I once participated in a collaborative book project. Someone started it, and then the book was mailed or passed on to another author to design and add a spread, using their own material and ideas. It was not a cohesive story, but a collection of fragmented ideas. It was a beautiful project, that ended up disappearing somewhere down the line.
As I tried to write about AWP on my own, this project came to mind. I wanted to capture all the perspectives of AWP. I wanted to write an essay or poem that was just as long and exhausting and fascinating as AWP itself. A hearty endeavor on my own. Every stanza would still be my perception, and there was no way I experienced anything more than a fraction of what AWP was this year, especially since this is the first year I attended alone. I considered asking people to send me stanzas, but unlike the aforementioned and potentially lost forever book project, this didn’t have to be so labor intensive or mysterious. After all, that is the point of tools like Google Docs. So I stopped where I was and created this.
My hope is that more AWP attendees will join me in crafting this. Add a few lines, or a few stanzas. Insert their points of view between the lines of mine. The goal is to make a poem that truly lived and breathed and grew, something just as exhilarating and exhausting as the conference itself.
As I tried to write about AWP on my own, this project came to mind. I wanted to capture all the perspectives of AWP. I wanted to write an essay or poem that was just as long and exhausting and fascinating as AWP itself. A hearty endeavor on my own. Every stanza would still be my perception, and there was no way I experienced anything more than a fraction of what AWP was this year, especially since this is the first year I attended alone. I considered asking people to send me stanzas, but unlike the aforementioned and potentially lost forever book project, this didn’t have to be so labor intensive or mysterious. After all, that is the point of tools like Google Docs. So I stopped where I was and created this.
My hope is that more AWP attendees will join me in crafting this. Add a few lines, or a few stanzas. Insert their points of view between the lines of mine. The goal is to make a poem that truly lived and breathed and grew, something just as exhilarating and exhausting as the conference itself.
So I invite you to join me, and hopefully us, as we build and create this. Your lines don’t need to be perfect. You can always come back and edit or change them. There are many things, like Azar Nassiri and the brilliant Poetry Slam from Friday night that I haven’t even touched on. I’m holding off for now, but I trust that once people start working on this, that more will be covered.
Below is what I started with. The link, hopefully, will grow and change much further from this.
AWP 2017
Welcome to AWP
where 12, 000 people
with introverted tendencies
will cluster gather and bumble about
filling large rooms with tons of chairs
so many bodies, faces, perspectives
and scarves
and every butt in a seat
has an idea
AWP where no one bothers
the individual with the distant vacant stare
sitting alone on the floor in the corner
because we know they're working
AWP where everyone is a master of words
a preserver of culture
a persisting, resisting, dangerous,
nasty seeker of truth
AWP where the spinning is not disease
as Daniel Bailey would say
where dehydration is a fact
and we don't need a lunch break
because here the body survives
off of knowledge and epiphany
collaboration, quotes,
books, chocolates
and the free yoga sessions
at nine, noon, and three
Find the most up to date version here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uDQa14zLHQkba0PX_3Cl9kwrrthhPeeNEMkP6wM2RaQ/edit
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