fleeing in the third person
September 21, 2009 at 7:07 pm | Posted in poetry, writing | 16 CommentsTags: writing, writing exercises, writing for fun
I wonder why they ask for bios in the third person. Is it some tiny test of writing skills. Perhaps they just want to make sure you have a third person in case the first two fail? (interlocking snail trails through mushroom forests seeking
I’m reconnected to the internet. I am lighter from exercise surprise surprise, and browner from sunlight. The invoices I mean envoys have been de-patched, despatched, unlocked, unpouched and ancient yet with correct accent.
Shall we extrapolate horizons
begin the study of the linebreak
silver across the darkness of the sea
16 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a Reply
The Puzzle Box
gingatao, the podcast- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- The Australian Poet Laureate
- another quote from Robert Adamson January 31, 2010
- Three Quotes from Robert Adamson October 22, 2009
- The copyright question (2) October 7, 2009
legal formalities
© P Squires, gingatao, 2007-2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Paul Squires and gingatao, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
'And you have to deal with the terrible karma too.' Paul Squires.
Email us at querygingatao at gmail dot com,
-
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.
gingatao 
A study of the linebreak would be a good place to start. You have a new look, a new gravatar, a lightness in your step – welcome back grand poobah (or is it poet laureate of the universe – as pronounced by a few of your followers in the overland interview comment box). It’s been chaos without you – though you were still hovering slightly with the odd tweet and comment.
I think everyone had a bit of rest without me around to annoy them, Gabrielle. I could hear the sighs of relief everywhere when I was gone.
Comment by Gabrielle Bryden— September 21, 2009 #
‘to make sure you have a third person’ – i guess every writer must have one, he can blame for everything.. it is, i find, important 😉
welcome back..
Thankyou. It is handy to have someone fictional to blame, Ms Fragments.
Comment by Utopian Fragments— September 21, 2009 #
So long as no-one asks me for my honest third-person omniscient opinion….
The study of the line break! Now there’s a mystery I’d like to explore.
Haha, the omniscient narrator, now there is a quaint archaism, Brad.
Comment by Brad— September 21, 2009 #
glad to have you back, new look and all. last stanza is perfection, btw. have a great day.
Thanks, Michelle, you too.
Comment by Michelle Johnson— September 21, 2009 #
quite beautiful starts narrow opens wide upon the wonderful gingatao horizon- he is fabulous
The old fashioned way is to refer to boats as ‘she’ Tipota. Jib the schooner, raise the mainsail, we are underway,
Comment by tipota— September 22, 2009 #
In case the first two fail. Excellent. Which might make a fourth person handy as well.
The galley is flat out cooking up A Suspended Forth as we speak, Ms Squirrel.
Comment by The Querulous Squirrel— September 22, 2009 #
Seems we’re both on a nautical kick at he moment. We should go to a bar soon, get drunk, and sing some pirate songs, Mr Leviathan.
Sounds fantastic, Alec. We will have a whale (wail) of a time.
Comment by Alec Patric— September 22, 2009 #
I love it, “make sure you have a third person in case the first two fail.” A writer’s back up system for voice, for inspiration. That’s kind of how I look at it, anyhow. 🙂
And yes, “interlocking snail trails through mushroom forests” — that’s where the first two persons went, for a hike together, recharging and rejuvenating for inspiration to write.
Beautiful!
Thomma Lyn, I must admit that your fabulous mushroom forest was part of the inspiration for that line. I have never seen such fantastical funghi.
Comment by Thomma Lyn— September 22, 2009 #
Excellent text, I liked a lot the thing about resumes. Made me think about this super model naomi campbell who sometimes talks about herself in third person, weird aint it? What I think we need to do is to explore more interconnections that we did ever think of, because they must have a function, many of them, that we do not know.
Take care paul
I agree, Mariana, the connecticons are what make everything happens. Nothing has inherent meaning, all meaning is context dependent, so it is the connecticons/fusions from which energy/meaning emanates.
Comment by mariana— September 22, 2009 #
I think sometimes (well for me), you get a deeper understanding of self. Looking from the outside in. Have you noticed how I write my Babies? They are mostly about ‘him’ and ‘her’ ‘others’ but really I am just an narcissistic Poet; they are all me, my emotions/feelings *sigh*
‘extrapolate’ might just become my favourite word.
They may all be based on you, Sarah but when I read them they all seem very different. Extrapolate is a wonderful word.
Comment by SarahA— September 22, 2009 #
Even if I write about me, I always change ‘I’ to ‘she’ by the time it is on the page. It’s kinda easier that way perhaps. Welcome back!! (two exclamation marks, dear me)
Hello!!
Comment by Narnie— September 22, 2009 #
Simonne says woot! She loves it.
I’ll check with Paul, but I’m pretty sure that will make him smile hugely. Please let Simonne know.
Comment by Simonne— September 22, 2009 #
Don’t get me wrong, but this doesn’t seem like a poem to me, and I think it’s marvellous in precisely that aspect. When it strikes you as just “life,” and then you stop and realize — no, it was a picture; or it’s a story, a poem; it’s a movie — but it seems SO real.
That’s the way this struck me — as just so real. And, okay, taking it for real — what does one do when the first couple persons have failed? As I have grown older, I’ve begun to think that a well-integrated personality is somewhat over-rated. However, when one sheds persons because they don’t seem to be working out … what does one do? Have we only three? Three strikes and you’re out?
But surely life is not baseball. I hope. Anyway, superfabulous poem. And I do hope you passed the test. And I hope I pass — I hope we all pass — the various tests.
It doesn’t seem fair that we should only get three and cats should get nine, Aletha. Your paintings always strike me as very real too, the fish, your daughter, but they are not painted naturalistically, there is an element of artistry or ‘falsity’ which makes them seem more real. It is strange and I am trying to get to the bottom of this apparent paradox.
Comment by Aletha— September 23, 2009 #
Ha ha ha… One must realize that some among us think in the third person. i.e., one watches oneself being oneself – or perhaps it is just the living alone…
I find it ironic that one is not to use the “I” but rather to utilize aggressive-action-accomplishment verbiage: Organized. Facilitated. Managed. Designed. (oh, how these beg for italics!)
It’s as if it all happened without us – as we are only “implied”. Is it to imply we’ve less of an ego? More of a vocabulary? Less likely to bore the recipient in future?
Smiled throughout. (That was Patrice smiling – in case anyone else was watching.)
I apologize for this obtuse comment.
No need to apologise, Patrice, you have cut to the nub. It may well be that the self only exists through implication.
Comment by Patrice— September 25, 2009 #
And did the linebreak set you free? I often wonder, how big or how small it has to be. but come on, it ought to be in the third person, how can you admit to anything in first person 🙂
You are fabulous, Ms Mist.
Comment by Mental Mist— September 25, 2009 #
Third person bios present at least the illusion that somebody else is interested enough in you to write about you!
Haha, very true. Greatly enjoying your photos of Brighton, I see you had a lot of visitors this week in suits. Thanks for the blog, I really enjoy it a lot.
Comment by Street Photographer— September 28, 2009 #