The Writing Process

Somebody asked me the other day about my
writing process. Which I can understand,
because, being unpublished and pretty well
unpaid (except for a slam competition in
1999 when I won about twenty bucks from
a bunch of drunk poets), I am definitely the
one to ask - assuming you want to remain
unpublished.

If I'm writing free verse, I just pick it out of
the cosmos. That's what everybody does.

If I'm writing with form, it's a very complex,
frightening thing . . . sort of like a homeless
person talking to himself. I looked through
some of my aborted attempts and I found a
representative piece,which demonstrates the
thought process as well as any other piece can.
I have included it below. I imagine that
it will baffle you as much as it did me.
I don't think anything came of it, which is
what happens with most of the stuff I
doodle around with.



DA dadada da da daDA dadada

dada DA dadadada dada DA dadadada

boobooBA booBABA boobooBA booBA BA

Telling me you tell me Sending me you send me


Condescend
Apprehend
Comprehend
Recommend
Reoffend
Without end
Bitter end
Must extend
Does portend
Don’t intend
Defend

Afternoon
Moon
Picayune
Monsoon
Opportune
Commune


Out I walked
last eve, no-
afternoon
at half past
Six o’clock
dang near froze
a monsoon
at long last
I ‘bout balked
All aglo
A full moon
Its light cast
Down the block
I went, tho
Picayune
The cold