Creating A Speaking

Speakings are normally created spontaneously, without pre-meditation, in oral, antiphonal (speaker/responder) fashion to slow rhythmic music. When we write, of course, we have to omit the music and the responding voice and create a simulated, single-voiced speaking.

(If you want to know more about the origin and nature of speakings, and how to create a true, oral speaking, you can download SOULSPEAK: the Outward Journey of the Soul.)

If you're in a hurry, however, and want to create a limited, simulated version of a speaking, we can get you started right here. What we have to do is simulate a spontaneous, single-voiced speaking by writing in stream of consciousness, so that your deeper self , or what I call the soul, can form the speaking. This is sometimes difficult because, when we write, we are accustomed to letting our surface consciousness interfere. It interferes because writing, by its very nature, produces a thing, a string of characters that can be examined, second-guessed, manipulated. In short, it allows our much too busy consciousness the opportunity of feeding on itself. Just what we don't want.

What we want to do is deprive your consciousness of that opportunity so that we can create a spontaneous, unpremeditated speaking. After all, we already know what the surface self wants to say, so why even bother? We want the deeper self, the soul, to speak That act can't take place unless we put that manipulating consciousness on the shelf. This is absolutely essential to success. How do you do that? Simple. You have to open yourself to the fact that your body knows what to do, i.e., it knows how to create a speaking. Thinking is not required. In fact, it will stop the speaking from taking place. In other words, you simply have to get out of the way and let your body tell a story. This means you're going to tell a story you know absolutely nothing about. This may sound impossible, but you can do it.

Before I show you how to do it, however, I want you to do a few things. First, I want you to tell yourself that you're not going to write a poem, but tell a story, and you're going to tell it exactly as you would to a your closest friend. This not only means that you must tell the absolute truth (no thinking or hiding) but that you must also forget everything you know about poetry and poetic diction: rhyme, inversions, lines, meter, stanzas, everything. Remember, speaking is a poetry you already know, it is in your DNA, but it has completely different aesthetic rules. Then we're going to get you going by priming your pump a bit with some seed words. Here are the seed words I want you to use initially:

Mother, mountain, love, arms, window, cold, green.

Here's how you use them. You start by stopping your mind. Completely. Then look at the seed words. Let your eyes wander over them until you notice yourself looking at one of them more often than the others. Don't be self conscious about it, just do it. If one of them isn't sticking out slightly, look away quickly, then look back quickly. Do it several times. The word your eyes keep going back to is the one with the most mojo. Forget about the others. And don't get serious. Remember, this is a celebration. You should be light-hearted, happy-go-lucky. Like a daredevil. Just keep your eyes on the mojo word, because you're going to have a good time with it. The time of your life, if you want to know the truth.

Start out exactly like this: Sometimes in my dreams, I ..., and then connect "I" to the mojo word. Don't worry how or what words you're going to use to make that connection it. Your body will take care of all that. After all, the body and the soul know how to work together. It's the mind that gets in the way. So don't think. Just allow your body to tell you and to visualize what's taking place, exactly as it visualizes what's taking place when you gossip. Let your body go as far as it wants with the story, it may be one phrase, or two, or three, and then, when it pauses, because it doesn't know where to go, let your eyes jump immediately to another word in the list and let your body use it to advance the story. When you body pauses again, let your eyes jump to another word and keep going until you've used up all the words or the story simply stops. Either way, you'll know when the speaking is finished, because your body will know.

In the event you're still confused, and you don't quite understand what I mean when I tell you to pick a seed word and let your body advance the story with that word until it can't go any further, let me illustrate by creating several speakings in written form. I'll indicate where my body stopped speaking by an *. The next phrase following the * will be what resulted when I select another seed word. I'll italicize the word I selected so you can see what I did with it.

The mojo word I used for my first speaking was WINDOW, as this is the one my eyes kept going back to. Don't force this operation of selection, i.e., don't go crazy with your eyes; perhaps another way of saying it is let your body select the word: it's simply the one you're drawn to, the one that's leaning with you.

Here's my first speaking:

SOMETIMES IN MY DREAMS,
I AM A WINDOW.*

LOVE CANNOT COME THROUGH.*

I AM COLD TO THE TOUCH.*

I AM GREEN IN THE MORNING LIGHT.*

MY MOTHER IS OUTSIDE,
TRYING TO LOOK THROUGH ME.*

SHE SEES THE MOUNTAIN OF MY IMPATIENCE.*

NO ARMS CAN REACH ME.*

LOVE CANNOT BREAK THROUGH.*

Here is another one. This time, the mojo word is MOUNTAIN:

SOMETIMES IN MY DREAMS,
I AM A MOUNTAIN.
I AM FAR ABOVE THE EARTH*

MY MOTHER IS SOMEWHERE IN THE VALLEY.*

SHE IS SITTING BY A WINDOW*

IT IS COLD IN THE VALLEY.*

EVERYTHING GREEN HAS VANISHED.*

THERE IS NOTHING BUT SNOW.
SHE IS HOLDING HER ARMS OUT TO ME,
BUT THERE IS TOO MUCH DISTANCE BETWEEN US.*

TOO MUCH DISTANCE FOR LOVE TO CROSS.

TOO MUCH DISTANCE TO COME DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN.*

Let me do another one, but start with GREEN as the mojo word:

SOMETIMES IN MY DREAMS
I AM IN A GREEN PLACE.
IT IS PEACEFUL,
WITH ONLY THE SOUND OF BIRDS.*

MY ARMS ARE AT MY SIDES.
I AM UNABLE TO LIFT THEM.*

LOVE IS CALLING ME FROM THE MOUNTAIN.
IT IS MY MOTHER.*

SHE IS HOLDING HER ARMS OUT TO ME*

I CAN FEEL A COLD WIND BLOWING.*

SOMETHING IN ME SAYS, "SHUT THE WINDOW",
AND I DO.*

NOW THE WIND IS OUTSIDE, LIKE MY MOTHER,
WAITING TO COME IN.
WAITING FOR ME TO OPEN THE WINDOW.
WAITING FOR ME TO SAY I LOVE YOU.*

I wrote all of these speakings exactly as you see them, right at this point in the web page. There was no editing, no going back, no thinking. I just let them happen. I don't view them as exceptional speakings, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is to let yourself speak; how high they soar is up to the gods. The only modifications I made to what you see were some spelling corrections (as I try to write as quickly as the words come to me) and the creation of line breaks at the place where a natural pause had occurred, so that you could get a sense of my rhythm. When you create them, forget about the line breaks, just keep streaming.

Now, just a few more words of advice. If you study the texts of the speakings I've just created, you'll notice that the first speaking consists of one phrase per seed word (except for the phrases using the seed word MOTHER). This will most likely be the type of speaking you create your first few times around. Later on, as you loosen up, you may find yourself creating two or three phrases per seed word, as I have done in my second and third speaking. It will happen all by itself, so don't try to force it. There's nothing the matter with one phrase per seed word.

Here are some other things to be aware of. Generally, the speaking will close when you use the last seed word. It just happens. Sometimes, however, it will close on the sixth or fifth seed word. You'll know it: the speaking will just stop and you'll feel a sense of completion. Also, let me say that if the speaking hasn't closed by the time you use up all the seed words, and it's not headed toward a closing all by itself, go back to the seed words and use them until the speaking closes. Again, you'll know when it closes, your body will simply stop and there will be an emotional sense of completion.

One last word: if you let your body visualize what you are saying, much as you do when you create a piece of gossip, that visualization helps to move the speaking forward, i.e., if you visualize your mother in a window, you may next see her doing something, waving, or screaming: that's your next phrase. It's only when your visualization stops should you search for a new seed word to move the story forward. At any rate, when the progress of the story stops, let your body select another seed word and continue the process until the speaking closes. You should be very clear by this time as to how to proceed. OK, now write the seed words down:

Mother, mountain, love, arms, window, cold, green.

and then enter your speaking by returning to the Interactive Poetry Forum.

If you're successful, you may want to use some different seed words. Here are some more. Stay within a given set for a given speaking.

(Note: If you want to know how to create your own seed words you should read "SOULSPEAK: the Outward Journey of the Soul . You can download it for free by clicking on Sarasota Poetry Theater Press and selecting SOULSPEAK.)

Additional Seed Word Sets:

 

FAMILY MEMBER (Example: MOTHER, BROTHER, FATHER, HUSBAND) ASHAMED SECRET RIVER ROOM LOVE HURT	FAMILY MEMBER LOVE SNAKE RED MIRROR BODY UNWILLING
FAMILY MEMBER WOLF AFRAID CELLAR HIT PEACEFUL DARK	MYSELF, ME PRISON SNAKE MIRROR FLOAT HUNGRY LOVE
HEAVY TUNNEL SUN BODY LOVE BABY EMPTY	FRIEND WINDOW OCEAN FACE GREY LOVE ALONE
STRANGER BLOOD FIST HOT COLD EYES PRIDE	LOVED ONE TOUCH DARK DOOR VALLEY FACE ALONE

Write down the sets you like and click here to return to Interactive Poetry Forum so you can enter your speaking.