Step 1. Do a word-cento of Bruce Wise’s latest
Wise Words with Bruce Wise at Oddball
Magazine. (In non-shpiggidity-shpaggidity speak,
a word-cento is basically is a rearrangement of
the words of a poem however you see fit, but only
using the poet’s words, particularly the words in
only one poem of said saint. *)

 

WORD-CENTO

Internet games, wired kerplunk, parked dragonfly
heron
plods dollies, the sound
upon air-conditioned work
on the busy carpet
beneath monitors, complex
erratic friendships so bare
vacuum mobilized thighs, alive
stands Mother
disconnected
by classical echo
Hands starve
for pink genocide.

 

Step 2. Write a meditative insert. (This is kinda
tough to explain. Really, it’s whatever gets your
grooviness going… but in a meditative way
and with a hard-on for poetry.) Try writing while
listening to Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way.
That always gets me groovy…

 

MEDITATIVE INSERT

Enlightenment seems like a blessing in disguise,
a corpse to a fool,
whose ragged bones shiver in the wind;
and rage with a hard-on for justice,
punctuation: self-acceptance

for all that is. There is nothing hidden ember
infant selfishness fierce as fire fraught
by nihilist saints,
the ocean baby-making waves as I crash

into We.

 

Step 3. Combine the meditative insert and the word-cento
and make some slight edits.

I CRASH INTO WE (combo)

Internet games, wired kerplunk, parked dragonfly heron.
Enlightenment seems like a blessing in disguise,
plods dollies, the sound corpse to a fool
whose ragged bones shiver air-conditioned work
and rage on the busy carpet with a hard-on
for justice beneath monitors,
erratic friendships so bare
vacuum mobilized thighs alive
for all that is: Mother.
There is nothing hidden
disconnected
by classical ember echo, punctuation:
self-acceptance.
Hands starve
for infant selfishness,
fierce as fire fraught
by nihilist saints’ pink genocide…
the ocean baby-making waves I crash

into We.

 

* NOTE: In this particular “Incentovise,” I kind of
cheat in that I am considering Bruce Wise’s latest
column as a singular work. In truth, it’s comprised
of more than one poet, even though the column is
one author.

 

Joshua Corwin, a Los Angeles native, is a neurodiverse, Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and Spillwords Press Publication of the Month winner. His debut poetry collection Becoming Vulnerable (2020) details his experience with autism, addiction, sobriety and spirituality. He has lectured at UCLA, performed at the 2020 National Beat Poetry Festival, and his Beat poetry is to be anthologized alongside Ferlinghetti, Hirschman, Ford, Coleman and weiss late this year (Sparring Omnibus, Mystic Boxing Commission). He hosts the poetry podcast “Assiduous Dust” and teaches poetry to neurodiverse individuals and autistic addicts in recovery at The Miracle Project, an autism nonprofit. Corwin’s collaborative collection A Double Meaning, with David Dephy, is currently seeking publication. He also has forthcoming collaborative poetry projects with Ellyn Maybe including Ghosts Sing into the World’s Ear (Ghost Accordion series 1st Wave, Mystic Boxing Commission).