Reflections on the Process — A.K. Toney

Disarticulation form is one of the codes for creating poetry. As the prompt enters your critical thought process, the fevered writing becomes some other entity, the responses from the other writer you receive become an elaboration on that code for creating. This is a vice-versa process that allows one to examine someone other than themselves and pull resources for a poem. It allowed me to look at other writings from myself and jumpstart new ideas about poetry and form. Moreover Disarticulation inspired me about the pedagogy of poetry.

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March dis•articulations poem by AK Toney

At the beginning of the month, AK gave Terry four prompts. She engaged in fevered writing with each of them and gave the results to AK. He used the words from that fevered writing to create this dis•articulations poem.

SECULAR CRISIS

“What am I supposed to do now?”
So weary tired mandatory corporations…
Voting just disappeared, consuming share of oxygen
Blue stopped being sky
Skid souls wandered streets that row
Having owning stuff suffocated bending sagging
Cream rabbits for face
Stick whales on lips for Election Day
Polar bears drown and blur
Bring turtle’s life to television
Entombed are stories visions dreams
Voicemail is letting go…

Big joke rigged with sandwich, beer and TV
Government track down arrest you
People matters is unpronounceable name
Coltan is more quizzical than organic
I take makes world more dirty

Art culture becoming world materiality
Car causing shadow, overrun stuff away
Reside inside your consulate environment
House the overwhelming natural
You me so better than ours

Change like trying to change
Choices are given rather grab and go
Walls with empty rooms worth someday
Value walk in the sun

March Fevered Writing — AK Toney

This month’s collaborating poet, AK Toney, did the following fevered writing based on four prompts given him by Terry Wolverton:

An inmate escapes from jail, is found in hot tub

This that cool warm relax with no caught up inside just flow like the dirt in this water but I ain’t mud inside this houses without bars and sometimes I still feel locked up where there I’s and air are still in and out like life never flowed from a delta inside a womb of concrete the home I never had inside where I want to become warm and massaged like I have no worries in the world jus this.

Prophet of Respect

They found him with the decrepit the sodomized the raped the childless the enslaved the victims the poor with the scroll of invisible a medal that shined from sweat of forehead because the nervous knew that when they came for the truth it was for live or die take or share but they never came with just respect they always fooled themselves in power

King of sea lions spotted in Southern California waters

I beached bitches, “Awrff! Awrff!” you heard me as I want for avocados instead of raw fish as the pier sits near take a picture dear human being look for me in the waters where no-where but your land is destination…

Scientists take the first ever photograph of light as both a wave and a particle

Random thought rays never seen. What is a star outside the dust that floats?
I am but that dirt but a painting of actual glow caught in mist of life from image travelling is a view of time more than a moment, less than a second life

 

Readers who are contemplating writing your own poems may work with just the prompts or may choose to use one or more passages of fevered writing to inspire your poems. Best Reader poem we receive in March will win a $25 prize.

March Poetry Prompts

Poetry Prompts from AK Toney:

“Two Children May Have Died for You to Have Your Mobile Phone” (Inter Press Service News Agency)

yet the name “coltan” elicits quizzical looks. (thestar.com/insights)

What makes anything worth having and owning has a lot to do with preserving art and culture within a natural environment. (kcet.org/departures)

New City Election Dates and Schedules; One-Time Adjustment To Align Terms with New Election Dates By 2020. Charter Amendment 1 (Official Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet)

Poetry Prompts from Terry Wolverton:

L.A. inmate escapes from jail, is found in hot tub (Los Angeles Times)

Prophet of Respect (The Huffington Post/Black Voice)

King of sea lions spotted in Southern California waters (scpr.org)

Scientists take the first ever photograph of light as both a wave and a particle (businessinsider.com)

 

All prompts are drawn from the media — print, broadcast or social media.

Readers are encouraged to write and submit poems of your own, inspired by one or more of these prompts. There will be a $25 prize for the best poem we receive from a reader in March.

March’s Collaborating Poet – AK Toney

In March, AK Toney will collaborate with Terry Wolverton to create new dis•articulations poems.

In a few words, A. K. Toney is a poet, writer, educator and performance artist. As a World Stage Performance Gallery alumnus he had the honor to be mentored by jazz great, community leader and founder of the World Stage Billy Higgins. Toney’s skills as a performance artist have taken him across the nation and abroad. His experience as a performance artist and educator has allowed him and his organization, Reading Is Poetry, to teach workshops with LA Unified schools, NAMI, and the Natural History Museum. Toney is also a contributing writer to KCET.
Website: readingispoetry.com
Twitter: @readingispoetry