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03-04-2021, 02:51 AM
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Erasure & collage poem: Home Truths
Revision 1
Source: The Artistic Crafts Series of Technical Handbooks edited by W.R. Lethaby: Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering (1913)
If the image is the wrong size for people to read please let me know.
Original version. Change made - 'Manuscript Books' in top right hand corner erased.
Last edited by Jane Crowson; 03-07-2021 at 10:25 AM.
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03-06-2021, 01:34 PM
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Hi Jane,
Is the poem the words in white? I like the images. Opinions over the radio with wings and the big couch, I would hang something like this up in my house. The erasure part adds nicely to the piece I think.
Art and words blended together in a fashion and there is poetry to it. Very cool.
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03-06-2021, 01:41 PM
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Hi Jason,
Thank-you! Thank you so much for saying something (and something positive, which is an added bonus).
Yes, the poem is the words in white.
Do you think that I should keep the 'Manuscript Books' bit (in the top right corner of the poem, aligned with the text) or should I 'erase' that in charcoal pencil crayon, too?
Sarah-Jane
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03-06-2021, 02:54 PM
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I have a friend who has doing erasure poems for a long time and I know she has at least one book of them. I'm pretty slow-witted. Are the images included in the narrative? Is the poem called "Manuscript Books" or "Home Truths?" I think "Home Truths." These aren't problems but things I'm slow to understand. I like what is said about words but I don't see how "opinions" fits in. I doubt this is helpful but it's all I have.
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03-06-2021, 03:21 PM
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John, thank-you,
This is my first attempt at an erasure poem. The visual poetry I'm used to making is more found/collage, which gives me more wiggle room. I wanted to increase constraints, see how it falls.
In terms of contemporary erasure poems, I’m influenced by Sarah J Sloat and Mary Ruefle (I have been reading about various types of whys/hows dissemination because one of things I love about Ruefle’s work is it’s one-off artefact-ness, but I work in a combination of photoshop and paper, so my things are more reproducible, less artefact). Please point me in the way of other erasure, poets, please!
The title is Home Truths. I shared an earlier version with friends and they suggested I had the cut-up ‘truths’ alongside the ‘opinions’ coming out of the radio. I liked this, as a suggestion of the ambiguities of radio-messaging and false news.
But I wasn’t sure that the poem wasn’t about that. I think it’s about the difficulties of communication - of speaking nicely. And the different types of nicely-spoken ‘truths’. So, I turned the ‘truths’ suggestion into the title rather than coming from the radio.
For me, this title brought in a kind of; ‘Missy, here’s some home truths’ effect, which is the opposite of vellum words. Two different kinds of power/agencies, one folk, one more academic. It also then echoed bits of my life experience. About gatekeepers, and the way they work.
The ‘opinions’ was my way of trying to represent a kind of middle-line radio voice acting (in this poem) as advocacy that what is spoken as ‘truths’ are not always real truths (it’s why the radio has wings/angel). The couch is meant to represent the space of vellum words - a kind of cosy space of gatekeeping/ minimum communication (home truths and academic truths).
I think that I probably ought to blend out ‘manuscript books’, as it’s potentially confusing, as your thoughts show. I was a bit wedded to it as the original book (which is a kind of 'way to behave' in lettering) has these, & I half-love them. And your thoughts are very, very helpful (thank-you loads, seriously thank-you loads).
Sarah-Jane
Last edited by Jane Crowson; 03-06-2021 at 03:23 PM.
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03-06-2021, 04:06 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jane Crowson
Please point me in the way of other erasure, poets, please!
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I've enjoyed Austin Kleon's newspaper blackout poems. Probably his most famous is "Overheard on the Titanic." But he has loads of others worth browsing through.
I particularly like the way he does interesting things with the blacking sometimes, such as using prison-like tally marks in the seventh in this series (which references the passage of time).
Snort:
https://austinkleon.com/2018/05/05/the-future-we-want/
Here's a short video of his process.
Quote:
I think that I probably ought to blend out ‘manuscript books’, as it’s potentially confusing, as your thoughts show.
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I would second this motion, Sarah-Jane.
Last edited by Julie Steiner; 03-07-2021 at 01:44 AM.
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03-06-2021, 06:35 PM
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Yes, I think blending out manuscript books will work. At first I liked it there but it is kind of off to side and separate.
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03-07-2021, 10:25 AM
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Thank-you Julie and Jason,
Revision posted, with 'Manuscript Books' erased (using photoshop rather than erasure techniques,).
The reflection point for myself for any further erasure poetry is that I must consider how (if I find something like this, that doesn't quite 'fit') I erase it. Photoshop feels like a bit of a cheat, somehow. But technically it seemed like the most sensible choice.
Julie, thank-you very much for that link. I love the humour in his work, and the clever way he lets tiny bits of text show through at the edges. I agree that the tally marks are very clever and effective.
thanks again,
Sarah-Jane
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03-07-2021, 07:52 PM
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I wondered if there were 107 tally marks.
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03-08-2021, 04:56 AM
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This is a fun thing, Sarah-Jane (I like the double barrel. Reminds me of Violet Elizabeth in the Just Wiliam books. That's where the resemblance ends, I'm sure.)
I have never seen one of these before. Not so much a found poem as an uncovered one. Very Michelangelesque.
Cheers
David
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