Many Graces #2

1. Despair not grief Peace is still and wild

2. Despair may Still grace But peace is wild

3. Does day-blind grief grace Still Water

4. Not may grief still, peace comes

5. Wild water graces still day-blind grief

6. Still may peace, not Forethought, Come

7. Still day-blind Grief Still Water may grace

8. Not Forethought, Come Peace

9. Come Wild, Come Water Wild-still, Still-Water

10. Grace may despair Come wild day-blind Grief Still Forethought Still Water, Peace

11. Grace not Forethought may still grief Come day-blind despair wild water, Peace

12. May day-blind water grace grief. Not forethought, Despair; Come wild, still Peace

13. Still grief Still grace Still forethought Still wild Still may Still not Still blind Still despair Still peace Still Comes.

14. I’ve been thinking about rituals - movements that are prescribed, bring comfort, a meditative state. Poetry, I realize now, fills a part of my need for ritual and reflection.

These miniature poems, or arrangements, are a play on a poem by Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things.

I first heard this poem on 90s-era ER: Alan Alda (former M*A*S*H* star, one of my golden oldie favorite shows) was doing a short stint as a doctor struggling with Alzheimer's. This has a special irony, because the man has been recently diagnosed with Parkinson's (an illness I have a familial familiarity with) - though, in contrast to this character, its hardly slowed him down. Alan's character recited the poem on his last episode when he finally reveals the diagnosis, his fears of the future, his helplessness, his grief. I was moved by it when I first heard the poem, at a completely different time in my life (a teen!), and looking back I can see why- fearing for the future of our world is not new, but it's seems more urgent than ever.

The Peace of Wild Things is a humble, grounded poem by a poet and a farmer (On Being, the podcast, has a reading by the poet himself). However removed I am from the farmer-poet and his bucolic circumstances, I still find comfort in this poem. Using a writing exercise I learned from a dear friend, I broke the poem apart, trying to distill it to its essentials. If I did the practice again, the words might be different, and that's okay.

The writing assignment goes like this:

1. Transcribe the poem, or prose, word for word. Pick something about 100 words long, if you can.

2. Choose 5 writing utensils of different colors. Highlighters, colored pencils, etc. but not a black sharpie. It’d be best to still be able to read them after marking - or I’m just sentimental.

3. Mark out half the words you don’t need in the poem, using a different color than you used to transcribe. If you've got around 100, split it in half to leave 50 of the most important words. Work Quickly. Try starting with articles like a, an, the, and long description, adverbs like very, and so on. Essentialize. What’s the point of this writing?

4. Choose your next color. Mark out half of what's left - 25 out of 50 words that remain. Again, keep what's most important, prioritize, and move quickly.

5. Next color. Be brutal. 12 words. Break apart phrases you thought you'd never touch. Mark out whole lines if their meaning is repeated.

6. Another color. Down to 6 words. This is the gratuitous part of the exercise. Are the words left over speaking to the core of the original work? When is it gonna end?!

7. If you have another color, go ahead, choose carefully. 3 words.

8. Now you can take the twelve words (or less, or more) you had from an earlier step and put each on its own sticky note. I chose twelve because I want options.

9. Arrange and Rearrange on a page into as many poems as you can. There are no rules here. You don’t have to use all twelve for each arrangement. Think of double meanings, nouns that can be verbs, and how you arrange them on the page.

10. Take pictures of ones you like. Write them down, add or subtract where it suits you. Your assignment is over. You made an ode to an author you admire/a poem you care for, and a remix of their writing, your interpretation and your interests. You can turn them into anything now. Thank you Emmy for sharing this experience with me during our text and image class at Haystack, and I hope to continue to pass it on. Love you. Take care. • Tikva