stills

MATTHEW COOPERMAN Stills
Ecopoetics volume 2, pages 56 and 57

These are called Stills. I’m not sure why, maybe that is a technical term.

A loose form, starting with a topic defined in the title (Still: Environmentalism, Still: Flight) followed by a set of attributes, each of which is followed by more detail. It reminds me of a writer’s or designer’s notebook, capturing a lot of thoughts or impressions about a thing, with labels.

An appealing combination of mind moves: rigorous data gathering juxtaposed against whimsically intuitive leaps juxtaposed against each other. The leaps don’t always make sense, but the pile up of datapoints seems to give a roundness, a fullness, a sense that the poet has spent some time with the topic, although not exhausting it.

I like this form. I might try it out myself. You could set this up as a grid ahead of time and fill it in quickly, associatively, without thinking too hard.

Still: (topic)

Ambition:
Setting:
Drama:
Pressures:
Sponsor:
Players:
Sequel: