Meeting Minutes for # ????

Meeting Minutes February 02, 06

Minutes appearing on the site are pretty near a miracle, but I thought it may be valuable considering some of the interesting and profitable excercises the group is getting involved in, particularily through Brendan (my bad if your name is spelt differently).

In any case, here are the minutes, I hope you enjoy 'em because I did... or will.

Present:
Brendan, Brent, Noah, Caroline, Todd, Mike, Jordan
(props to Caroline for representing :)

News: Two thoughts were discussed. Publishing in the Absynthe, and Making a collection of the DPS works into a book. Think it over

Excercise: Arbitrary Form

The idea of the excercise is to cultivate new lines of thought, or fresh lines of thought in each individual's writing style. The assignment was to take 5 words from a bag, and use them as the last word of a line in a poem. The order each person chose the words in determines what order they must appear in the poem. I wrote down each person's order:

Brendan: flip, hobgoblin, orange, couch, speak
Brent: pop, traveling, tissues, entertain, dedicate
Noah: memory, bill, bearhug, spring, sugar
Caroline: lard, missed, two, kiwi, time
Todd: sandy, lawnmower, elephant, fog, show
Mike: keep, juice, stomp, issue, farthest
Jordan: dedicate, fall, guitar, tell, snake

I'm excited to come and laugh my face off. Especially over hobgoblin, which seems to have been a big hit.

Mike:

Tom Mckinns (possible spelt wrong) "To Walt Whitman"

Mike Multicult to Ginsberg

-Easily the best poem i have heard Mike read. Noah and I were thinking of recording a reading of it. Good allusion with seemingly boarderline or dangerous issues.

Jordan:

Happy Vegerarianism For You

-Many agreed that this should be a Hallmark Card. It is too funny.

Todd:

Ponderings + 7 Experiments

-Very private imagery and content, which can be a major problem for the reader. Possible work to be done tying Ponderings and the 7 Experiments together. Also take a look at seemingly randomly capitalized words. Poignant imagery is fun to work with, but it needs sharpening, and clarification for the reader

Caroline:

Dana Gioia Things For Remembering Us

Caroline Desperate Refusal of Previous Invitation (Part I + II)

-I think across the board people were impressed with the fact that Caroline worked at rearanging this poem. From my perspective it was moving in a suspense-movie sort of way. Thanks for inspiring us to continually work with our poetry.

Brendan:

Margaret Avison The Crux

Brendan Tyro and the Drifter

-I love the layout of the poem. The comparison of the drunkard's life with the child's is on multiple levels which is great. I also appreciated how this poem was orated because it has the opportunity for a powerful finish.

Lay the First Stone

-unique perspective in the poem. Perhaps work with some of the words to get a proper connotation (black, murky, etc...) There were other things that I noticed, but I wrote them on Brendan's page and not my own... sigh.

So please work on the assignment, and those of you who want to try it pick 5 random words out of a group of perhaps 30, and join in the fun! I look forward to seeing you all, and laughing with you.

the bard