whose memory loses whatever sentence he started before and so makes new words for each new occasion ask what is your mem whose memory loses whatever sentence he started before and so makes new words for each new occasion ask what is your memory of summer and he says I have no memory my memory is dis-hatched he speaks in a whisper tinier than the radio rustling next to him and the clattering ward metal hitting metal continually that is the sound of a hospital he talks into my ear the words very slow words erase from his tongue as he speaks them and sometimes it is only a murmur what do you think I ask how is it to be like this I say take your time I can wait and sometimes I murmur too until both of us speak and hum together our heads by one another outside the sun outside is the summer outside is language this is a very slow talking ory of summer and he says I have no memory my memory is dis-hatched he speaks in a whisper tinier than the radio rustling next to him and the clattering ward metal hitting metal continually that is the sound of a hospital he talks into my ear the words very slow words erase from his tongue as he speaks them and sometimes it is only a murmur what do you think I ask how is it to be like this I say take your time I can wait and sometimes I murmur too until both of us speak and hum together our heads by one another outside the sun outside is the summer outside is language this is a very slow talking
Using the stuff of the ordinary the found to make poems. Allowing ordinary voices to be privileged : allowing both patient’s own voices (their clean language, dialect, slang, spelling, their sound) and their physical condition (dementia, forgetfulness, non-linear logic, physical difficulties) to be part of the poem-making. ACTION: make poems from case histories, using oulipo, cutup, shaping as forms. EXAMPLE: William Burroughs, Aaron Williams, Hannah Weiner. These modes can be taken and used against the passive role that patient implies. Empowerment via the creative act itself/reversal of power relationships implied by institutional text.
