somaticavenues-blog

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Analysis of CA Conrad's interview with Thom Donovan

“We take trees, grind them up, take the pulp, press it, make paper to write out our thoughts. Or our grocery lists, suicide notes, and marriage licenses, all the while with unmitigated hubris thinking that OUR thoughts are the thoughts to carve into the tree’s body, as though they never had their own feelings and ideas. The intelligence of trees was an axiom in many ancient human cultures, but today metal and plastic rule the center of gravity.”

I’ve always felt connected to trees, from saplings to the books they are made into. I lived near a forest growing up and was awarded the nickname ‘tree-hugger’ because of how I scrambled up them nimbly. When I was a kid like Conrad I believed that trees could communicate with just the brush of the winds branches against my window. I still believe that trees are a pure form of sentience, one whose souls are as old as their roots. 

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this is different

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Somatic Exercise

First buy a plant or maybe even a succulent. Take it home. Care for it. Give it a name that means something. Once this has been done, get close to the plant. Stare at it and breathe. Think about how your breath is sustaining life, write a poem and bury it in a forest.

Poem:

Her name was in the constellations and she lived in the sky and when someone asked me why i wanted to live all i could think of were the veins in her arms

and the life I breathed into her

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somaticpoetrylucy:

This poem was born with inspiration from somaticpoetrylucy:’s work,

The curvature of the world has imbedded in the likes of you

What a nice thing to know; that the world loves you

That the world finds you of value

I’m not saying this out of spite, but rather out of appreciation

I’d be lying if I said I am not frustrated

There is just so much to do

And none of it that I am doing

I’m speaking like a person

What kind of poet am I?

So simple

I finally used some punctuation

I’m sorry

I’m not one to bre ak the rules

Maybe I WILL

Maybe I did

Ask me next week and I won’t tell you

Go find out

i Dare you.

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Somatic #2: Excercise and Poem

Lie on the floor of you rbathroom beside the bathtub. Stare at the ceiling. Count how many times you blink until you lose count. So imprecise. When you lose count rise up. Turn the bauth faucet on the highest pressure setting. Lie back down. Take a breath, a large one, match the ROAR of the water with your vocal chords until you run out of breath. Oh how weak. Once you run out of breath QUICKLY SHUT THE FAUCET OFF. Lie back down. Now consider the mute people. Then the thirsty people. Now yourself.

MY MOTHER

SAID I HAD

SWIMMER’S SHOULDERS

so she sent me 

to the

A T L A N T I C

its tidal arms 

dragged me to its floooooor

pulling me by the

toenails

I 

its rough wood block

I

hairy with splinters

it filed, and filed, and filed, and filed, and filed, me.

I invented sandpaper.

I allergic to salt.

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Response to somatic #5

“Go to a bookstore. Go to the History Section. Close your eyes and randomly choose a book. Turn to page 108. Read that page and pull one word you like from it. Go to the Romance Section, repeat process. Then go to these other 7 sections and repeat process: Gardening, Religion, Biography, Children’s, Cookbooks, Law, Horror. After you’ve collected these 9 words sit in the store, even if you must sit on the floor, then write a poem which includes these 9 words. This poem must be immediate, and it must be written in the store where the 9 words were found on page 108 of 9 different books. I hope you show me your poem one day. Thank you ahead of time. ”

Words: Penalized -us his Tiergarten -lit romance Yield - gardening morphine - religion Appalling - biography Operatic - children’s Shrinkage - cookbooks Bride or step mother - law Zeus - horror

Poem:

Penalized with morphine Lost in tiegarten Operatic screams Calling for Zeus Only yielding for shrinkage To call I a bride Oh how appalling Oh why appalling

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My Somatic Exercise

I didn’t perform CA Conrad’s somatic exercise, because I’ve been really sick and thought placing a penny under my tongue could potentially make things worse.

So here is my somatic exercise:

Go to the grocery store. Buy the first pre-made cookie mix you see (pillsbury kind). Go home. Form one cookie-worth of mix. Put it on a plate. Place it in the microwave for 90 seconds. As it cooks, allow the artificial sugar seize your nostrils, as if kidnapping your mother’s kitchen.

Pour a glass of milk. Drop the cookie in the milk. Watch it disintegrate, think about all the absent memories from childhood. Try to recollect them, but fail as they are just beyond a hand’s reach. 

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(Soma)tic exercise

1. Where ever you are, lie down on your back.

2. Close your eyes and imagine the tallest building you’ve ever been to the top of, or the highest altitude you’ve ever stood at (not in an airplane).

3. Write at least 5 five lines about what that height made you feel. Was it scary? Empowering?

4. Now stand up and write (as much as you please) about a time when you felt sad and what caused your sadness.

5. Finish by writing about the color red. What does red mean to you? Can red be felt, or can it only be seen?

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Thursday

Exercise:

Pick up the closest periodical of any kind (magazine, newspaper, etc.) and look through it. Absorb the content of the media you are consuming for a minute. Tear up the periodical and throw it out. Keep a random piece and crumple it up in a fist. Using the mental images left over from flipping through the periodical, compose a poem of 10 lines referencing things you saw or read in the periodical. Use the last line to describe the feeling you got from crumpling the piece of paper from the periodical.

Poem:

The only martian with nails has eyes

But takes the subway down to size

Apples and oranges cower and hide

The coca-cola company describes the tides

Every time the perfume sprays

The toyota charges and sways

In the wind that swirls and speeds away

The election season is here to stay

Only the curl of a Times New Roman ‘T’

Peeks out of my hand and stares at me

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Somatic Exercise

I did not attempt CA Conrad’s somatic exercise because I felt wary of the effects that an acidic beverage could have when combined with a metal. Here is the somatic exercise I created:

Bring a hat and sunglasses to the roof of your house. Put them aside and walk in circles around your roof looking up at the sky. Put on the hat and sunglasses and pace in squares looking from side to side at your surroundings. Explore the curve of the circle your feet mark into the roof and the sharp angles of the squares you pace around and around. 

How do you see the world through a man-made lens? Do the sunglasses obstruct your view of life? Do they make it clearer? Sit down and write a poem comparing your circular revolution with your shaded angular revolution.

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My (Soma)tic Poetry Exercise

Print out a picture you love. Meditate and put yourself in the picture. Be the picture. Now grab a match and burn the paper. Feel the fire inside of you. Now fuel it, give the fire what it wants. Feel the warmth. Now is the time; get your pencil and write about your RAGE! 

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Somatic Exercise #2

Take your phone out of your bag or pocket or wherever it’s resting. Assuming that you have an iPhone, take it out and open a new message to your best friend. Close your eyes and type randomly for 10 seconds at any speed you’d like. Let autocorrect determine what your drafted message is. Send the message. Try to draft a poem including both the phrase that you sent your friend and their response.

The words in my typing that made sense were “gilded, so, digits, star, if, be, it, didn’t, fine” and here’s the resulting poem

Digits

When I picture life without you I see myself walking past the record store where we first met. I’ll stroke the flowers growing in my lungs, just like I did when I was with you. I will water them copiously. I didn’t plant the roses in my chest; you did. I appreciate the thought and though they’re beautiful, I can’t breathe.

When I imagine a life without you I see bright lights and a gilded, star spangled future with her at your side and I’m ok with that! If that’s what you want, so be it. You’ll smile lazily at the stars in her eyes and identify each constellation, just like we used to do. But that’s ok!

I used to see myself gripping my phone with tight knuckles, re-reading the text messages that I will never send. But now, I see myself deleting your digits and being completely fine.

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Somatic Poetry Exercise

I attempted this exercise to a certain extent. I washed (and boiled) a penny and slipped it under my tongue, only to find out I didn’t have any orange juice. I substituted it with water and sat in my kitchen completely silently, with a penny in my mouth. Although I was in the room alone, I suddenly felt really embarrassed and couldn’t focus on the themes I was instructed to focus on. The exercise didn’t really resonate with me and it didn’t result in anything poetic or worth writing down. Because of this, I decided to come up with my own somatic exercise. Refer to the exercise below. 

  Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Take a seat somewhere with lots and lots of natural light. Turn off the tv and your cell phone and anything else that could distract you form this exercise. Face the sun and let the light and warmth shine over your face. Close your eyes and feel the warmth on your nose, mouth, and forehead; focus on nothing else. Take your pen and write a poem about warmth and light and sunshine. Be sure to describe what you’re feeling and include it in your work.

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Somatic Exercise

Sit down. On a couch at your uncle John’s house. Uncle John may not be your real uncle, that’s ok. Family is relative. Then ask him if he recorded the new OJ Simpson show. If he did, watch it. As you’re watching, think about Sarah Paulson’s permed wig. Think about how long it took to perm that wig. Eat a cookie. Ask yourself if Ross from friends was the appropriate casting choice for Robert Kardashian Sr. Think about what it would have been like to be alive during the OJ Simpson trials. Imagine watching the car chase live. Imagine feeling betrayed by “the juice”. Write a short poem about your feelings.

Poem:

Sarah Paulson in that wig

and grey suit

is everything that was wrong about the 90′s

but beyond the sloppy casting

and a very clearly Jewish David Schwimmer

there is the story that made a country stop and think

about who their icons were

and what a good person was

and a court system that we now call fucked up

It really is interesting to see

things that effected people

years later

on a couch

in front of a TV.

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Response to Zaza’s Somatic Exercise

Directions: Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Take a seat somewhere with lots and lots of natural light. Turn off the tv and your cell phone and anything else that could distract you form this exercise. Face the sun and let the light and warmth shine over your face. Close your eyes and feel the warmth on your nose, mouth, and forehead; focus on nothing else. Take your pen and write a poem about warmth and light and sunshine. Be sure to describe what you’re feeling and include it in your work. 

Resultant Poem: 

Light, you warm my face and my insides.

You remind me of those long summer rides down the shore.

Light, you are blinding my eyes - do you mind? 

I can’t think of what to write, I’m searching - your obnoxious rays are all I can find. 

Light, you feel amazing on my face. Maybe I can get a tan?

I better move out of your path, freckles - I can’t stand. 

Light, this has been everything but productive,

You are good for nothing - all of my thoughts have been obstructed. 

Light, next time I will be sure to pull down the blinds. 

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Thursday: Somatic Poem

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CA Conrad, #5

5.) Go to a bookstore. Go to the History Section. Close your eyes and randomly choose a book. Turn to page 108. Read that page and pull one word you like from it. Go to the Romance Section, repeat process. Then go to these other 7 sections and repeat process: Gardening, Religion, Biography, Children's, Cookbooks, Law, Horror. After you've collected these 9 words sit in the store, even if you must sit on the floor, then write a poem which includes these 9 words. This poem must be immediate, and it must be written in the store where the 9 words were found on page 108 of 9 different books. I hope you show me your poem one day. Thank you ahead of time.