Jessamyn Johnston Smyth

Line Dancing

his exercise is helpful in getting around blocks. Its an enjoyable way to engage with the work of writers we lovean associative muscle-builder. All it requires is the text of someone elses writingwork that elicits a visceral emotional reaction (inspiration, envy, awe). It truly doesnt matter if its a poem or a novel, flash fiction or an essayjust that it moves you.

Procedure
Take the first line of your chosen piece, take its leash off, and follow where it runs. Approach the exercise as the language of the line inspires you, without rules or inhibition. Let the other writers language build associative momentum; then follow it where it leads. The key to this exercise is getting out of the way. When a line in someones work just knocks us down, there are powerful and personal reasons: its in the language itself, but its also in the power of our conscious and subconscious associations with the language, the word order, the rhythm, the particular quirks of what the writer does and how it fits into our unique psyches receptors. This exercise is designed to use that subconscious push to get us writing in a new direction. You might use the first line exactly as it is, following it down new paths as associations lead you. You might alter it by shifting the place or person of the piece: perhaps the line reminds you of something or someone. You might repeat the line, using it as a refrain, or scramble it in repetitions, letting each new word order create new meaning, new direction for the poem. You might mirror the form or content of the piece youre using as a springboard, or you might find yourself careening off in entirely other directions.

Variations
Use the last line of a piece instead of the first. You could use the final line to prompt a what happened after that? poem, or just let the language lead somewhere new. Use a line that stands out to you at any point in the piece. If the line that knocks you down is in the middle of the book or poem, so be it. Choose your line from a work you loatheone that was forced on you. Talk back to it.

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 Pull several powerful lines and use them as materials for collage, altering and combining until the language becomes your own. See where the collage takes you.

Recommended Lines to Get Started

Stuck? Some intriguing lines to chase:
Geryon was a monster everything about him was red first line from Anne Carsons Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse I am not going to give you any advice first line from Beatrice Hawleys Advice from The Collected Poems of Beatrice Hawley that violence ever after would be obsolete last line from Adrienne Richs VI from Twenty-One Love Poems Now, when the waters are pressing mightily first line from Yehuda Amichais poem of the same name in The New Yorker, January 10, 2005 (translated from the Hebrew by Leon Wieseltier) I know. I also left a skin there. last line from Louise Glcks Cottonmouth Country from The First Four Books of Poems composed of everything lost, in which everything lost is found last line from Mary Olivers Honey at the Table in American Primitive That was the strange unfathomed mine of souls or uncertain, gentle, and without impatience first and last lines from Rainer Maria Rilkes Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes from Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke Now the waters low. The weeds exceed me. middle line from Theodore Roethkes Praise to the End! from The Far Field

Examples
Following are two short poems of my own that employ line dancingthe first taking off from the Roethke line, the latter inspired by several lines from the list above.

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Wingbeats

Cove Now the waters low the weeds exceed me Roethke in my head, walking spits through rushes and mud. Two herons: I almost step on one. It rises in wingbeat uprush, deafening, but neither of us startle. We press through August sludge, thick sky. Weed exceeded. Flying low. Collage I know. I also left a skin there where the waters press mightily; unfathomed mines, souls red and composed of everything lost. Everything lost is found, uncertain. Without impatience even monsters are gentle: like advice, violence ever after shall be obsolete.
Jessamyn Johnston Smyth has had work in American Letters and Commentary, Red Rock Review, Cezannes Carrot, Nth Position, Abalone Moon, qarrtsiluni, and other journals and anthologies. Hers is one of 100 Other Distinguished Stories in Best American Short Stories 2005. Smyth has received a Pushcart Prize nomination, a Bread Loaf Writers Conference grant, a Vermont Community Foundation Artist Grant, and a writing grant from Change, Incorporated. She has several books in progress: a poetry collection, a novella, a fable series, and a couple of place-focused collections that explore the boundaries between forms. She lives in Southern Vermont, where she spends as much time as possible in the forest with her dog.

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