Tuesday, July 29, 2008

#20 BETWEEN GENDERS THE ROSEMARY

(Rosemary is a foundation herb used in many different magic spells.) Pick a destination outside. Be OUT in the world for this one. Bring FRESH rosemary with you (if you can only find dried rosemary, please soak it in water overnight). While walking to your destination rub the leaves between your fingers, then sniff your fingers, then rub a leaf into the center of your forehead. Take notes whenever thoughts come to you. When you arrive, sit down if you can. It's best to sit, and be out of the way of traffic where no one will bother you, you're a poet with poems in mind, this is not time for socializing. After you have spent some time relaxing at your destination then sniff deeply on the rosemary and imagine you are the opposite sex. Imagine a different body, a different societal gender conditioning. Get inside this Other. Look at the traffic, the buildings, or trees, or whatever's around you, and imagine how angles and speed, how color, and textures might be different to you. Choose a name for your Other, take a deep sniff of rosemary, then SAY the name of your Other out loud. How would your writing be different? Sniff the herbs on your fingers often while thinking and writing from your Other. Write carefully and slowly, then QUICKLY, slow, QUICK, then write very very slowly, take 30 seconds to write a single word, THEN QUICKLY, the SPEED, the slow, is everything. These notes might also contain something you feel is NOT discussed, or NOT discussed enough concerning gender. When you have taken all the notes you feel you can take, let the notes rest for a few days, MAYBE EVEN a week. At the end of that time take ALL THE NOTES, sit down with them in a quiet place and make a poem from them with THE FILTERS "INCUBATE" and "HAZARD" or ("HAZARDOUS").