BURNING POETRY TO MAKE A NEW POEM
On Jan. 31, 1999 we returned once again to Ward's Island, Toronto for our annual evening of "fire art" by women. This relative bit of wilderness has been home to this gathering since it was started in 1997 by Judith Norris. The event has taken place each year, on or about the first of February, which pagans call "Imbolc". Imbolc is the feast day of the Celtic goddess Brigid.
My performance this year explored Brigid's role as a goddess of poetry (and poets) as well as fire. This work bridged the use of magical symbolism and ritualized action inherent in much of my previous performance work, with a newer focus on game-playing and especially chance. The piece began with my throwing pages torn from a poetry anthology into the fire and the invitation to the "audience" to rescue a fragment of text before they all burned up. This is where it became apparent to those involved that we were playing a game. A frenzy ensued. When this subsided, I asked that each participant choose a word or phrase from their scrap of paper and we went around the circle creating a "cut-up" or chance poem in real-time. Everyone seemed a bit hesitant at first (adults too often need coaxing to be "playful" -ed.) but it soon became a kind of free-for-all with people getting excited and offering words/lines in response to one another. I decided to call the piece "Burning Poetry To Make A New Poem".
- S.Higgins, April '99
cont. from page 3
we now find we have half the time we thought we'd have for working on this project. Look for issue three in the next two or three months. Hope to see you then!
In closing we'd like to thank the following:
Clemente Padin, Etienne Desrosiers, Jim Munroe, Linda Montano, Linda Feesey, Zev Asher, Tara Azzopardi, Koji Tano, Yasutoshi Yoshida, Joda Clement, Tim Clement, Jim Bailey, Jada D'Aversa, Colin Hinz, James Quinn, Roger Clarke, Ian Calvert, Steve Venright, Shendra, J.Karl Bogartte, Brendan Wall, Ryan McCullough, and Future Bakery. This list will be continued next issue.
About the title: As was proposed in I.B.R.I. Bulletin #1, we are continuing with our transforming title game. This issue's title "The G. Grosz Garden Nitrate" is an almost perfect anagram for "The Organ Grinder's Gazette" (one "e" was dropped and an apostrophe exchanged for a period. Hey, we could've gone with "Zero Gang's Three Tit Danger" but that would be silly!).
- W.A.Davison, April 20, 1999
QUESTION AND ANSWER
During our weekly meetings, a favorite game has been "Question and Answer" in which one player writes a question on a scrap of paper, folds it so that the question is hidden, and passes it to another player who then writes a possible answer to the question, but of course without looking at it. Here are some results.
Q: Where do babies come from?
A: A reflection in windows.
Q: How can you tell an apple from
an orange?
A: Just press the button.
Q: How is fruitcake made?
A: Under a fallen leaf.
Q: What do birds do?
A: Everything that you like!
Q: Who wrote the book of love?
A: The Circle of the Damned.
Q: What are dreams made of?
A: With green rope and blue tape.
Q: How old am I?
A: A statement made under water.
Q: What is love?
A: Under an applecart covered in skins.
Q: What color are my underpants?
A: They fall softly on giant pillows.
(specific players/authors: W.A.Davison, S.Higgins, Jim Bailey, Roger Clarke, James Quinn, Jubal Brown, Colin Hinz, and Shendra)
Contact us at:
I.B.R.I.
253 College St., Unit 149
Toronto, Ont., M5T 1R5
Canada
PH: (416) 588-7539
E-mail: ibri@interlog.com
Copyright for all material is retained by the contributors.
Published by Emunctory of Dreams Press, 1999