February 24, 2010

Hack and Slash




On a grey day. 2010.




Himself: He wanted to see the new Sherlock Holmes again….so we did. Really good. He found a couple of jobs to apply for also.

Herself: Swam. Hacking and slashing. Movie and dinner. Olympics. We miss the best stuff when we go to sleep before they end tho.

Reading: That fragile DE Stevenson.

Gratitude: One friend at a time, my computer, and of course G.

I hacked and slashed at poems yesterday. One really isn’t bad after a morning of pushing here and polishing there. I’m essentially a painter, a colorist, so when I find words marching together in some form of order, I always feel so surprised. My mentor finds all sorts of kind words to say, but I’m still surprised.

Another I have doubts about. It seems just fine when I read it, but when I come back to it later the palidness of it all just lies there like a lump. Lumps aren’t at all successful in the way of poems, so I poke here or there then let it go for another day. It’s a shame too, for it’s a major statement piece….that says nothing at all.

The computer room is scattered with bits of my projects. It’s amazing how they grow. No moss on these projects. By tomorrow the room must be tidied up, G’s having a friend over for computer lessons. Make the bed….for you can see it from the computer room. Clean the surfaces off….so he can find the computers. You see, I don’t mind dodging the piles of detritus, the piles for the tax man, the next scanning project, the next quilt. I’m sure G’s friend won’t fully enjoy being engulfed by paper, fabric, and dreams.

Today I will tackle another massing of words. They wait where they’ve waited now for years. They can wait a little longer to be gathered in, to be hacked and slashed and made new. To surprise me in their wholeness.



  • Coughed so much in class today that I came home and called the doctor. My too many years of smoking has always been catching up with me, but never more frighteningly than today.


  • After a one day of semi discussion, we have decided to go to the "94th Aero Squadron" for dinner tonight. It's one of those seventies cutsey restaurants with a theme, and they have kept it going because they have good foods. Anniversaries: We celebrate two. The first in 1983 when we met, and the second in 1996. We think it's 96 anyway; 14 years.


  • Hack and slash is a humorous term for those old layout and pasteup folks who used to do it with an exacto knife. That was me. For a while I worked for "Hack and Slash Graphics." Then there was "Under the Table Graphics." You can figure that one out easily. I personally was fond of "Moonlight graphics."

6 comments:

  1. You people who are fasinated by words amaze me. I'm a total lump when it comes to words, music and 2 lumps when it comes to poetry.

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  2. Love the description of your work space. Mine looks the same. I keep vowing I'll clean it up, but it doesn't happen. I have an old drafting light table I'd like to sell, but can't photograph it until I clear a space around it (and clear off the top). Someday.

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  3. Ruthe and Mage, mine would probably make your work spaces look good. I keep reminding myself that a cluttered desk is a sign of either a creative mind, or to go a step further at least a curious one.

    I liked Sherlock Holmes a lot, too. Good old storytelling. Avatar was good too, but I thought if it hadn't been 3-D it would have become a fancy fairy tale for me. I can't wait to see my next big screen.

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  4. I like it that you hack and slash your work. So do I! Sometimes though I wonder if I'm too ruthless.

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  5. I so need to 'exercise' my words into poems that same way I must get back to just plain EXERCISE. I am so brave that I just post the first (and since there are no brave critics) the only draft of what I call poetry...because it usually is written in short lines ;-). Your ship photo motivated me to craft a blog post just for you...it will be posted on March 8 as I have been compiling posts of my recent trip and you are included.

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  6. Heheheh, "hack and slash" reminds me of working on the newspaper layout, back in Neolithic times,lol! ;-)

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