American Sentences:
Catching the Shadow of the Moment
(Chronicling Post-Modern Velocity)
“If
poetry and science cannot change one’s life, they’re meaningless.”
- Michael McClure (McClure xvi)
In a 1991 interview with Thomas
Gladysz, Allen Ginsberg was asked about the sacramental nature of life as an
aesthetic for his photography. Allen replied:
“I
think the notion is a Native American art aesthetic and life aesthetic, but my
formulation of it is reinforced by a lot of Buddhist training. The notion is
basically that the first noble truth most all of us acknowledge, especially
senior citizens, is that existence is transitory – life is transitory. We are
born and we die. And so this is it! It gives life both a melancholy and a sweet
and joyful flavor …Any gesture we make consciously, be it artwork, a love
affair, any food we cook, can be done with a kind of awareness of eternity,
truthfulness…In portraiture, you have the fleeting moment to capture the image
as it passes and before it dissolves…It captures the shadow of the moment” (SM
523).
The poetics form known as “American Sentences” was Ginsberg’s
effort to make American the haiku. If haiku is seventeen syllables going down
in Japanese text, he would make American Sentences seventeen syllables going
across, linear, like just about everything else in America. In Cosmopolitan
Greetings, his 1994 book, he published two and a half pages of these
nuggets, some of which had scene-setting preambles. For example:
“Tompkins
Square Lower East Side N.Y.
Four skinheads stand in the streetlight rain chatting under an umbrella.
1987”
”Rainy night on Union square, full moon. Want more poems? Wait till I’m dead.
August 8, 1990, 3:30A.M.” (Ginsberg 106, 107)
In
a 2001 interview with Anne Waldman and Andrew Schelling, Andrew told me that
Allen’s idea for American Sentences:
“…was based on haiku. He was also very interested in Buddhism for the
second half of his life, and probably the central mantra or wisdom phrase of
Buddhism comes from the Heart Sutra. It runs: “ Gate Gate Paragate, Para
Sam Gate Bodhi Swaha.” And Allen discovered that has seventeen
syllables also. And so he felt that maybe seventeen syllables had a more
universal…” (Anne chimes in: healing
properties) “…a more universal application. It was not just located in Japan
or old India, and so this is a way of
him playing with that possibility.” Anne: “And well also, the Japanese line, as we were pointing out in the
workshop, is one line down, the characters running down the page. It’s not
broken up into these three neat lines, as you see in translated haiku. So, the
sense of that one, and also the running together of the thoughts that has the
energy of the way the mind works. That actually you are putting these things
together, though they seem tripartite and in the traditional view of the haiku
Heaven/Earth/Man:
In the medicine cabinet
the
winter fly
has died of old age.”
(Jack Kerouac’s haiku.) Andrew continues: “And if you think of Allen’s maxim, ‘maximum information, minimum number
of syllables,’ seventeen is a small number of syllables. So how to make a poem
that really carries the weight of a poem and I think that fascinated him and
should become a form that is used regularly in workshops.[1]”
Anne and Andrew taught this form at
their 2001 workshop at the Northwest SPokenword LAB in Auburn, Washington.
Having organized the visit, I had received the workshop description months in
advance and thought I’d get a head start on this form by writing at least one
American Sentence a day. The practice continues, perhaps due to what I saw as
success in that first month I was writing:
1.02.01 – Alternating oil massage, we decide against greasing up the cat.
1.03.01 – Bruxism she says, is like sleeping next to a running
tractor.
1.22.01 – Just beyond a thin layer of plastic feel the warmth of the dog shit.
1.27.01 – Outside ritzy Pine Street shops, two legless men among those seeking
change.
Already one can see that, unlike
authentic haiku, there is no seasonal reference and the content may often be
more appropriate to the senryu. Of course dating the Sentences is a way of
communicating the season, though none of the above are season specific. They
are snapshots of the moment. Many people have a journaling practice, but what
makes it through the blur of 21 st century living onto that morning
journal? The moment comes and goes and who has time to write a poem when there
is breakfast to make or rush hour traffic to take on?
”Put on my tie in a taxi, short of breath, rushing to meditate.
A.G., November, 1991 New York”
The
format of American Sentences allows no excuse and serves as a reminder of the
conditions, situation, atmosphere and shadow of the moment:
2.09.01 – One small spat & you reconstruct front room into bedroom-in-exile.
My partner at that time had an affinity for drama, and if the outer condition
is only a reflection of what is going on inside, then these sentences become
little clues that with hindsight, (and a recognition that the term shadow can
be used in its Jungian context) can suggest the coupling was destined to be
short-lived:
7.18.01 – "No time for THAT" she says releasing semi-erect
morning penis.
8.27.01 – Migraine headache so bad it makes me yell: Eleanor, come eat my
brain!
10.14.01 – Your mouth wide-open w/ a gaping
yawn I try to stick my tongue in.
11.08.01 – Three days after the split I revert to a diet of cake & meat.
but not without its satisfying moments:
5.11.01 – After the phone rings there's a cold spot on
my hip where your hand was.
3.06.01 – The moan of your approaching orgasm – while in the distance – train
horns.
Yet,
the American Sentence is without all limitations, except for that syllable
count and thus, is often a reflection of the societal response to catastrophic
events:
10.03.01 – A patriot steals the American flag of an eight yr old boy.
10.17.01 – United We Stand as long as you are not in my way in traffic.
10.23.01 – On sale @ Freddies American Flag Christmas tree
ornaments.
Of
course, here’s where the cheating, or poetic license comes in. Is the
word steals two syllables, or one? The dictionary will tell you one, and
in the case of the first sentence above, I count it as one, but would have
counted as two if necessary. It IS one of the longer syllables in the American
language, but what is through or church? This is an important
notion if one is serious about the seventeen syllable requirement, but after
four years of writing at least one of these sentences a day, I can recognize a
successful sentence simply by the skill with which the moment is reflected.
Taste is a limitation. Of course taste is relative and Ginsberg’s sexual
proclivities were not appreciated by everyone:
”I can still see Neal’s 23 year old corpse when I come in my hand.
January 1992, Amsterdam”
You may suggest here that
Ginsberg was cheating by counting the word Neal as one syllable. Some
readers may wonder if the word Neal is one syllable or two. If it's two, then
Ginsberg seemingly cheated by adding an extra syllable, though the poem IS
still a visceral snapshot. If it’s one syllable, then he stayed within his
seventeen-syllable rule.
Ginsberg was one of the 20th
century’s proponents and masters of Open Form and his ethos was First
Thought, Best Thought. I think what that boils down to in this form is
capturing the moment and then hacking away if the syllable count is too high.
After a couple of years, as haiku writers will likely attest, one has the
rhythm in their head. An Open Form ethos would suggest that if it comes to you
in seventeen syllables the first time, it’s done.
American
Sentences work best when there is an AHA! moment and when the modifier comes in
the last word, or even last syllable:
6.06.02
– In charred bus after suicide bomb two corpses in one last embrace.
3.21.03
– Ground TOTALLY pink from fallen blossoms except for piles of dog shit.
8.09.03 – Stop sign on Wilson west of Kedzie
someone put sticker says: BREEDING.
The times they don’t work is the same as with any other poetry, when people
tell, rather than show, when the energy drops out, often when simile is used or
when the writer is intent on commentary:
”Abort the American Holocaust; the shame of America .
(Hancock)
or
Stealing a U.S. flag reveals a perverted sense of loyalty.”
(Hancock)
In my
American Sentence process there is the composing and then the transcribing.
First, I always carry a small notebook to capture these sentences. This
requires some wardrobe considerations and cargo pants and vests are the ways in
which I have adapted to this practice. The second part is the harvesting of
said sentences, which usually happens at the end of the month. At this time I
often review the work and find a way to tighten a Sentence, improve the word,
or make some other fine-tuning. But once in print, nothing but a typo will be
altered. My sources for Sentences are not limited to what is usually referred
to as nature, but the discussion about what is nature and what is not is
one for another time. Sentences can come from TV shows, like Ken Burns’ Jazz:
2.01.01 – Coronas reflect off Trane’s horn exposing universe’s beauty.
Or Seattle traffic:
2.03.01 – 12 vehicle crash northbound I-5 caused by slick roads & a
rainbow.
They can be found Sentences:
2.08.02 – Next to condom dispenser is written: This is the worst gum ever.
Or Sentences found in traffic:
4.18.01 – Best bumper sticker this month, seen on Volvo: Midwives Help
People Out.
What they all are is the fruit (sometimes rotten) of an effort to cultivate awareness,
a specific discipline that is designed to make the practitioner more aware of
his or her surroundings.
3.10.02 – Shimmer of the hot springs pool as reflections of raindrops
intersect.
5.08.02 – Shoes really make a difference she said, they DO said
the one on the scale.
5.27.02 – Man in Superman shirt walks down alley w/ empty plastic gas can.
6.22.02 – Man who sprays Round-Up on his lawn complains when my dog pisses on
it.
8.20.02 – Auburn bumper sticker says: The
hell w/ rent, I’m getting’ a tattoo.
9.16.02 – It occurs to me your returning the book on Vodou’s a good thing.
10.10.02 – Almost drowning out traffic noise, starlings in the Monkey Puzzle
tree.
This
dedication to phenomenology, has benefits for the practitioners’ long-form
work, as well as his or her consciousness in general. The American Heritage
Dictionary defines phenomenology as: “A philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality
consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human
consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness.” Charles
Olson also called his take on Open Form Composition by Field, and
according to field theory in physics, what comes into one’s consciousness is a
matter of what kind of impulse or resonance one sends out. The practice of
writing a daily American Sentence will change that field, if one is open to
change. There is only so much suffering one can take, though some thrive on it,
a daily effort to catch beauty (or irony) as it is happening, and the editing
that happens in the course of whittling the snapshot to its essence, can only
sharpen the imagery and the aerodynamic nature of one’s work.
With any
discipline, honestly practiced, there are results. A daily American Sentence
practice certainly makes one more aware of their surroundings. It makes one
more aware of words we use to fill space, such as that or often the.
And while there will not soon be an American
Sentence North America Conference, for anyone willing to be among the
first into the field, this form is very satisfying in terms of the product
resulting from such a discipline, but more importantly the process of such a
practice which sharpens perception and, therefore deepens consciousness.
”Get used to your body, forget you were born, suddenly you got to get out!”
A.G., August 1990
Works Cited:
Ginsberg, Allen. Cosmopolitan Greetings [CG]. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.
__________.
Spontaneous Mind [SM]. Ed. David Carter. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.
McClure, Michael. Three Poems. New York: Penguin, 1995.
Schelling, Andrew, and Anne
Waldman. Personal interview.April, 2001. This interview is available, in mp3
format, at http://www.americansentences.com/interview.html
For
a deeper look at the role of syllables in haiku, see Michael Dylan Welch’s fine
essay at: http://www.worldhaikureview.org/3-2/whcessay_mdw.shtml
Paul
Nelson ©2005
http://www.americansentences.com