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sometimes you don’t know

You’re thinkin’: How does a person know if they’re crazy or not?  Well, sometimes you don’t know.  Sometimes you can go through life suspecting you are but never really knowing for sure.  Sometimes you know for sure ’cause you got so many people tellin’ you you’re crazy that it’s your word against everyone else’s.

— “Trudy,” played by Lily Tomlin in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, written by Jane Wagner

 

How many truths are there?
          Building a cabinet of cabinets to leap through

Question Christopher Herold,  Answer Michelle Tennison (2017)

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A Collective Hunch

. . . for me it came at a time when nothing else seemed to be working. I got the kind of madness Socrates talked about, “A divine release of the soul from the yoke of custom and convention.” I refuse to be intimidated by reality anymore. After all, what is reality anyway? Nothin’ but a collective hunch.

— “Trudy,” played by Lily Tomlin in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,  written by Jane Wagner

 

What is Albert Einstein doing on the other side?
          Thunder in a haiku 

Question Michelle Tennison,  Answer John Levy (2017)

 

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I made some studies, and reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.

— “Trudy,” played by Lily Tomlin in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, written by Jane Wagner

 

Am I falling or flying?
          The universe goes as far in as out.

Q&A Session with Paul Cunniff, Sharon Cunniff, Mary Ellen Binkele, and Michelle Tennison (2016)

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More Surrealist Fun

I love the Surrealists! Sometimes you just need a good laugh.

Another literary game of chance:

The first player writes the opening of a sentence beginning with “If” or “When” and then conceals it. The second player finishes the sentence in the conditional or future tense.

This game, also invented by the French Surrealists in the early decades of the 20th Century, is referred to as CONDITIONALS in the book Surrealist Games, compiled and presented by Alastair Brotchie and edited by Mel Gooding, 1993.

Here’s what happened when Sabine Miller bravely agreed to jump into the surreal swimming pool with me once again:

 

If popsicles were used as currency
clarity could be bought but not sold

If Dracula went through menopause
lines would succumb to music

If shadows would just get on with it
a patriot would kneel to the sea

Michelle Tennison,  Sabine Miller (2017)

 

If a telephone could bleed language
dogs will finally laugh out loud

If a rosebug could engineer a rose
 flowers would know where to go

If we are ships with bananas as rudders
doctors would stop daydreaming

Sabine Miller,  Michelle Tennison (2017)

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paul m. & Rene Magritte

The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.

—  Rene Magritte

 

Paul Miller, a.k.a. paul m., has long been one of the major figures in English Language Haiku, writing gorgeous award-winning books including his most recent Few Days North Days Few, which won both a Kanterman Award  and Touchstone Award.  And as the editor of Modern Haiku since 2013, his role as a gatekeeper of the genre has been significant.

So you can imagine my surprise when Paul agreed to be one of the first haiku poets to bravely play The Question and Answer Game with me.  I am eternally grateful. Plus it was big fun.

Interestingly, many of the results fall into Magritte’s “unknown images” category, and I think that is why I love them so much.

 

What is loss of innocence?
          The negative image of a xylophone

 

What is history?
          The metallic feeling of a paper cut

 

Questions Michelle Tennison,  Answers Paul Miller (2014)

 

What is the River Styx made of?
          The symbol for interdimensional travel

 

What is in crowspeak?
          A 90-degree turn

 

What is the length of Big Ben’s minute hand?
          A pounding fist

 

Questions Paul Miller,  Answers Michelle Tennison (2014)

 

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Every time you grab at love you will lose a snowflake of your memory -Leonard Cohen

snow

What makes lovers leave?
          Sound becomes a scattering of birds

Question Paul Miller,  Answer Michelle Tennison (2014)

 

Is love
the answer
always?
          for the frozen inlet
          a moon made
          of swans

Question Sabine Miller,  Answer Michelle Tennison (2015)