Marion Weiss spoke as part of the Architecture forum lecture March 22. In the Q&A she talked about how one draws. The fingers draw lines, furniture. Drawing from the wrist and its range of motion makes another set of forms possible. The elbow and the shoulder each have their own gestural capacities and inherent body memory and intuitions according to how they can move. What you express, what you can express is in the body.
This reminded me of what I once saw about a few poets in Guangdong. (The area being one of China’s special economic experimental zones). They were doing with installation poetry, expressing on a scale like . Kackson Pollock with a calligraphy hand. Walls, floors. What development of thoughts would happens differently in composition of words from the shoulder?
Poetry composition may mostly happen between the ears and eventually be tacked to pixels or page but what if we compose tightly, head poetry at word level not just because we attempt to write or emulate concept-pursuit but as a result of small notebooks and typing with fingers instead of longhand? Some poets insist they can only compose and edit longhand. Poetry from the ball and socket of shoulder? Put your back into the elbow grease. What if it isn’t preference or habit but body intelligence and that acts within the spinal cord?