Let me begin by saying this is not a poem, but an essay outlining my ideas for a different form of poetry, maybe even a different type of performance poetry; I'm posting it under the poetry section because it might interest people posting poetry there. Basically, before posting the next two poems in this series, which will be very different from the traditional structure of poems I have been posting and what others here post, I thought it best to explain what I am attempting to do and how I will construct the pieces and how they should be read and understood.

These performance pieces are multi voice pieces intended to be read by two or more voices simultaneously. The effect I am trying to create is that of standing in a room listening to multiple people around you speaking at once in different conversations; hopefully the intertwined musical elements of the language will form a music of sorts, a tapestry of sound woven out of different threads. I think there are possibilities of phase effects, with various 's' 't' and 'd' sounds, 'e' 'a' and 'o' sounds converging into densities and stretched out into echoing effects. It might be difficult to understand until you actually perform the pieces and hear the effects. For this you will need one or two or three or four other people to read the parts together and listen to how it sounds. It really is more of an endeavor into composition than a linear, written form. Also there might be interesting contrasts in the meanings as well; one voice perhaps speaking of one interpretation of the theme, another contrasting with that in another interpretation, kind of the way liberals and conservatives might have two different interpretations of the same event. What I am aiming for here is a broader perspective, a comprehensive view, rather than a narrow, subjective one. Objective versus subjective.

As for the mechanics of how I intend to present these pieces, and how I want them read, I will put the different voices in different columns, with the speaking part assigned to that voice typed in one column, and the next part under the next voice in the next column. For example:

Voice A Voice B

Exit after exit Entrances invite
Delivers us Us into places
Into spaces In their abundance,
Expanding around us Earth, water, air,
Without end or beginning In endless partitions
And carrying us away Closing us in


And so on. Follow the punctuation to create pauses and read into the flow. Repeat as indicated.
It might be a bit difficult to grasp, especially at first, and without multiple voices to read the parts, the true intended effect will be elusive. But I do think this kind of construction has all kinds of possibilities for making music in language and for a new take on discerned meanings. I am really interested in reading the feedback on this one. I think without feedback, it will be difficult to develop this form into something a wider audience can grasp. Trial and error, as with all new structures, will have to be the guiding lights here for now.

I await the comments. estory