The sense in sensation

Wow. What a mindblowing experience. To The Point Events asked me if I could do my literary act #nualzerevingers* in English. (*Already sore feeling fingers, my typewriting act) for The garden of Elements, the chill-out zone, the day after, of Tomorrowland.

“How many people can you process? In four hours?” They asked. A very technical question for what I do. although it was up my alley, I do tend to analyze a lot. “Eighty?” He asked. If I had anything in my mouth, it would have been splattered all over the room. As if anyone can write 20 poems in an hour. How can this even be a realistic thing?

“No ...” I said hesitantly. “About 6 to 8.” A huge part of the process is the connection, the creating itself and deliverance. I aim for 8 in average per hour. Though the question puzzled me.

Speed up? With rushing the process, I'd lose depth, connectivity and orginality.

Standarize this? With brainstorming, we came to the conclusion, I don't want to uniformize the procedure. A steady set of questions is a no go. The process is feeded by a spontaneous conversation and see where it would lead. No restrictions in theme or connection. The girl asked me a poem on travelling alone as a positive thing. It gave an immediate spark in my head.

I only have to wait

for myself

Pack, put a proverbial stamp

on my forehead and send.

I only have to be myself,

to meet to travel, to be flabber-

gasted, I only have so much

patience with me, like

I am not elastic.

I only have a simple planning,

a wind to follow,

or is it me blowing

searching to be blown,

searching for can you relate,

searching for home,

I only have to wait

for myself, a longing to storage

memories, stock

my innershelves.

What is the worst when you travel with friends or in group? I asked the queueing people, introducing the poem. To wait, I answered myself, to wait till everyone is ready. Even your partner holds you up once and a while.

Notes to self

Interact more Use the queue for words you cannot think of. Explain to people who are intrigued what you are doing. Connect beyond the person in front of you. Raise your voice when delivering.

Impress on first sight Like the table on top of the sitting bench at the Brussels Pride. It kinda looked like a DJ booth. So this time 4 typewriters were set up on a table with a long paper. And me typing like crazy.

It feels like going to a therapist. She sobbed, when it was her turn, terrified what would come out. No, I said, it's just me. We are just going to have a talk. And I wrote a poem on sadness.

Conclusion? The hardest part in the end is thinking of good questions. Being dependant on what the people in front reach me, the answers and their level of english are also a determining factor of succes. It is sometimes a dead alley.

What do you like in life? To travel and to party.

How many times I heard that line. I nearly always skipped that information to make something. And then, come up with extra questions. Some people succeeded to make a summary of their life, 2 cats, 1 dog, 5 chickens, 6 years of work, ... It's not the what but the how they tell it, which is useful. What lies beyond the obvious?

I realized 30-ish poems in 5 hours. (See the list below)

It is my lower benchmark, but in a non-native language, looking back, I managed to do well. As if you can use quota for poetry. More sensation would make less sense. A standarized survey or shorter poems would be more superficial and now people who waited were given a nice personal present. One Canadian compared me with A.I.. “Give him some words and he makes a poem”. A nice enough and well-intended complement, but I hope there is/was/... more to it than just words and prompts.

Of two poems I am a bit less proud (a french one and the last, too easy a bit). But what a journey. Thanxalot for the patience, the opportunity and all the wonderful people who were open to do this. To baffle even native English speakers makes me look forward to next weekend.

Meet you at the garden of Elements for a poetic journey,

Jee Kast

The list of poems made that day is incomplete. Some content I truly can't remember. The list are not titles but keywords. I am amazed myself, I got this far reconstructing this the day after. The whole afternoon is a blur. By thinking of countries and themes retraced the work I did on Monday.

2 USA – Chemistry, let me fly (back2u)

2 France – L'Amour, Plombier

1 USA – Trinkets/all or nothing (There's a nice anekdote to this one!)

1 N. Africa (?) – Missile/Material

1 UK (London) – Next step (Correct me if i am wrong)

1 USA – The and and... poem (on friendship, I loved this one)

1 India – Crossroad

1 Germany Singapore – Half of the time I hate to travel (long distance/away from you)

1 Swiss, South Am. – The “normal couple”-attempt (marriage proposal)

1 USA (?) – Gemini (both sides of the coin)

2 Mexico, (Mex. city) – party couple, ...

1 USA – Salt to pepper (need a man to spice me up, haha)

2 Spain (… , Malaga) – Hi @ work , ...

1 … – … (terrible, I just see her face and she looked up the word umami for me)

1 Spain Russia (Madrid) – application

1 Marocco – couple

1 B - Call me Spartacus (I started with that one for myself)

1 Brazil – Stubborn

1 India – Re-root (That one had impact like dinosaurkilling meteorites, she was warned before sharing the poem and with the heads up she managed to held her head up.)

3 Canada (Vancouver) – Architect, Ugly Dog (most playful piece of the day), Family is all

1 Asia – Yoga

1 France (?) – Sad is okay.

1 ... – I wait for me (the poem above)

1 Israel – No place like home