And to read, think – create

by

Tom Fallon

As a young person, I drew. I had artistic talent. The visual was necessary for me. I entered college for a
career in art.
Then, a change in my life, and words became very important.
Thought first, then words.

As a boy I grew up freely roaming the neighborhoods, sandlots, outside from morning to night, far
happier outside than within the confines of school rooms.
I read from the library without supervision, choosing books as I browsed.
I had a private thought life, unsupervised, and unexpressed.

There was art and there was freedom.

Modern painting, modern jazz, Off-off Broadway theater of the Seventies, freedom.

We all know how to read.
Books.
Prose and poetry we read basically the same.
Begin and pause; stop. Begin, pause; stop. Begin.
The object is to move on from the beginning to the end.
It is that simple.
One line after the other in prose. Beginning to end. The pauses created by punctuation usually don’t
mean much.
In poetry, the same movement exists except between stanzas, where there is more of a pause than after a
comma, etc. Still, the pause does not have that much significance.
One line after another, beginning to end.
That is how I was taught to read. And that is how I began to write, thinking of reading with its pauses.
Beginning to end. Whether poetry or prose. Beginning to end.

But I grew up with the freedom of neighborhoods and sandlots, unsupervised in libraries, with a private
thought life.

I was writing. I was creating.

Something changed.

My need for the visual, which had been a very important part of my life until I began to write, suddenly
returned.
I began to feel a necessity for moving the written lines around on the page away from the left hand
margin.
To the middle of the page. Without a left hand margin.
Uneven margins.
Sight, the viewing of the lines written, was important to me.
Pauses became somewhat more important than in my previous poetry.
And I inserted spaces between lines, that were not strictly stanzas, where the space meant pause, wait,
then move on.
I began to write with words using space, the space of the page, as a factor, a tool, when creating.

Reading such a piece aloud was different than reading the usual poetry moving from beginning to end.
The pause, created by the use of space, which brought a silence to the reading, existed, affected the
reading.
A reader had to be aware of the space, of the silence of the space, the pause, when reading.
Pauses.
And, with larger spaces, wait, a wait in the reading, a stop.
And then moving on with the line.
I created in a new way with the uneven margins, the spaces, which affected the reading.
Affected how the mind approached the creation. When reading.
Silence was a factor in the creation of words on the page.
These creations could be published in book form.
Read from a book.

Still, in the book, on the page.

And after that first movement away from the left hand margin with the words there began a movement
around the page of words and lines. And, space was given even more prominence.
No left hand margin. Always uneven margins.
Not necessarily a complete sentence. Phrases, Words. Fragments.
In the space of the page.
In the space of the whole page.
And usually this creation was improvised.
Or the page was designed with the words and spaces, so to speak.
Designed.
However, this change of form meant to communicate, not obfuscate, bury meaning, significance,
of the word.

Work with the whole page.
A liberation which meant that I could create any form, invent any form, on any given day, that I felt
necessary for a creation.
No rules. Simply creation, words, in a form created or invented, to communicate.
No rules.
But a form seeking rules which would change with the next creation.

Communication on the whole page which grew to a larger sized page relative to publishing of the words,
8 1/2 x 11, not reduced to 6 x 9.
Using the whole page.
The space of the whole page.

Read from a book.

Still, in the book, on the page. A whole page. A whole page. 8 1/2 x 11 the size of the page, the creation.

Still, in the book, on the page.

Then, another direction, a new direction. Slow down of the words on the page, the space used specifically
to slow down the reading of the words. More than the usual space between the lines to slow down the
words in the lines.
To slow down the mind.
The reader.
But there was also the pitch of the voice when reading.
Soft.
Possibly two spaces between each word to slow down the words in the line as well as the larger space
between the lines to slow down the words.
Quietly spoken.
Slowing down the mind reading the words.

Space. Time. Changed.
Space.

Not a movement from the beginning to the end with short pauses. A movement from the beginning to the
end with long pauses.

However, this, although of value, was a direction not long embraced.

There was art and there was freedom. In the book and out of the book. Outside the book.

But I grew up with the freedom of neighborhoods and sandlots, unsupervised in libraries, with a private
thought life.

No book.

A leap into space.

The visual direction returned with greater intensity. Back to the visual in a different sense but following a
line from the beginning of the first movement away from the left hand margin, although a different branch
of that tree.

Breaking up the book. And outside the book.

A different way of thinking. A different way of seeing. A different way of creating.

New.

A different way of reading. This makes the change creation difficult for those who believe are locked into
one way of reading. One way to communicate. One way to create. As learned from childhood.
A restriction, confinement.

Now on the wall. Outside the book. No book.

A series created on 8 1/2 x 11 size sheets of paper meant to be hung on the wall for reading. These were
not to be read aloud. However, they could be read aloud.
Read aloud by the viewer.
Not the creator.

Reading from creations placed on a wall.

The viewer walking down the wall where the series was placed on the wall and reading each creation as it
existed in the series. Some creations relating from one to the other, from the beginning to the end, not on
the page of a book, physically in space, on the wall.

On the wall then followed the next step, creating on larger size sheets of paper, 11” x 17” and 13” x 19”.

Single sheets to be viewed on a wall.

Or single sheets to be viewed in the lap.

Not to be read aloud. As performed, aloud, by the viewer, reader.
To be viewed and read silently. To become in the mind.

Silences existing in the creations as previously silence was employed in the creations.

Breaking up the book. And outside the book.

A different way of thinking. A different way of seeing. A different way of creating.

A different way of reading. This makes the change creation difficult for those who believe are locked into
one way of reading. One way to communicate. One way to create. As learned from childhood.
A restriction, a confinement.

Then.

Another change, a development, a movement, the 13” x 19” size sheet created with space between the
words and lines as significant as the words and the lines were.
As before, space as significant as the words and lines, equal to the words and lines in the creation.
The whole, a visual space, time and space, the creation.
To be viewed on the wall.

But this use of the visual not as with concrete poetry, but the visual art using words. There is narrative
line here even truncated. The visuality of physical space in time with words and lines is the creation.

The person to stop, and view the creation on the wall. The person to stop, view the creation on the wall.

A different way of thinking. A different way of reading. A different way of seeing.
Which means an adjustment, a relearning.

A person stands, sits, in front of the wall creation to view it, read it, embrace it, bring it into one’s self,
into the mind, one’s consciousness.

To embrace the creation. Embrace the wall creation. Embrace the whole.

And the size of the creations increased to 3 feet by 4 feet. To be viewed on the wall. Still.

Stand still. Sit still.

A different way of reading. A different way of thinking.

Words. Word lines.

The creation of the wall creation similar to drawing.
I was drawing the creation in space. With time.
I was drawing the words in space.
With lines of thought.

I was in space.

Standing before the large wall creation, three feet by four feet, a person embraces in meditation the whole,
takes the whole into the mind, reading the words, phrases, lines, the spaces, becoming part of the creation.
The person does not move quickly away.
Reads the creation on the wall.
With space.

Sitting before the large wall creation, three feet by four feet, a person embraces in meditation the whole,
takes the whole into the mind, reading the words, phrases, lines, the spaces, becoming part of the creation.

The person becomes one with the creation.
On the wall.

So I was back at the beginning. I was an artist. The visual had returned to my consciousness, employed
in a literary sense.

Lines in space.

Words in space. Thought in space. Thought in creation.

Mind.

There was art and there was freedom. I had a private thought life. I had a creative life. I( was created.

Then to read.

Break up the book. And outside the book.

A different way of thinking.

A different way of seeing.

A different way of creating.

A different way of reading.

A person embraces the whole of the word creation in space and time.
So it is not necessary to read one line after the other in prose. Beginning to end. The pauses created by
punctuation usually don’t mean much.

It is not necessary to read poetry one line after another, a pause between stanzas, commas, etc. One line
after another, beginning to end. Moving forward.

Restricted, confined.

A new way of thinking is possible. A new way of reading is possible. A new way of creating is possible.

As William Carlos Williams said, “we have not yet discovered the one best way” of writing.

A person embraces the whole of the word creation in space and time. Embraces space and time.

Creation.

“So be it.”

Change in creation, movement, of the words, the creation, creations.

A time to rethink, recreate.

Change continues, creation continues. Evolution and revolution.

So it is that created in a large room, words on the walls. Large words. And words everywhere.
There can also be words smaller than the large words.

Words are everywhere, in the air, moving, without a fixed base, a communication in the air.

A very large room, words sounding. Words everywhere. Words of differing intensity.
Words spoken. Words whispered. A shout. A communication.

“We have not yet discovered the one best way...”

There was art and there was freedom when I was a young person, when I was a boy.
There is art and there is freedom.

And there is creation, always, seeking itself. There is life. There is change, more change.

And Orville Wright thought he could build a flying machine. He did. He thought.

We all know how to read, and read, and think.

So what have I? Breaking up the left hand margin; creating with uneven margins, moving to the middle
of the page; using the whole page, with uneven margins, no margins; using a larger page, without concern
for margins; the use of physical space between words, lines, managing time and rhythm; then an even
larger page, using space in the aforementioned manner; turning away from the book, making creations to
be viewed in the lap or on the wall, in various size “page sheets,” without performance or reading aloud
by the viewing; very large size “page sheets” on the wall for viewing; words on the walls of a room;
sound, words, in the air, in a room.

Creation matters. Life. And created forms will be important to human beings for a time. They will be
slowly changed, they will evolve, then they will be replaced with new and different forms as the necessity
of creation dictates. This is the nature of the vitality and the continuity of creation in the arts.

Creation is for creation. Creation is an ongoing process, cycle, of creation, destruction and recreation.

The volcano explodes.

Tom Fallon
May 2009

When I edited Apples and Oranges poetry magazine online,

I was impressed one day when I received a poem from a Mainer

that the person wanted to share with me.  She did not want

publication.  So I wish to share with you what I value, what

I need, most, with this short piece:

Bees in the white-flowering honesuckle at my shoulder;

birds chipping and squealing in the trees of the swamp;

lime-green ferns stretching into the air;

the water of Bean Brook moving slowly, quietly;

a white birch creating shadowy patterns on wet grass.

In the early morning air, peace; peace on earth.