18 October 2021
Posted by Matt L.T. Smtih
Earthquakes & Dominoes - MAST Collective Blog #4
When you start lining up dominoes it’s an easy assumption how they’re going to fall. But in this life how often are we the ones that get to do the flicking? Or even the lining up for that matter. Was it even a flick that put events in motion? Did the cat come along and decide to topple the line? Was it the wind? Or an earthquake?
Today we are manufacturing synchronicity in our town. Thinking about cause and effect, we’re tasked with first writing about effect. An event is being observed within the town with an unknown cause, what are you or your character seeing? Once our events have been sketched we enter them into the Padlet. And now it’s time to swap pieces, write the catalyst that sparked someone else’s event. They’ve lined it up, and now it’s up to you to flick, or blow, or build some kind of doomsday earthquake machine. Relinquishing control over your own words can be hard, but what changes when someone else brings their voice to your event?
We next take a look at Olga Tokarczuk’s piece ‘Purging the Map,’ where she sets about erasing the places where she experienced hurt. Expunging the scene of a bad memory is a tantalizing thought. Contemplating this Antosh next tasks us with creating a demolishing act, perhaps a place erased from our growing town or a memory. Is forgetting a kind of demolition? Is demolition always an ending? What comes after a demolition?
Revisiting our work on limbos we start thinking about the notion of an island, guided by Tokarczuk’s writings on islands. An island is a space disconnected from all other places. We think about what makes someone remain in place? What keeps them from leaving? Is there just endless ocean and nowhere else to go? What stops events from moving?
Archive
Storytelling and Escalation or Rising Action
Junior Writers Club Acrostic Poem
Notes on Intention for MAST Collective - Year 3 - Facilitation Focus
Earthquakes & Dominoes - MAST Collective Blog #4
SUPER MARIO AND POP CULTURE POEMS
Receptionists & Inky Voids - MAST Collective Blog #3
Saying No and saying YES on National Poetry Day!
There's a Dragon in the Wardrobe...
House Warming Party (The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known) - MAST Collective Blog #2
Intern Blog 5 - The Publishing Process
POEMS TO SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS
On The Streets With Theresa Lola
Intern Blog 4 - The Internship Journey
NEW DIRECTIONS, STARTING SMALL - THE ORWELL YOUTH PRIZE
LIGHTHOUSES, HOPE AND METAPHORS
on workshop and transformations: frogs, lions, and the duck that becomes a larder...
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with April Egan
Intern Blog 1 - Finding a Voice
World Poetry Day: Fluffypunk and the Invisible Women
On Being a Writer: A Conversation by Beth Phillips & Sam Morton
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with Kaycee Hill
UNHEARD VOICES: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, AND STORIES OF CONFLICT
