@ellipticalnight What is an appropriate subject for a poem?
— Russell Bennetts (@RussellBennetts) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts Ice. Solid things that change state while you look at them. Consumable things. Edible things. Sensations that leave stains.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@ellipticalnight Why not “A piece of coffee”?
— Russell Bennetts (@RussellBennetts) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts A piece of coffee too, which is Gertrude Stein’s. Somehow she made it into a sensation. I’m not sure which was the subject.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts The sensation made by the language built around a piece of coffee or the object itself. The words as their own subject.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@ellipticalnight Why not “Roastbeef?”
— Russell Bennetts (@RussellBennetts) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts It’s probably better to eat roastbeef or smell it. That makes it an inappropriate subject for a poem, so maybe a good one.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts So much poetic critique is actually about defining what is appropriate for poetry. When I say “Why Not?” I mean it.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts Outside of the definitions of appropriate poetic subjects are so many interesting poetic subjects. Concepts wear out.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts I’ve been writing things I just call “Accumulations” because they start with a word and see what language sticks to it.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts Doing that, the word itself becomes the subject, not the object it refers to. I guess a word is an appropriate subject.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@ellipticalnight Where does tenderness arrive out of, anyway?
— Russell Bennetts (@RussellBennetts) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts So a mouth in that moment just before the words come out. A tension of silence that becomes bliss. And accident. Accident.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts Mistake, error, messiness, failures of definitions. If anxiety is practicing what will happen tenderness is the opposite.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts Something unexpected, from an inappropriate subject, a surprise that catches me off guard. I prefer to be on guard.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@RussellBennetts If a poem one that is a surprise, that causes an accident, pulls from a subject a sensation that wasn’t expected.
— Aaron Boothby (@ellipticalnight) June 12, 2015
@ellipticalnight lives in Montréal and makes things similar to poetry, some of which have appeared @QueenMobs @thepuritan and @axolotlmag
Russell Bennetts co-founded Queen Mob's Teahouse in 2014.