Form and Process

I am very interested in how form changes meaning. Ted Berrigan used the same lines in different contexts and formats, changing the poem's direction, either slightly or completely. I appreciate this shuffling of ideas and creating a space that isn't chronological. I do think, however, that some of Berrigan's pieces should have simply been drafts to get from one piece to the next. When some of the phrases were being used so much, the meaning and originality of the words diminished. It's similar to how a musical artist knows they have a great line, so they repeat it over and over until you are able to sing along with it and not even realize how incredible it is. I could see Berrigan doing this on purpose as a kind of critique but I think reading the book as a whole was too repetitive.

By cutting and pasting the Shakespearean sonnets, I also got to see how context and repetition change the poem's tone. The connection between the exercise and Berrigan's poems was very obvious. It was cool to be able to see the sort of method he may have used. With pieces like Berrigan's sonnets, the process can become more interesting than the poem itself.