Does anyone remember snippets?
Sure you do. Three-line collage poetry on ATC-sized cards. I started doing these about 4-5 years ago. Read this post from 2014 about the beginning of the snippet revolution in my life – I think you will be amused by what I said back then and how the snippet situation developed since.
But – I haven’t done any snippet-writing (composing? maneuvering?) since 2017. (Here’s the last post including them that I can find.)
Oh dear.
I was cleaning out my collage poetry work box and found these three. Don’t know when I did them. I felt a little sad. And I got the itch to try to do some more of them.
Now, snippet composition is slow and deliberate. I need to cut out lots of phrases and words and then I need to sit down. Slow down. And take my finger and push the little papers around until I get something that gels. It’s like a Little Vine, but slower-growing.
I want to return to this location, Snippet World, and do some more. Yes.
Anyway, here are the three strays. Read them and I hope you enjoy them. They have been waiting a long time to speak.
214.
my finger,
thin and scrawny
I have pointed it
215.
People under the influence
clinging to the truth
of that chalky pink vague story
216.
Tell nobody.
I would Tell nobody.
I can’t wait to tell somebody
214!
And of course we remember these. Looking forward to more.
These are great. I especially like the third one. The varying scales of the text contribute to the tone too, what is external dialogue and what is interior monologue.
Thank you. And thanks for your encouragement. I have been running around so much in the last year, mentally, I mean, with family things and so on happening, I have not had the patience to return to this kind of work. Seeing these little guys fall out of the box sort of reminded me that—I would like to do them again. And, that I have to make a place for them – sometimes it is up to me to take hold of everyday life and slow it down, not wait for it to do so on its own.
Thank you. Sometimes I think doing snippets is SO DIFFICULT and then I look at these, for instance, and I say – ah, they flow, please do some! And I agree – the inadvertant changes in text size and odd punctuation lend emphasis and meaning. It’s visual and imagery vs visual and meaning limited to the translation of the spoken word turned into writing.
” … take hold of everyday life …” – You are so right!
These are what got me started on junk mail art. I need to get back into that word box myself. (K)
Me too. I have not felt in the right state of mind to work on these for some time, as I said. They are very slow, and require a patience and desire to stick with the process that is so soothing when I get into it, but – I must enter that door first.
I just spent the entire afternoon with my collage box oracle. As you know, it has a mind of its own…no use trying to make it say anything it doesn’t want to!
But you’re right…I’ve been afraid to try these again, but all it takes is to just get started.
[…] by Claudia McGill’s post about revisiting her snippets, I visited the Collage Box Oracle for this response to the Myths of […]
I’m hoping to sit down this afternoon and cut out phrases. That is the first step. Snippets need raw material.
They do. I have quite a supply to work from, although I miss the evenings I used to spend just cutting things out…I haven’t figured out how to work it into my day since I moved. Too many changes at once I guess.
[…] had the idea of doing snippets in my mind, since I posted those stragglers a few days ago. And snippets need to be done at home. The library is just not that fond of a flurry […]