Monday, March 15, 2010

#39 EVERGREEN SENSES

This new (Soma)tic was created by THE AMAZING students at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. Students who created it include Camille Euritt, Maren Anderson, Jane Rubinstein, Ally Simmons, Will Owen, Franny Waldear, Zoe Hosmer-Dillard, Erin Tanner, Paige Clifton-Steele, Brian Fligner, Alexa Carson, Maryam Gunja, Kate Robinson, Nicky Tiso, Nicolas Lofredo, Adrienne Wilson, LeiF NePstad, Alex Dreyer, Maxamia Codella, Zach Fraser, Aba Kiser, Philip G. Taylor, Sean Ray ariel Caining, Duncan Wold Marsh. Many thanks to professors David Wolach and Elizabeth Williamson for inviting me to conduct the workshop.


Find something in your fridge. Smell it. Listen. Find a sound. Get as close to the sound as possible. Imitate the sound as you smell the object. Take notes. (Notes should mimic the sound. Continue taking notes until the smell has faded completely.) Leave the object, go to a familiar place with grass in an urban environment. Think about how it would taste. Now taste it. Lie on the grass and look out through the grass. Slowly tilt your head upward – expanding your horizon. Close your eyes and chew the grass slowly. Spit the grass out and look carefully at the grass, the dirt, the grubs, the sky. Alternate between seeing and tasting, tasting and seeing, both, neither. Taste the grass at a variance of altitudes. Standing, sitting, kneeling, prone. Taste all the parts of the grass, leaf, stock, root. Clutch the grass in your hand while concealing your left eye. Migrate the grass from your navel up to your pupil and then exchange the role of the hand from covering to embracing the object. Take your notes and using the THE FILTERS "Crystal" and "Altitude" write your poem.