the basis or inspiration for your project
• The form your project will take (a series of poems, a short story, a one act play, etc.)
• How your project will relate to the text that is serving as inspiration (for example: a series of re-interpretations of a story, a re-setting of the story in a different time or place, a telling of the story from a different character’s point of view, a set of poems starting with or centered around favorite quotes)

2) The first portion of your project. This can be a poem, a scene, or an excerpt from the story, and can be as short as a page, but it should be something that you plan to use as part of your project.

Read for April 8
Sonnet 56, by Paul Hoover

IN THE COURSE READER
Method, John Cage from Composition in Retrospect
Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun, Heather McHugh
Sonnet 2 and Sonnet 18, Ted Berrigan
Be Drunk, Charles Baudelaire
New Years Resolution, Lydia Davis

Read for April 15
Wit, by Margaret Edson


Blog
1. Post an entry about any one of the readings this week. This may be a critical or creative piece of about 200-300 words. It MUST respond to your chosen reading in some way, either by identifying and discussing craft elements, themes, or techniques or by using those elements in a creative response.

2. Post comments on at least three other entries. Remember, this is not a place for critiquing each other’s work. Instead, identify something from the piece that strikes or interests you, ask a neutral question about the work, or suggest ways the author could deepen or expand it.