I am so stoked about this challenge!
"Today, I’d like to challenge you to make a “Personal Universal Deck,” and then to write a poem using it. The idea of the “Personal Universal Deck” originated with the poet and playwright Michael McClure, who gave the project of creating such decks to his students in a 1976 lecture at Naropa University. Basically, you will need 50 index cards or small pieces of paper, and on them, you will write 100 words (one on the front and one on the back of each card/paper) using the rules found here."
Would you believe I just happen to have one? Earlier this year I took an online poetry course with Paul Nelson who is linked in the "here" above and one of the things he had us do was to make a Personal Universe Deck! Mine lives in its own box.
True to form for me, I did it my way in that I wrote the two words on the same side of each card, so what I do is shuffle, draw three cards, and use the word that's right-side-up when I put them down. (Unless I'm feeling ornery, in which case I use the word that's up-side-down.)
Tonight I ended up with incense, stab, and woods.
Incantation
If you take a flower and place it on a fire
heat from the blaze s p r e a d s
until it finds another in need of warmth.
The night you came back
we burned the incense
I had saved for such an occasion.
You took a stab at writing a poem
I pretended to like
with its burnt out rhymes and tumbledown clichés.
I put Billy Joel on the stereo
and we danced a little
bottle of red bottle of white.
We carried what was left of us
into the woods in search of solace
but only one of us returned.
§
16 comments:
How extraordinary! Love your deck -- and box.
What a beautiful homemade deck. I love the illustrations (mine is literally words I wrote on card this morning) and a stunning poem!
That's a lovely deck! Came handy, right?!
I don't have one and it sounds such a lovely project.
You have imbibed your words so beautifully into your poem. I am yet to write mine.
Deepa
https://deepazworld.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much!
This is amazing!
This is not (usually) the sort of prompt I go for, but seeing your beautiful deck and the MAGNIFICENT work you created using it, I just might give it a whirl (but not today, thanks).
Love your structure, and esp enjoyed the B Joel reference. Awesome work.
Linda! What a beautiful poem that comes out of this powerful practice! I plan to create my own deck this weekend.
Thank you for taking on this (and all of the other) “challenges” that you share with us. We all benefit from them.
What a lovely deck Linda! That must have taken a lot of effort. Loved what you quilled with your three cards.
What a wonderful deck you have created. You went visual and renegade at the same time.
Thanks your for the whole creation, inspiration, handmade poem. xxBTW
Thank you so much for commenting, Sunita, Ron, Joan, F&F, and Barbara! When I saw this prompt I felt a bit like when I was in school and I'd actually done the homework for once!
I love your gorgeous deck, Linda!😍 And this throat-clutching ending:
"We carried what was left of us
into the woods in search of solace
but only one of us returned."💜
Oh, my, you certainly come prepared. Your cards are spectacular and the poem is stunning.
I found it! And love it. And I'm jealous of your cards. Much cooler than my scribble words on either side of a small rectangle of yellow legal pad.
Was not expecting that end. Making a deck sounds good.
Huge thanks to all of you for commenting! Judy, it only took me about two months to get the deck together.
Highly recommend the deck, Kristin.
I just read on Paul's page, the pages he posted by McClure. Your way was the way McClure did his deck, two words one side.
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