In an Exquisite Corpse!
And I'm not talking about necrophilia! Exquisite corpse is a type of collaborative poetic game that, according to poets.org "traces its roots to the Parisian Surrealist Movement [and] is played by several people, each of whom writes a word on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal it, and passes it on to the next player for his or her contribution" (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5619)
Recently, our friend Lady K was moved to initiate a Facebook version of this game (contributors included Jayce Renner, Kerstin-Gmucs-Cawley-Thornburg, Blayne Hoerner Murray, Susanna Schwacke, Jen Pezzo, Steven B. Smith, Keisha Davenport, Dianne Borsenik, Mark Kuhar, Richard Hearn, Charlotte Mann, Christina Brooks, Rich Dustin & me). Lady then formatted the resulting poem and posted it on her blog. Despite each of us knowing only one line of the poem when we sent her our own individual lines, I think the final product is something of which we can all be proud. You can view the corpse for yourself at http://www.walkingthinice.com/2009/09/22/3753.
'Twas a pleasure to take part.
Recently, our friend Lady K was moved to initiate a Facebook version of this game (contributors included Jayce Renner, Kerstin-Gmucs-Cawley-Thornburg, Blayne Hoerner Murray, Susanna Schwacke, Jen Pezzo, Steven B. Smith, Keisha Davenport, Dianne Borsenik, Mark Kuhar, Richard Hearn, Charlotte Mann, Christina Brooks, Rich Dustin & me). Lady then formatted the resulting poem and posted it on her blog. Despite each of us knowing only one line of the poem when we sent her our own individual lines, I think the final product is something of which we can all be proud. You can view the corpse for yourself at http://www.walkingthinice.com/2009/09/22/3753.
'Twas a pleasure to take part.
Posted by Jesus Crisis at 9/23/2009 10:37 PM 
Categories: Writing and Poetry
Tags: Lady walkingthinice Exquisite Corpse
Categories: Writing and Poetry
Tags: Lady walkingthinice Exquisite Corpse
Groovy!
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well... I thought I tried to leave a comment here already.. but I don't see it. If this is a duplicate just delete it.
It was fun... The poem Dianne put together for you was a sort of a corpse poem i suppose. Because none of us knew what else was contributed or how it was going to be put together.. But both came out surprisingly well.
When are you going to share more about your birthday... You said you would share more...
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I believe Dianne referred to the birthday poem as a "mutant exquisite corpse." All this grooviness make me want to start another collaborative poem -- but first I've gotta catch up on a million other things. Always so much I wanna do and so little time....
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Does that mean we don' hear anymore about your birthday?
Wanted to at least hear about the family celebration..briefly.
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If I have time to get to it, I wanna. As it is, I'm just responding to comments from a few days ago. I still haven't had a chance to individually thank everyone who contributed to my birthday poem. And I still haven't blogged about the groovy readings I took part in earlier this month at Karamu and The Last Wordsmith (and I haven't said all I want to say about Lix and Kix).
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from wikipedia:
Exquisite corpse (also known as "exquisite cadaver" or "rotating corpse") is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse or cadavre exquis in French. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. "The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun") or by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed.
History
The technique was invented by Surrealists and is similar to an old parlour game called Consequences in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution. Surrealism principal founder André Breton reported that it started in fun, but became playful and eventually enriching. Breton said the diversion started about 1925, but Pierre Reverdy wrote that it started much earlier, at least before 1918.
In a variant now known as picture consequences, instead of sentences, portions of a person were drawn.
Later the game was adapted to drawing and collage, producing a result similar to children's books in which the pages were cut into thirds, the top third pages showing the head of a person or animal, the middle third the torso, and the bottom third the legs, with children having the ability to "mix and match" by turning pages. (However, the game has been played with the usual orientation of foldings and four or more people, and there have been examples with the game played with only two people and the paper being folded lengthwise and widthwise, resulting in quarters.) It has also been played by mailing a drawing or collage — in progressive stages of completion — to the players, and this variation is known as "exquisite corpse by airmail", apparently regardless of whether the game travels by airmail or not.
The name is derived from a phrase that resulted when Surrealists first played the game, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau." ("The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.")
Participants
André Breton writes that the game developed at the residence of friends in an old house at 54 rue du Chateau (no longer existing). In the beginning were Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert, Benjamin Peret, Pierre Reverdy, and André Breton. Other participants probably included Max Morise, Joan Miró, Man Ray, Simone Collinet, Tristan Tzara, Georges Hugnet, René Char, Paul Éluard, and Nusch Éluard.
Henry Miller often partook of the game to pass time in French cafés during the 1930s.
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Lot better article than the one I referred to -- and quite interesting. Thanks!
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Thanks to Steve for sharing where the corpse poem idea comes from. I'd not really know on anything about it until seeing it on Kathy's FB page. But found the whole idea captivating.
I understand Josh Gage did something similar after the last Deep Cleveland reading.. and also got some interesting results.
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