Sunday, March 18, 2007

Ripe Fruit I

In January, I began taking a writing course through Ripe Fruit, a writing school in San Francisco. On Thursday nights, a group of us gather in Leslie Kirk Campbell's (the instructor and guide) living room, drinking tea, eating apples, and taking part in creative exercises focusing on writing and energy. In one such session, we composed a collective poem from our in-class writing.....everyone contributed a line until we had an eclectic piece that is at times humorous, at others, poignant, and always interesting. As always, these things are best when read aloud (allowed).

"They Laughed But I Didn't"

I
My hair needs to sleep
Piano filled my car; nothing else, only piano
Listen to the voices of your ancestors
Dating the devil to find heaven
You block out the world if you pull the covers over you
and open your eyes
Great expanses of black spandex
Out with the wigs and spf strongest
Depression makes a great gardener
Black space opens to bright wilderness

II
It's there all along all the time
Wake up and start fresh tomorrow
She told me life would be easier if she didn't see me
We cry as babies, we cry as children, we cry as adults
To spend the day immersed in blood
dripping through pipes of inertia
Maybe if I think less more will happen
We all pull from the same lexicon
They are not lies; they are stories
A prism to fix the astigmatism
Silver droplet of eternal soul

-Collective Random Poem
Ripe Fruit I
2/08/07

1 comment:

Josh said...

Leslie! No one has commented on this marvelous poem yet!! I can't say why but there are certain lines that read like pure genius! Are there GENIUSES in your class?? Heheh...just kidding. Thanks for sharing. I guess I will see you in [our much smaller] class on Thursday. I enjoyed reading all of your little posts and seeing your pictures. You seem to like eating people's cheeks though. I think I will permanently move over to the couch :D