Dear Friends, For those who have joined us recently, welcome! “Ways of Seeing” is a series of inspirations and practical exercises for deepening attention and engaging with art. This week I’ve been returning the magical works of Francis Ponge. Ponge was a French poet and essayist, one of the inventors of the prose poem. He is best known for writing that gives voice to the ordinary things of this world, things which have no speech of their own.
“My dear Ponge (I want to retort), how can you be sure where the river ends and your words begin?” Nonetheless, I will try Sal’s exercise. Maybe that will serve for an answer. :-)
Thank you for such a cool piece. By coincidence, I have recently written a passage for a future moment in my story The Tarnished Gloriole (here on Substack, for free, in weekly instalments…please have a look at it and if you like it, which I hope you will, please subscribe and continue to read it) which has similarities in a way to feelings around the exercise you set out here.
“My dear Ponge (I want to retort), how can you be sure where the river ends and your words begin?” Nonetheless, I will try Sal’s exercise. Maybe that will serve for an answer. :-)
Thank you for such a cool piece. By coincidence, I have recently written a passage for a future moment in my story The Tarnished Gloriole (here on Substack, for free, in weekly instalments…please have a look at it and if you like it, which I hope you will, please subscribe and continue to read it) which has similarities in a way to feelings around the exercise you set out here.