This Friday night, I’m doing one of my favorite things–improv poetry, wherein people give me a word, and I create a poem for them involving that word. As practice, I’ve had a few coworkers give me warm-up words. So, without further ado, here are my almost-entirely unedited Improv Poems from the last couple of days. You’ll notice they’re different from other poetry I’ve written in that they tend to really stick to one subject and try to make a quick statement about it. They might not get all the way there yet, either, since the time is limited for considering each word carefully. But that’s what I love about them. They’re free-range poems, going where they want to go, without my constant editing and uncertainty. Also, just LOOK at the variety of words I’ve written on, just from a very small sample: reformed, nude, Lysol, and lasers…I love it!
Editing your work is VERY important, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I get the purest feeling of a poem from just letting go of the idea of fixing it or making it perfect. I try to make a habit of writing a poem every day for this same reason. Practice makes perfect is part of it, but the other part is, beauty is more interesting and more human when it has a little flaw. So get out there and write something flawed and wonderful.
Nude (for Tammy)
An artistic word meaning naked,
uncovered, unclothed, unwrapped,
unhidden, revealed, shown.
A way to say all these things
without feeling shame, for once,
at being known.
A way to be seen.
Reformed (for Lani)
Some people are carved from granite,
brick, bone, diamonds, steel.
Shaped by things too unforgiving,
they can’t be moved, they cannot feel.
They’re unable to be reformed.
They freeze, stock-still,
and can’t be warmed.
Immobile, steadfast, unyielding, stubborn,
some hearts are too hard to change.
A heart that’s long been frozen
can’t be expected to break from its chains.
Some hearts can only be broken,
which is easy enough to arrange.
Lysol (for Shaun)
Every day he asks for the Lysol,
as though humanity disgusts.
I see his point
when I catch him watching me,
eyes full of lust.
Lasers (for Chris)
Lasers in pop culture:
exciting, explosive,
precise, sharp, deadly.
But what we imagine can kill us
is the same thing that,
in cold steel surgical wards,
silently saves lives every day:
the newest in a long line
of double-edged swords.
(And finally, for my artist friend who is willing to let me sit in her studio and do this crazy performance art Thing…)
Art (for Lindsey)
Art imitates life, or life imitates art, they say.
I think it doesn’t make sense unless it works both ways:
Two mirrors looking at each other’s infinity.
If you take one away, what then will there be?
Nothing. It’s blank, hollow, empty.
Art is life, and life is art, you see?
Susan Sylvester, author 