by Dave Jarecki
Another Pennsylvania sunset
backed down the local mountain
spraying the colors of a streetfighter’s face
onto the narrative wallpaper of a boy’s bedroom
The fragment comes from the poem “The Homeowner’s Prayer,” in David Berman’s collection, Actual Air (Open City Books, 1999). I’ve been addicted to this book since 2001, gave my copy away to a friend, tried living without it for a short time, then had to go get a new copy.
Reading “The Homeowner’s Prayer” recently, I found myself being pulled into the scene of the boy in the bedroom. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in Pennsylvania and can remember the way the sunset would inject light into my western-facing windows.
This week, I encourage you to find the “narrative wallpaper” that resides in your home, apartment, memory, etc. Maybe you’re the child in the bedroom watching stories burn in the sun. Perhaps you can wander into a remembered or even fictional place and let the poem jump off from there. Or maybe you’ll take this fragment of Berman’s poem and run with it.
Whatever you do, have fun stripping and repapering the walls.
Dave Jarecki writes poetry, prose and strategic communications from his home office in Portland, Ore. Read and listen to his work, as well as the work of guest writers, at DaveJarecki.com.
Licensed narrative! Goody, goody
(Don’t know how they do it in PA, but around here we rarely re-paper in the buff.)
Dave replied:
January 29th, 2010 at 11:41 am
awesome bit of language play (stripping=buff). More below.
the perfect prompt for my birthday week. I started today at twitter, writing about the wallpaper of snow and ice that usually accompanied this day and definitely frames my memory of my birthday as a little girl. GREAT prompt!
I don’t know, this is uncomfortably close to the Charlotte Perkins Gilman story… will have to work extra hard to keep it cheery.
Susanne Barrett replied:
January 29th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Yes, Joseph, that was my first thought, too — no creeping around with shoulder against yellow wallpaper, making one’s mate faint in shock….
Any colour but yellow, indeed.
rallentanda replied:
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:57 am
I wrote one about yellow wallpaper .
http://rallentanda.blogspot.com
juliejordanscott replied:
January 30th, 2010 at 11:01 am
I did a google search on narrative wallpaper, perhaps because I liked how it sounded and sure enough, Charlotte Perkins Gilman showed up. This prompt is haunting me, much like that wall paper haunted the protagonist in that story – but not nearly as evil or eerie.
Barbara – the fact that you zeroed in on “stripping” and turned it around to repapering nude is fan-f’ing-tastic! This prompt can be an exercise on stripping down our own layers, be it clothing, skin or otherwise. Nicely played.
Once I bought leftover wallpaper scraps at my local paint store, then hand-sewed the scraps into covers for my own poetry booklets. Maybe I can turn that into a narrative poem?
Dave replied:
January 29th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Great idea, Therese.
[...] Process notes: Poem in response to Read Write Poem’s prompt on narrative wallpaper here. [...]
Great prompt Dave. I haven’t read much of Berman’s work but what I have seen I liked a lot.
Dave replied:
January 30th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
I think you’d really enjoy “Actual Air” – he’s better known as the front man for a band called “Silver Jews”.
Dave – I am in deep amore with this prompt. So much so, I am going to use the concept with the actors in the show I am directing. The setting is exactly that: narrative wall paper. In my google search I found an art installation that I would LOVE to have seen… and in my mind’s eye I have been revisiting wallpapers from many phases of my life, probably the most vivid is one that showed up both in a recent dream and in a collage I made… it just “popped up” and then this prompt? I think I need to write it. Thank you, again.
Dave replied:
January 30th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Julie – this is fantastic on many levels. First, I’m glad to know this prompt will flow into your directing. Secondly, you’re opening my mind up to whole other worlds of possibilities around the language itself.
Fascinating.
thanks for this prompt Dave…have no idea where I will go with this….but Im sure something will happen
Dave replied:
January 30th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Confusion makes a great starting point.
Will have something posted on my blog tomorrow, Feb 3. Thanks for the idea. A friend just told me about this site and it is great!
Here is my answer to the challenge: http://poemblaze.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/changing-wallpaper/
I have mixed feelings about ending the poem with a question.
Matt Quinn replied:
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I went for a bit more literalistic approach, the wallpaper itself as narrative.
Dave replied:
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Thanks Matt –
Keep an eye out for the “get your poem on” post tomorrow, where everyone will be posting links to their poems.
[...] * * For a Read Write Poem prompt, which was terrific. I need a little more time with it, but it’s all I got for now. Thanks, [...]
Thanks, Dave. Wasn’t sue how that worked.
[...] read beneath eat beneath & fuck & breathe change only to follow me written in response to read write prompt 112: the narrative wallpaper Spread the [...]
[...] Leave a Comment Dave Jarecki’s the prompt was to create a narrative wallpaper poem at Read Write Poem. He encourages us to “to find the “narrative wallpaper” that resides in your home, [...]
[...] February 5, 2010 by rhiannonproblematising This is a response to Read Write Prompt #112. [...]
I’m late. Sorry.
http://survivorscribe.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/day-7-read-write-prompt-112-narrative-wallpaper/