collaboration

From Fascicle 2 (winter '05 - '06), here's an excerpt from a collaborative poem by Anne Tardos and Lyn Hejinian; method is announced in the first stanza. (There are other collaborations in the same issue)

1

I will write two lines, knowing that you will insert a third line between them
Late one afternoon in a café. I'll offer you a sequence and you won't foresee the consequence—
Therefore my second line's connection to my first will depend largely on you

And that will be the poetry we make. Music will intervene, but we won't complain
About interventions, but accept what happens happily, while hoping
That non-sequiturs don't make any sense. When I write, I'll attach my lines

To whatever music these strings will form—we won't complain
About the things we can't control (aggressive friends, traffic jams, the neighbor's dog);
The other speaker, who could be me, will intersperse her thoughts with mine

Just as laughter wafts through tragedy. I'm not referring to the nervous giggles,
The repressed hysteria, beads of sweat, and the twitching bladder contractions
I used to get when my shell-shocked uncle shed tears recounting the horrors of war.

--cont.

anthology of collaborative poetry

Blurb from Amazon.com:

>2: An Anthology of New Collaborative Poetry brings together a broad and varied selection of vital and stimulating textual projects involving one or more writers working together to create new, co-written compositions. Poets included in this volume represent North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Most of the work included in this volume is new, having been created after the year 2000. Writing with another person resembles chamber music, a delicate process that brings into being often intricate and sometimes direct, pure, simple music. > 2 offers a wide array of compositions ranging from short, occasional or one-time efforts that constitute an invigorating exercise, to excerpts from extended projects comprising long-term (even life-long) projects.