THE NEWS IS DADA POETRY

          stanley whitney, first fire, 2009

In the bed awake for a few hours, comfortable enough to be able to lie there and and not get tired of what was running through my head. It came to me to write down phrases from the 5 minutes of news on the hour, no regard for subject, just words or phrases as I hear them. Again, no attention given to subject or meaning. Make a kind of Dada poem of it, the only progression being the order of the subjects. The first one came from BBC, the other from NPR. Same day, just 2 hours apart. Content radically different. It's a stretch of the imagination to make them seem like the same day. It's not a conscious attempt to make a kind of sense that tells a new story. It's a lot of news language with subjects removed, or sprinkled in by chance.

Writing down these phrases as I heard them, I was wanting to be as free of mental associations as possible, allowing words to be written as my ear hears them, not my mind. Keeping mind out of it is the purpose. It's not that it makes a poem or a work of art. It amounts to what we're left with after listening to 5 minutes of rapid-fire news clips, a head full of garbled news-speak. It's fun. Something to do when there's nothing to do. I do like, however, the way these gatherings of phrases do well representing the residue left in our heads. If I had to take a test at the end of the 5 minutes, I doubt I'd do well at all.

Iran...representatives...talks with negotiations in Istanbul

...last chance for diplomacy to work...willing to engage seriously

...new initiative to talks...two districts reported to come under fire

...one in one of the suburbs of Damascus

...that Kofi Annan wants to get in

...to remove one very major source of friction

...a day after failure to put a satellite into space

...Mr Ocampo...number of agents of the US Secret Service

...misconduct might...prostitutes...but Austria is objecting

...if Slovenia is successful in its bid

...BBC NEWS, 14 April, 2012.


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Secret Service...Mitt Romney...Obama

...broad themes of freedom

...stand up to the rights of hunters

...guns in the past...differences with NRA

...South Korean warships searching Yellow Sea

...two UN sanctions resolutions...agree on an appropriate response

...strengthened in 2009...Syria...a draft resolution

...some shelling by government troops today

...Chinese fishing boats in the South China Sea

...diplomatic talks between...Philippines authorities

...discovered at least eight...and confiscate the catch

...the shoal is well within its territory...centuries old map

...events are being held around the world today...an iceberg

...more than 1500 crew and passengers died...edutopia.org

...NPR NEWS, 14 April 2012.


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