The following collection of 22 group poems was written in approximately 15 minutes on March 24, 2006 by participants in the artists’ salon at Vitek Kruta's Studio in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Our theme for the evening was “Shadow.” 

In this exercise, each participant received a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil, and was instructed to write the opening line of a poem on our shadow theme.  For inspiration, we had scattered a variety of photographs on the floor, which many people used to get started.  Once the first lines were written, participants passed their papers counterclockwise, and the second writer added a line.  Before passing the paper along again, the second writer folded the page so only the last line was visible.  And so it continued, around the circle, until the pages were filled. 

This process is very different from open-page writing since writers have only a single line on which to build.  If a participant chooses to shift voice or otherwise juxtapose tones (for instance, moving from reflective to audacious), the subsequent writer has no way of knowing what came before.  Once the process is underway and participants realize they cannot possibly control the final outcome, the writing very often becomes looser, and rounds speed up as the playfulness intensifies; results are variable, outrageous, and often surprising in their flow.  By contrast, in open-page group poetry writing, each pass tends to take longer as participants seek to build on the developing theme, find a rhyme or bring back a refrain.  

Once our Shadow poems were complete, we unfolded the pages and read them aloud to the group – our evocative interpretations as integral to the process as the writing had been.  Energy rose as we by turns laughed and sighed, hearing back the lines we had jotted down quickly, now in context of the whole.    - Amy Swisher 
 
 

1.

His shadow blocked the sun

And moved with him even at night

Drunk on his touch, wanting more

Reaching for what cannot be reached

Searching for the question never answered

Elaborating on the absence

And yet holding back the deeper loss

Contributing to the eventual, inevitable

Avalanche of sorrows. 
 
 
 

2.

Light always so close always seems out of sight

So near yet so far

Too close for comfort

Get in the corner!

Circle in a square

You need to see a psychiatrist

But only on Mondays

When the dogs are out

And the doors close firmly behind them

Silence ensures that we will all be herded

Into chaos. 

3.

There’s a sea behind the columns

Which I cannot see

But I feel its presence

Yet, do I care?

Only in the shadows, if you and they know

It might become something

After all, we were stardust only yesterday

And then night fell softly

As in morning’s sunrise

As in a tequila sunrise

When you reach the bottom of the glass

You reach the top of the class

No response

Silence. 

4.

Sky above an infinite reflection

Of the flock of humans below

We breathe in the shadows

We grow in the shadows

To give birth to magnificent light

And absorb the spectrum

Beyond the shadow of imagination

Is mailing my heart quite –

Inscrutable script, tangled in its own descenders. 

5.

You’re standing in my shadow

You’re acting in my play

I think you got the part if not two or three

Why not me?  Why not me?

Why not us?  I give up!

It’s a familiar refrain, a song on my brain

Words, rhythm, the thousandth time

Hurtling us all to greater heights

You know, like a bad smile, only different -

More like a really good metaphor

gone haywire. 

6.

Me and my shadow dancing in the windows

Shouting in the alleys

Where trees just went to sleep

I wake refreshed

But still feel a vague shadowy ache

Not come to me, you don’t

You didn’t, you won’t, you want, but

A star falls slowly feeling no remorse

I saw here that night

She was living a lie

But only her shadow knew how her image felt

The very touch of him stirred me forever forth

I felt dizzy. 

7.

The dust in my head, the wind in my heart -

Holy Mackerel, Andy!

Your shadow took off with someone else

Information is not knowledge

Always trust your first instinct

Then take two steps to the left

Leave the door open

Open to the shadow behind the possibility

The thought behind the word

Leaves me breathless. 

8.

God help me

Can anyone else?

Who cares

If I drank too much

I might be happier with you

If you don’t “know,” don’t touch

Cut off hands and bite your tongue

There is no redemption for sorrow

No answers for the unknown shadows lurking there

Pop! 

9.

Last, first, following before night

Morning brings renewal

Comes Elektra

Here she comes

She looks a little confused

Ain’t that the truth

Show me what you yourself have never seen.

OK, I will, after we eat our oatmeal

But it’s so cold

So empty and forlorn: a space for fire to melt

Leaving vapor. 

10.

The shadow defies time by appearing

And leaving its mark till the next time

In the footprint of mountains and loss.

Pause, take a breath, examine that footprint

Let it take you

Far, sweet and deep

Like Mother Earth’s vulva

I pour forth with new placenta

Plenta a placenta

Cogito ergo sum!

Ah, if only I knew, too –

Too, too well such sweet sorrow

Is really just what the nurse ordered. 

11.

The sound of the silence is in the shadow of the

Zebra standing in the doorway

Who always wanted to be loved

I’ve heard of her

She loves you

You know that, yes perhaps

Maybe and then some

You’re out of here now

You’re out of time

And then you are six feet under

But are you over it?

There was too much ahead, I did not

Care to look back at

“the very thought of you”

I was stuck in the mud. 

12.

In the brilliance of sun at midday

An oblong black stone found its way

Into my hand.

It felt cold as I closed my fingers around it

And in time, I did not move at all.

Frozen in place, my feet dark with gravity

My head lighter than air

My feet going deeper into the soil

Like shovels or those bulb-digger things

Cold, sharp pieces of springtime metal.

It turned out that the post in my root-canalled tooth

Had perforated my sinus cavity.

I bled to death

For your sad ass. 

13.

Shadow in snow cuts through

With a gentle blade –

One strand in a forest

It turned out to be a flexi straw

With pink 7-11 slurpee on it

I left it to bleed on the floor.

And birth itself

Means just another journey

Another step engaging the soul’s path.

While I didn’t inhale weapons of mass destruction

Nor the arrow of Cupid’s love

But some strange piercing

Echoing sound until beauty transcended

Moving up. 

14.

Exquisite spine dip and shade, finger impressions

Make a bruise where you least expect it

Oh so gentle

As deep as sorrow

On the other hand, maybe it was my PMS

I’m burning up

I shall soak in a lavender bath all night

And awake to a new day

Leaving the night behind

Open eyes and smiles

Is that your final answer?

Or once again, equivocations, variations

Sparks, darkness and you

Show an interest in the

Full moon of my heart. 

15.

I saw myself fade into dark shadows

And take flight into mercy

Have mercy on my solitude

For it cleanses me

And I need to be cleansed because

Bird shit keeps landing on my head.

They say bird shit brings good luck

When it lands on your head

And you just know

That’s why she loves you

Yeah, yeah, yeah

With a love like that, you know it can’t be bad

With a glove like that, you know

Or don’t know maybe so

Maybe not! 

16.

Ridges of snow, shadowed dance light blowing

Shapes inverted and solid, one

Transparent, revealing itself starkly

The way flesh always does, or desires not to –

Not to do anything at all.

Breathe in

s-l-o-w-l-y

continuing: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

Lulu has put herself to sleep

Waiting for Eros at midnight

Eating lunch at noon

‘Twas midnight that I threw

The tennis ball of your heart

Down the Roto Rooter street. 

17.

A convening of shadows and music make “love”

I’m standing in the shadows of love

Trying my best to get ready for the heartache to come

In order to prepare, I am beating myself

With a wire-hair brush, repeatedly –

A hundred times a day.

I saw that in the DaVinci Code

Or on 60 Minutes.

Hours may be wasted

But an hour? A minute? An eon?

Who knows where the time goes

It flies, flowing, alone

Light that knows. 

18.

In this artificial world

With all of wild nature filtered out

This man can be the hero of his own mind.

He can become the wild grape

On a new vine

Or wane where blood speaks of ages

And on and on it slides beneath

The quivering solace of our mystery.

A slice of quiche could do the trick

With a gentle toot

Playing celestial melodies.

Stan and Dan, the savoir faeries

Took a piss in the clearing

And blessed the new life. 

19.

The wind sculpts shadows in the snow

As the afternoon light deepens softly

The next world exchanges for this

Causing great confusion amongst all people.

Later, the confusion would evolve into bitterness

And from bitterness into something a lot greener

Or moist -

So I ate it, and gained 20 pounds instantly.

But it was worth it. 

20.

When sound takes us to that other basement

So low as if Earth itself sings

In the soles I feel it hum

And in the humming I find my shadow soul

Loud as thunder, deep as a secret wish

But bigger than a breadbox

And smaller than a secret.

So let’s just forget about it

We must come out of the purple shadows

Into the mountains

We go with empty hands. 
 

21.

Tomorrow, I will see the black sun again

And yes…the sands are soothing

But the shadows are so noisy and disturbing

Happenstance

And spin with the wind

So free and wild, out there, unhinged and open

Without weight, depth or shape

A mere wisp heading into spirit world

You’ve got to love those pious wisps –

They’re so damn wispy! 

22.

Rolling pieces, misting in closeness

This is what I always wanted to say

When it began about an hour ago

We were no longer restless, rootless or well-lit

Shades of life forever glowing

Stand in the sun

And let the light pour over me

Because my soul is full

Of only the greatest love for you.

“You say that to all the girls.”

Because I like to see them blush.

It only takes a slight caress,

A soft touch of promise – maybe.