Both wonderful poems, Ann and Brian. I do like how both of your poems, side-by-side can be read downwards individually and across horizontally. Some horizontal lines standout to me especially:
Julie, knowing that these words landed in your heart and imagination means so much to me. What a gift! It was surprising to me as well. Brian and I sort of kept drafting off the previous idea like one big poem that's never really finished. Maybe all poems--even all songs and stories, too-- are like that somehow. Part of a larger conversation.
Often my variation on collaboration consists of reading someone else’s poem and taking just a word or two, possibly only the feeling the poem gives me or even an angle to a familiar object that is now fresh and elaborating on it.
With the poem here I’ve already gotten ideas for two of my own.
Thomas, I get very excited about trying to find "an angle to a familiar object that is now fresh and elaborating on it." All my favorite poets do this! It never gets old does it?
"With the poem here I’ve already gotten ideas for two of my own." You have no idea how happy this makes me!
Your message is treasured, MK. I find so much of the human body to be mind-blowingly amazing. Every little part. Just like all of nature study. Even after years of nursing, when I spent a couple of semesters at UNC School of Dentistry studying teeth, I could not believe how much there was to learn & how beautiful it all was. Every tiny crevice and cusp, the intricate crystalline structures, the weird--and only partially understood--way all the different layers communicate with all the nerves and blood vessels, seeing things with a precise hyper focused x-ray level of detail . . .on and on. Endless material for poems :-)
I'm gonna miss this project. Thank you both for doing it!
As I was reading the poem, I did notice how it seemed to be a nice reflection of Side A. Not just in structure, but in theme, for sure. Those moments of "re-membering" have always fascinated me.
Oh, and the repurposing of "heavy, heavy" was fun and effective!
--
I have yet to do a collaboration like this, although I did write a guest piece in February, which was really fun. Or... perhaps you could say that all of my Hearts on the Line poems are collaborations, since they are all based on the words of anonymous strangers.
Hasse, you are so very welcome! Such genuine appreciation warms me to the core. And yes, definitely--I feel that you have gone to that place of generosity and listening so many times with every Hearts on the Line poem you write. It's a beautiful feeling to lose oneself--even just a little--to glimpse a moment of rapture and lightness. Self-forgetting. Completion of a riddle that we did not know how to ask. Thanks so much for reading this.
Melanie, you've added such a pulse here--thank you for seeing the way the words almost want to write themselves into some kind of song. I shake my head in wonder and just try to sing along. Much love to you and joy in your ongoing poetry!
I loved seeing your poems side-by-side. The inner ear was such an amazing visual. Your pieces reminded me of another favorite poem-- Emma Mellon's "Waking Instructions." Thank you for this journey of collaboration and magical connections.
Manuela, that was the most humbling piece of it for me. Right at the end. To look back and see two separate streams that eventually poured into the same river. Words have a life of their own.
This is ecstatic! I read both poems as one and could feel my heart racing and the corners of my mouth turn upwards as each line together deepened into meaning and mystery.
And the wonderful rhythm of heavy, heavy, repeating itself on tongue, in mind, arriving—pure joy you two!
I was really just trying to make the words line up on a page in terms of length/number of lines, shape etc. so I could make them fit into a photo for the end of the newsletter. It wasn't until I printed out a copy that I tried to read them together--then it was almost like the poems were having a conversation between themselves without their writers! Ha ha! I'm glad you enjoyed them. Thanks so much for reading, Kimberly :-)
Your poem was such a great surface to move from, Brian. I can still see "the open plain and far horizon" in my mind like a real place. It appeared, not when I read the words, but when I *heard* you say them in the m4a file. Interesting how the mind combines all the input into something larger. Then it's like a chain of images and emotions and ideas that can keep going. A flywheel effect maybe. Very fun.
I loved the conversations between the poems and when you set these two side by side, you really had three poems—the two individual poems and a third combining the two. You conveyed that whole sense of waking and sleeping and dreaming and those in-between spaces.
Thank you, LeeAnn. It was a good surprise to me. Sort of like the way the events in a dream are linear and also oblique. There's a constant sense-making trying to happen. How to keep surprising ourselves? I guess that's the fun of making poems.
Dear Ann and Brian, Oh my goodness, those two poems together are extraordinary, how they aline in sentiment is divine, like light from two souls, two hearts beating as one for fractions of time, neither one eclipse the other, they are pure and beautiful, they are light! 💛✨
You know how it is, Susie, when we try so hard to carve out time for writing in the midst of all of our other family and career responsibilities. Sometimes writing might seem like a self-indulgent thing. But then you receive the work with such openness and generosity--and you give us your own precious time to say it matters. Truly! That means the world.
Loved the side by side of the two poems - amazing how that worked out! Reminds me of a diptych I wrote last year - couldn't be read across like this, but when I realized the two related pieces worked together and had even a physical symmetry, I called it "Counterpoint" from the musical theory definition: the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines that are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. I think you and Brian's correspondence were a sort of counterpoint. Really enjoyed the series.
Stephanie, the structure of a diptych is full of possibilities--thank you for mentioning this--it gives me some new ideas. The concept of musical notes being "Interdependent yet independent" is so intriguing when applied to words. I'm thinking about when singers do this. (I like the bridge in "A Campfire Song" when Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe are singing two different verses that twine together so well.) There's something about two thought streams happening simultaneously. I guess this is what we do naturally all day long, right? There's a silent stream of words scrolling by on both sides of every conversation--the thoughts in our minds vs. words we're saying out loud.
OK so the benefit of me being so late to all of this (sorry!) is that I've gotten to read everything from Part 3 onwards in one sitting, and that's been a magical experience.
Seeing the two poems side by side like that is also magical.
Ann, I share your inner ear fascination. In fact, I find a lot of anatomy wildly magical and fascinating. I think I might have even thrown in some lines about the labyrinthine ear in some of my own pieces, perhaps.
Highlights:
"velvet darkness."
"ambiguous sunlight"
"You exist—briefly—in a space of pure possibility."
"And I wonder: while we are asleep, with our ears still “open”—what are we listening to?" -- AMAZING!
"bearing a listening shell,
always coiled deep inside." -- this feels like Mircea Cărtărescu, who gives life to anatomical features in much of his work.
Thank you both for all of this. A wonderful meditation and exploration of memory.
Nathan, I don't know how you feel about collaborations, but I find I discover myself in others. Responding to Brian's poems nudged me in terms of perspective and style, and helped me get out of my usual ways of thinking. And the loveliest part is that I found myself getting to be both the receiver and the gift-giver which is a double-joy. Helping another writer makes me feel most like myself--if that makes sense at all?
Both wonderful poems, Ann and Brian. I do like how both of your poems, side-by-side can be read downwards individually and across horizontally. Some horizontal lines standout to me especially:
"you are there...like a flower testing the air"
"into opening eyes...Awaken,"
"you see what you are...you are this stillness;"
"you remember...you remember"
"you are changed...your new name."
Thanks for sharing this exchange.
Thanks for taking the care to pick these lines out, Neil. I'm just sitting here smiling :-)
Those especially stood out to me when I read them across. :)
Thanks for pulling this out!
This is exquisite! The reverie of word-images and the lovely surprise of how the two align, side by side. What a cool way to end the series.
Julie, knowing that these words landed in your heart and imagination means so much to me. What a gift! It was surprising to me as well. Brian and I sort of kept drafting off the previous idea like one big poem that's never really finished. Maybe all poems--even all songs and stories, too-- are like that somehow. Part of a larger conversation.
Genius way to polish it off by Ann!
Often my variation on collaboration consists of reading someone else’s poem and taking just a word or two, possibly only the feeling the poem gives me or even an angle to a familiar object that is now fresh and elaborating on it.
With the poem here I’ve already gotten ideas for two of my own.
Thomas, I get very excited about trying to find "an angle to a familiar object that is now fresh and elaborating on it." All my favorite poets do this! It never gets old does it?
"With the poem here I’ve already gotten ideas for two of my own." You have no idea how happy this makes me!
I’d love to read them when they appear in the world!
Here are two of them. What is in the post might even generate more.
Communion
The petals of a flower
patens welcoming hosts
to the communion of
pollinated body,
nectared blood.
Lift Off
A dragonfly’s wings
delicate transparency
in lightness of being
yet lifting me
from life’s sharp bladed grass,
a body otherwise fated to fall,
to water’s coolness
and warmth of your sky.
So lovely, Thomas--a warm sky . . .
Loved reading your poem this morning. And the idea of a "listening shell." Lovely.
Your message is treasured, MK. I find so much of the human body to be mind-blowingly amazing. Every little part. Just like all of nature study. Even after years of nursing, when I spent a couple of semesters at UNC School of Dentistry studying teeth, I could not believe how much there was to learn & how beautiful it all was. Every tiny crevice and cusp, the intricate crystalline structures, the weird--and only partially understood--way all the different layers communicate with all the nerves and blood vessels, seeing things with a precise hyper focused x-ray level of detail . . .on and on. Endless material for poems :-)
I'm gonna miss this project. Thank you both for doing it!
As I was reading the poem, I did notice how it seemed to be a nice reflection of Side A. Not just in structure, but in theme, for sure. Those moments of "re-membering" have always fascinated me.
Oh, and the repurposing of "heavy, heavy" was fun and effective!
--
I have yet to do a collaboration like this, although I did write a guest piece in February, which was really fun. Or... perhaps you could say that all of my Hearts on the Line poems are collaborations, since they are all based on the words of anonymous strangers.
Hasse, you are so very welcome! Such genuine appreciation warms me to the core. And yes, definitely--I feel that you have gone to that place of generosity and listening so many times with every Hearts on the Line poem you write. It's a beautiful feeling to lose oneself--even just a little--to glimpse a moment of rapture and lightness. Self-forgetting. Completion of a riddle that we did not know how to ask. Thanks so much for reading this.
I cherish the poem you made for me.
Well said, Ann. I would have a hard time putting into words what it means and has given me to "collaborate" the way I have.
Thank you ever so kindly! Your answers were very inspiring.
That idea feels like collaboration to me! I’ll check some of these out, send a link to some of your favs!
https://open.substack.com/pub/heartsontheline/p/whispering-pillow?r=4r5a2&utm_medium=ios
:)
Oh, cool!
Here are a few (I pin a comment on every post which talks a bit about the stranger the poem is based on) :
https://heartsontheline.substack.com/p/the-bulb
https://heartsontheline.substack.com/p/the-call-of-finches
https://heartsontheline.substack.com/p/red-river
Thanks for checking it out!
I love the shell imagery, but even more I am moved by the "three tiny bones".
The way the poems line up side by side and read across as well as down.... thrilling. Your line breaks are so lovely.
"you are there... like a flower testing the air"
"you blow as if ash ... begins its daily churn"
"must comprehend every . . . Listen--"
"you breathe and words . . . heavy heavy rain on
fall, heavy heavy . . . the tongue of your mind
on the tongue heavy heavy . . . Arrive now"
Melanie, you've added such a pulse here--thank you for seeing the way the words almost want to write themselves into some kind of song. I shake my head in wonder and just try to sing along. Much love to you and joy in your ongoing poetry!
I loved seeing your poems side-by-side. The inner ear was such an amazing visual. Your pieces reminded me of another favorite poem-- Emma Mellon's "Waking Instructions." Thank you for this journey of collaboration and magical connections.
Lorrie, I had to go read Emma Mellon:
"Crawl ashore
to the damp beginning of day."
How I love that! Thank you for the gift of this poem. (Is there any better gift?)
Thank you for allowing our interwoven thoughts to twine with yours. Much love to you.
Isn’t it lovely. “Allow yourself to be spelled differently” is also another gem in such a short piece. Thanks for reading it.
That line also shines. I sure do love a short, dense poem like that!
I have thoroughly enjoyed this project! The poems side by side are beautiful and it is amazing how well they work and read together.
Manuela, that was the most humbling piece of it for me. Right at the end. To look back and see two separate streams that eventually poured into the same river. Words have a life of their own.
This is ecstatic! I read both poems as one and could feel my heart racing and the corners of my mouth turn upwards as each line together deepened into meaning and mystery.
And the wonderful rhythm of heavy, heavy, repeating itself on tongue, in mind, arriving—pure joy you two!
I was really just trying to make the words line up on a page in terms of length/number of lines, shape etc. so I could make them fit into a photo for the end of the newsletter. It wasn't until I printed out a copy that I tried to read them together--then it was almost like the poems were having a conversation between themselves without their writers! Ha ha! I'm glad you enjoyed them. Thanks so much for reading, Kimberly :-)
Making space, allowing creativity to happen. So well done Ann!
Your poem was such a great surface to move from, Brian. I can still see "the open plain and far horizon" in my mind like a real place. It appeared, not when I read the words, but when I *heard* you say them in the m4a file. Interesting how the mind combines all the input into something larger. Then it's like a chain of images and emotions and ideas that can keep going. A flywheel effect maybe. Very fun.
Thank Kimberly. I love Ann’s choice to build from 5 to 6 in this way, then to combine them…so so impactful!
I loved the conversations between the poems and when you set these two side by side, you really had three poems—the two individual poems and a third combining the two. You conveyed that whole sense of waking and sleeping and dreaming and those in-between spaces.
Thank you, LeeAnn. It was a good surprise to me. Sort of like the way the events in a dream are linear and also oblique. There's a constant sense-making trying to happen. How to keep surprising ourselves? I guess that's the fun of making poems.
Dear Ann and Brian, Oh my goodness, those two poems together are extraordinary, how they aline in sentiment is divine, like light from two souls, two hearts beating as one for fractions of time, neither one eclipse the other, they are pure and beautiful, they are light! 💛✨
You know how it is, Susie, when we try so hard to carve out time for writing in the midst of all of our other family and career responsibilities. Sometimes writing might seem like a self-indulgent thing. But then you receive the work with such openness and generosity--and you give us your own precious time to say it matters. Truly! That means the world.
Susie you’re very kind! Thanks for following this little project. I love what Ann pulled together in part 6…
Loved the side by side of the two poems - amazing how that worked out! Reminds me of a diptych I wrote last year - couldn't be read across like this, but when I realized the two related pieces worked together and had even a physical symmetry, I called it "Counterpoint" from the musical theory definition: the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines that are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. I think you and Brian's correspondence were a sort of counterpoint. Really enjoyed the series.
Stephanie, the structure of a diptych is full of possibilities--thank you for mentioning this--it gives me some new ideas. The concept of musical notes being "Interdependent yet independent" is so intriguing when applied to words. I'm thinking about when singers do this. (I like the bridge in "A Campfire Song" when Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe are singing two different verses that twine together so well.) There's something about two thought streams happening simultaneously. I guess this is what we do naturally all day long, right? There's a silent stream of words scrolling by on both sides of every conversation--the thoughts in our minds vs. words we're saying out loud.
Thanks again for the close reading!
Thanks! Glad you participated! It’s wild how much emerges unplanned when people create…💫
OK so the benefit of me being so late to all of this (sorry!) is that I've gotten to read everything from Part 3 onwards in one sitting, and that's been a magical experience.
Seeing the two poems side by side like that is also magical.
Ann, I share your inner ear fascination. In fact, I find a lot of anatomy wildly magical and fascinating. I think I might have even thrown in some lines about the labyrinthine ear in some of my own pieces, perhaps.
Highlights:
"velvet darkness."
"ambiguous sunlight"
"You exist—briefly—in a space of pure possibility."
"And I wonder: while we are asleep, with our ears still “open”—what are we listening to?" -- AMAZING!
"bearing a listening shell,
always coiled deep inside." -- this feels like Mircea Cărtărescu, who gives life to anatomical features in much of his work.
Thank you both for all of this. A wonderful meditation and exploration of memory.
Nathan, I don't know how you feel about collaborations, but I find I discover myself in others. Responding to Brian's poems nudged me in terms of perspective and style, and helped me get out of my usual ways of thinking. And the loveliest part is that I found myself getting to be both the receiver and the gift-giver which is a double-joy. Helping another writer makes me feel most like myself--if that makes sense at all?
Thank you for being such a faithful reader!
That's so lovely. The perfect outcome from the collaboration!