Awaken - Group Poem from Writing Workshop Participants Facilitated by Ana Johnson

One, two, three, four, five, six … thirty-five

Should I always count? Can I jump?

Jump. Jump up into the sky

Or fly. Fly above the floating clouds.

Slip the surly bonds of earth.

Dive. Drink the depths

Of sensations. Explore the unknowns.

Don’t be afraid of being burnt, hurt. Being there.

How can I be there, for I will hurt.

Hurt so much. The throat hurts.

I cough up a pine cone. Laugh.

The waves and wall

Break.

****

This type of exercise is called “Exquisite Corpse”, whereby each member of our writing workshop wrote two lines at a time separately, next person did the same, only going by the last line written, ending up into a cohesive poem. (We held the workshop at Pedal Works Café.)

These exercises conducted in the 1920s by French surrealist writers; they were influenced by Carl Jung and the access to the unconscious. Through disorder and order in this exercise, we were able to meet a threshold that unlocked emotions, thereby releasing creativity funnelled through the conscious mind. It was termed "Exquisite Corpse" because the first two lines of such an exercise happened to be "The exquisite corpse drank the young wine" (which is an approximate translation from French)*.

For more information about participating in a free writing workshop, contact Ana Johnson (apj.ajohnson@gmail.com): www.anajohnsonauthor.com

Writing Workshop facilitated by Ana Johnson held at Pedal Works Cafe