#13

Make little pictures you SHOW TO NO ONE! These are NOT useless, random doodles! These little pictures are your private declarative shit stains, blood splatters, tears, sperm, etc., fucking etc.! I mean to say that these little pictures are you in your greatest human element of the greater animal element we each push forward. Make little pictures. SHOW NO ONE! If someone finds it, burn it! Take your most recent little picture and place it under a glass of highly charged water at night near your head before you go to sleep. To charge the water take a piece of quartz crystal, place it in a glass (the water can also be high in silica already, check for silica content) and in the morning drink the water while looking at the little picture. NOW, after you have stared long and hard at the picture after drinking, begin writing. Fuck the alarm clock, BE LATE FOR WORK! Unless you drive an ambulance or fire truck YOU'RE ALLOWED TO BE LATE! Write, and write and write!

#12

In a dark room shine a flashlight on a piece of paper. Inside the circle of light draw an X. Shut the light off. Then point the light to a random part of the room, turn it on for just one second, then shut it off. In that one second really SEE where the light shines. Now in one of the four sections of the X write one word of one thing you saw. Repeat this procedure a second time. On the third time write an emotion felt when seeing the light shine. On the fourth another emotion. Now you have two things and two emotions. Arrange and rearrange these words until you like how they sound in a particular order. This is now the title of a new poem by you. Write the poem, right then and there write it. No hesitation. No answering the phone. Everyone be damned, you have a poem to write.

#11

Use blue or purple ink for this please, if you have it. (Purple is best!) You also need a sheet of white, unlined paper. Place the pen (purple ink the best!) and paper on the floor in front of a rocking chair. Sit in the chair very still for a few minutes with eyes closed, keeping track of your breath. Then breathe deeply three times, and begin rocking wildly, saying out loud as you rock, "OO-WAH" over and over, nine times. On the ninth count of rocking with "OO-WAH" throw yourself onto the floor and QUICKLY and without thinking draw an X then a line from the X, and where that line ends draw another X. Now repeat this procedure of rocking and "OO-WAH" but when you fling yourself at the pen and paper this time start from the X where the first line had stopped, then quickly draw another line, then put an X where that line stops. Continue repeating until you have nine lines on the page. Now you have a map. Follow your map in whatever location you want, it's your map after all. You can follow it outside by streets and blocks, or in an empty parking lot, or field, or in your bedroom or kitchen. Or have your finger follow the map on the naked body of your lover (this one is my favorite!). But when you come to an X on your map, stop, pause to reflect on this spot where you find yourself. Jot down a few notes. When you have finished your map-following and note-taking you can then squeeze the poem out of the experience. It's there, it's in there.

#10

At a street corner pause to see how the sunlight comes down to enter the landscape just as it has for millions of years. After a little while imagine the fern or blackberries from before the buildings and sidewalks. Was there a nest of squirrels? The death of a snake? Where are you in time? After your time travel, sit the hell down and write a poem! Don't let anyone interrupt you! You're busy!

#9

Write "silver tonic for a bronze day" on a tiny piece of paper. Put the tiny paper and one ice cube in a plastic baggie, then seal it tight. Where do you most need to wear this? In a back pocket? Shirt pocket? Carry it between your ass cheeks? Or crotch? Tie it around an ankle, or have it rest on your head under a hat -- it's your choice, it's your's to know where. Leave it in that spot for the duration of your walk outside in your neighborhood. Later, before going inside, go where no one can see you and SMASH the baggie to let the water wet yourself on the spot where it was carried. It's just a little water. Just a little tonic. Go home and write your poem.

#8

Take a stroll and stay walking for this one. If you could have the clouds rain any fluid of your choice what would it be? Imagine it coming down on the street in front of you. How would the other people on the street react to your chosen liquid? Is it something they would fill mugs with and drink? Would they run screaming for cover? What if this liquid came down as a flash flood, how would the streets smell after the storm? What would the weather reports sound like on the news? If they interviewed a scientist what would be the expert opinion given? If the sun beat down 100 degrees everyday for a week how would it smell? Sit down somewhere and begin to write, but write about sandwiches, write about peanuts, write about apricots and sushi, then write about eating this, being thirsty, and filling a mug with the fluid of your choice. Write as much as you can as fast as you can no matter how silly it seems to you. A day later start to mine this writing to find the hidden poem.

#7

Okay, so you find out you're going to die, or be killed later today. What meal would you like? What meal is your favorite? Make that meal for yourself. Sit and write a few lines from the smell and sight of it. Put your ear to the plate and move it around with your fingers or fork, or chopsticks. Listen, smell, look, and eat it, slowly, very, very, slow, ly, eat, it. It's your favorite meal, it's your last meal, enjoy every single flavor. Promise me you're slowly eating? Good. As soon as the last bite is gone move quickly into the bathroom. Blast the cold shower while you strip naked. As soon as your clothes are off then shut the water off. Light a candle, shut off all lights, then sit on the floor of the cold, wet shower with your candle and write your poem, addressing some of what you wrote earlier about your final meal. If someone should catch you and call you a weirdo yell back, "YES I AM NOW LEAVE ME ALONE I'M BUSY!" You are busy, and you are a weirdo, and it's a marvelous thing, now go back to your writing. Forget about them, it's not your fault you're more interesting than they are.

written at Jason Zuzga's request for FENCE Mag

1.) Wash a penny, rinse it, slip it under your tongue and walk out the door. Copper is the metal of Aphrodite, never ever forget this, never, don't forget it, ever. Drink a little orange juice outside and let some of the juice rest in your mouth with the penny. Oranges are the fruit of Aphrodite, and she is the goddess of Love, but not fidelity. Go somewhere outside, go, get going with your penny and juice. Where do you want to sit? Find it, and sit there. What is the best Love you've ever had in this world? Be quiet while thinking about that Love. If someone comes along and starts talking, quietly shoo them away, you're busy, you're a poet with a penny in your mouth, idle chit chat is not your friend. Be quiet so quiet, let the very sounds of that Love be heard in your bones. After a little while take the penny out of your mouth and place it on the top of your head. Balance it there and sit still a little while, for you are now moving your own forces quietly about in your stillness. Now get your pen and paper and write about POVERTY, write line after line about starvation and deprivation from the voice of one who has been Loved in this world.

2.) In your home alone. Take a bucket or basin of room-temperature water to your front door and strip naked. Put a piece of paper or thin notepad under the bucket and lay a pen nearby. Stand in the water. Get used to being naked while standing in water at the front door. Look through the peep hole. Look for a long time at the world out there. Then look above you, and at the door, the walls, and make note of something you hadn't seen before -- maybe a cobweb or crack in the paint. Every once in a while stretch your arms over your head stretch as high as you can stretch stretch stretch then relax in your bucket. If someone knocks or rings the bell it's your good fortune! Look at them through the peep hole while saying nothing. Maybe have a friend come over at a certain time to knock and say, "Are you naked in your bucket of water?" Don't answer, you're a poet, this isn't time for idle chit chat, besides that you can warn them ahead of time that you won't be answering them. Stretch, and be quiet. Step out of the bucket and sit your poet ass on the floor, get the paper from under the bucket and whistle short, loud bursts of whistle four times. Then write. When you feel the need for more whistles, pause, whistle, then write some more.

3.) Eat a little dark chocolate before getting on the subway. Sit in the middle of the car, and don't get on a car where there are no seats for you. Sitting is best for this. Eat a little more dark chocolate. For the next few stops examine the interior of the car with care. Then close your eyes, and as the car rolls on its tracks make a low hum from deep inside you. Don't worry, no one can hear you, trust me, I've tested this with a friend. As soon as the car stops write nine words as fast as you can before the train moves again. These are not words you were thinking about, just write, don't question what you write, just write. Repeat this humming and writing for nine stops. Get off the train. Find a bench or patch of grass. Now look at that first set of nine words carefully, then write something about the words. What do they mean to you? Then move onto the next set of nine words and repeat. After this is finished poke around all this writing and see what kind of poem is hiding inside it. It's there, trust me it's there. You've just emerged from the underground, rumbling and grumbling and there is something waiting for you to discover it. (Please Note:) Try to not engage with anyone while in the car, or while leaving the subway. Don't break your concentration. Maybe have a little note prepared to hand a friend you might run into which explains why you can't talk to them. Don't wait for their response, just hand them the note and get about your business, you're busy. And they will understand, don't worry, just get going for your poem.

4.) Take a red magic marker and draw a 9 on your naked chest. Draw the 9 from the bottom up. Start the tip of its tail at your naval and sweep UP to have the round circle of its head in the middle of your breasts. Put on a shirt that conceals the 9 from other eyes. Go out to the corner and quickly choose a direction. At the next corner choose another direction. Don't think about where you are going, instead spend the time between corners looking carefully at the world. Finally come to a complete stop at the 9th corner. Look across the street and focus on four different objects. Draw a line to connect them, looking carefully at what's inside this square you've just made. What's outside it? What's half-in? Imagine you string lights to make the square. Imagine its contents at night, dimly lit. Imagine this square a year from now. Ten years from now. Now go somewhere quickly and write, run, run to a place where you can write. Suddenly the city, your city, is a place where places to write come to mind, you must always know those places at all times.

5.) Go to a bookstore. Go to the History Section. Close your eyes and randomly choose a book. Turn to page 108. Read that page and pull one word you like from it. Go to the Romance Section, repeat process. Then go to these other 7 sections and repeat process: Gardening, Religion, Biography, Children's, Cookbooks, Law, Horror. After you've collected these 9 words sit in the store, even if you must sit on the floor, then write a poem which includes these 9 words. This poem must be immediate, and it must be written in the store where the 9 words were found on page 108 of 9 different books. I hope you show me your poem one day. Thank you ahead of time.

6.) If you can be naked for this exercise it is best. Plan to be outside for 9 different sunsets. Get yourself comfortable and seated an hour before the sunset. For 50 minutes focus on your feet. Look at them. Where have they walked in this world? Are they tired? How do they smell? Can you suck your toes? Give them a good taste. But mostly give them some serious concentration, they're your feet, no one else's. This is a meditation for your feet. Imagine they had their own thoughts and told you some things about themselves you did not know. Think of nothing but your feet. Think about one, or both of them gone. Or damaged. Think of them in every way you can imagine thinking about them. Then for the remaining 10 minutes before sunset, just before twilight, write at a fever's pitch about some of those thoughts you have had about your feet. For the other 8 sunsets focus on each of these 8 different body sections, one per sunset: Legs, Genitals, Naval, Breasts, Arms, Hands, Neck, Head (exterior), Head (interior). If when you meditate on your genitals you feel the urge to masturbate that is fine, but try to not orgasm because we want to keep the energy challenged and in flux, not depleted. Of course if you do orgasm don't worry, no big deal. But try to keep yourself from doing so. And if you do masturbate try to not do it for the full 50 minutes, there are many things your genitals would like to tell you if you would only imagine that they could. After the 9 sunsets are completed, take your 9 feverish streams of writings and on a fresh piece of paper put the first word from the first sunset meditation, then the second word on the fresh piece of paper is the first word from the second meditation, and so on, keep going until all the words from all the writings are now fully mixed and on one document. From here you must become the natural editor you are, looking closely, moving words, removing words, working it into the poem that's waiting to be found. Take your time with this, it's nobody's business how long you take.