Collective poetry
Encyclopedia
Collaborative or collective poetry is an alternative and creative technique for writing poetry
by more than one person. The principal aim of collaborative poetry is to create poems with multiple collaborations from various authors. In a common example of collaborative poetry, there may be numerous authors working in conjunction with one another to try and form a unified voice that can still maintain their individual voices.
. Though the precise accounts and records of such events are either lost or missing, there is significant proofs that speak of poetry as a Japanese cultural phenomena. Japanese poetry, particularly in the development of waka
, was greatly influenced by the popular rituals of aristocrats, whose devotion to poetry helped increase the value and worth of poetry.
, Paul Éluard
and René Char
. The poems were written collaboratively over the course of five days in 1930. The Surrealists had invented the art of Collage
and collective creative 'games' such as the Exquisite corpse
, where a collection of words or images are collectively assembled.
In 1940's, American poet Charles Henri Ford
invented what he called the "chain poem", where each poet writers a line and then forwards the poem to another person across the world by post. In his Process Note, Ford explained the method of the 'chain poem': "Thus, after the first line is written, the problem of each poet, in turn, is to provide a line which may both 'contradict' and carry forward the preceding line. The chain poet may attempt to include his unique style and make it intelligible to the poem as well; in which case the chain poem will have a logical and spontaneous growth." In the 1970s, some feminist poets adopted the concept to discover their "collective feminine voice".
More recent experiments of collaborative poetry include the collaborative works of American poets Denise Duhamel
and Maureen Seaton, who have been writing poetry together for 15 years and have published three collaborative books: Exquisite Politics (1997), Oyl (2000) and Little Novels (2002). Duhamel described this collaboration saying, "Something magical happens when we write - we find this third voice, someone who is neither Maureen nor I, and our ego sort of fades into the background. The poem matters, not either one of us."
In 2007, the "first definitive collection" of American collaborative poetry was published under the title Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry. Edited by Denise Duhamel, Maureen Seaton and David Trinidad, the anthology included 140 poems by more than 200 authors, culled from various magazines, out-of-print collections, and previously unpublished material.
Another recent experiment is the "Poem Factory", a collective poetry-writing project by an Arabic-language web magazine called Asda (or Asdaa, Arabic: أصداء). The project uses MediaWiki
(the same software used by Wikipedia
) to collaboratively write modern poetry in Arabic
, which is then published in the magazine under a Creative Commons license
. The stated aim of the "factory" is to "liberate poetry from the disease of ownership and its pathological offsprings, such as fame obsession and copy rights, which have become characteristic of creative production." It also aims to "discover the collective inside us as poetic beings" and "to bypass the passivity of the reader towards an active contribution." The first 'product' of Asdaa's Poem Factory was published on the magazine's website in January 2008. The poem, titled Shoes, was written by at least five people.
Online blogging communities have recently added to the catalogue of collaborative poetry. One recent experiment, www.thepoetrycollaborative.org, features nine on-line poets drafting poetry and exposing the process of creating work on-line as a sort of performance art meets literature.
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
by more than one person. The principal aim of collaborative poetry is to create poems with multiple collaborations from various authors. In a common example of collaborative poetry, there may be numerous authors working in conjunction with one another to try and form a unified voice that can still maintain their individual voices.
Historical evidence of collaborative poetry
Examples of collaborative poetry abound in Japanese poetryJapanese poetry
Japanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...
. Though the precise accounts and records of such events are either lost or missing, there is significant proofs that speak of poetry as a Japanese cultural phenomena. Japanese poetry, particularly in the development of waka
Waka (poetry)
Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
, was greatly influenced by the popular rituals of aristocrats, whose devotion to poetry helped increase the value and worth of poetry.
In recent times
One of the most famous examples of collaborative poetry-writing in modern times was the poem collection Ralentir Travaux by Surrealist French poets André BretonAndré Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
, Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
and René Char
René Char
René Char was a 20th century French poet.-Biography:Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of four children of Emile Char and Marie-Therese Rouget, where his father was mayor and managing director of the Vaucluse plasterworks...
. The poems were written collaboratively over the course of five days in 1930. The Surrealists had invented the art of Collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
and collective creative 'games' such as the Exquisite corpse
Exquisite corpse
Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original...
, where a collection of words or images are collectively assembled.
In 1940's, American poet Charles Henri Ford
Charles Henri Ford
Charles Henri Ford was an American poet, novelist, filmmaker, photographer, and collage artist best known for his editorship of the Surrealist magazine View in New York City, and as the partner of the artist Pavel Tchelitchew...
invented what he called the "chain poem", where each poet writers a line and then forwards the poem to another person across the world by post. In his Process Note, Ford explained the method of the 'chain poem': "Thus, after the first line is written, the problem of each poet, in turn, is to provide a line which may both 'contradict' and carry forward the preceding line. The chain poet may attempt to include his unique style and make it intelligible to the poem as well; in which case the chain poem will have a logical and spontaneous growth." In the 1970s, some feminist poets adopted the concept to discover their "collective feminine voice".
More recent experiments of collaborative poetry include the collaborative works of American poets Denise Duhamel
Denise Duhamel
-Background:Duhamel received her B.F.A. from Emerson College and her M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. She is a New York Foundation for the Arts recipient and has been resident poet at Bucknell University...
and Maureen Seaton, who have been writing poetry together for 15 years and have published three collaborative books: Exquisite Politics (1997), Oyl (2000) and Little Novels (2002). Duhamel described this collaboration saying, "Something magical happens when we write - we find this third voice, someone who is neither Maureen nor I, and our ego sort of fades into the background. The poem matters, not either one of us."
In 2007, the "first definitive collection" of American collaborative poetry was published under the title Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry. Edited by Denise Duhamel, Maureen Seaton and David Trinidad, the anthology included 140 poems by more than 200 authors, culled from various magazines, out-of-print collections, and previously unpublished material.
Another recent experiment is the "Poem Factory", a collective poetry-writing project by an Arabic-language web magazine called Asda (or Asdaa, Arabic: أصداء). The project uses MediaWiki
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
(the same software used by Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
) to collaboratively write modern poetry in Arabic
Modern Arabic Poetry
By definition, Arabic poetry is poetry written in formal Arabic and follows one of the 16 rhymes . The structure follows an internal or/and external technique...
, which is then published in the magazine under a Creative Commons license
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. The licenses differ by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S...
. The stated aim of the "factory" is to "liberate poetry from the disease of ownership and its pathological offsprings, such as fame obsession and copy rights, which have become characteristic of creative production." It also aims to "discover the collective inside us as poetic beings" and "to bypass the passivity of the reader towards an active contribution." The first 'product' of Asdaa's Poem Factory was published on the magazine's website in January 2008. The poem, titled Shoes, was written by at least five people.
Online blogging communities have recently added to the catalogue of collaborative poetry. One recent experiment, www.thepoetrycollaborative.org, features nine on-line poets drafting poetry and exposing the process of creating work on-line as a sort of performance art meets literature.