When William Burroughs did his cut ups, he often cut two pages of text down the middle and juxtaposed the different halves. I’ve been messing about with this method, using fiction texts to see what might surface. I’ve moved from two to three juxtaposed texts which seems to widen the ‘phrase field’ a bit, and the one above generated the line ‘overlap of a moth’. I decided to coin the term ‘overlap’ for this type of poem. The result is quite open and experimental; the words still seem to be in flux. I like this – the way meaning doesn’t seem to be fixed. Anyway, here’s the poem. See what you think.
moth
I don’t know exactly
its paralysis
the bit I see infallibly
through daylight
the glass door
respectful and cold
the way she talks about
the inner significance of things
gone soon enough
to the window
feverish at eye level
thrumming
between good and evil
free to acknowledge this
all the time very uncertain
pitiful isn’t it?
talking
Julie Mellor - poet 