The Gero-Punk Project

Preamble

Play and collaboration and spontaneity and complexity and creativity and rebellion are at the heart of the Gero-Punk Project.

At the most recent Gero-Punk Salon we engaged in a communal writing project, a version of what the Surrealist André Breton called the “Exquisite Corpse,” a collaborative creative process that taps into the collective unconscious. In our version of the process, we wrote eight line poems, with each of us writing a line on a sheet of paper and then folding the paper so the next writer could only see the line immediately preceding.  The poems emerged through each writer’s response to the line before, without knowing anything about the shape of the overall piece.  We were all working within the broad themes articulated in the Gero-Punk Manifesto, but each with our own ideas about what those themes might entail.

Over eight days I will be publishing the eight Gero-Punk Poems that emerged from our creative play together. Think of these as a Gero-Punk holiday treat.

 Poem 3

Stop moving. Stand still. Just breathe.

Then dance the unknown dance, freely & with abandon.

That’s a good exercise for me

to simply be my own age and no age and all ages.

Time does not confine me to prescribed roles.

I have confidence in the pull of the universe.

I have confidence in the undertow of silence.

I have.

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By: Jenny, Jackie, Masaki, Cyndi, Glenna, Libby, Simeon & Aisling

Gero-Punk Salon, 12/11/16

Preamble

Play and collaboration and spontaneity and complexity and creativity and rebellion are at the heart of the Gero-Punk Project.

At the most recent Gero-Punk Salon we engaged in a communal writing project, a version of what the Surrealist André Breton called the “Exquisite Corpse,” a collaborative creative process that taps into the collective unconscious. In our version of the process, we wrote eight line poems, with each of us writing a line on a sheet of paper and then folding the paper so the next writer could only see the line immediately preceding.  The poems emerged through each writer’s response to the line before, without knowing anything about the shape of the overall piece.  We were all working within the broad themes articulated in the Gero-Punk Manifesto, but each with our own ideas about what those themes might entail.

Over several days I will be publishing the eight Gero-Punk Poems that emerged from our creative play together.

 Poem 2

I have come to yet another fork in the road, my journey.

There is a moon, lighting the road ahead

which forks in a brilliant glow of unknowingness of what mystery

that mystery before I began, that mystery that will outlast me.

…that mysterious stuff that binds all of creation together – I listen, and wait.

I keep listening until I understand it, but I haven’t gotten it yet.

But I know it’s more important to dwell in the questions rather than knowing.

And in this time and this place what could be more important than openness to the unknown.

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Written by: Cyndi, Glenna, Jackie, Masaki, Simeon, Aisling, Jenny & Libby

Gero-Punk Salon 12/11/16

Preamble

Play and collaboration and spontaneity and complexity and creativity and rebellion are at the heart of the Gero-Punk Project.

At today’s Gero-Punk Salon we engaged in a communal writing project, a version of what the Surrealist André Breton called the “Exquisite Corpse,” a collaborative creative process that taps into the collective unconscious. In our version of the process, we wrote eight line poems, with each of us writing a line on a sheet of paper and then folding the paper so the next writer could only see the line immediately preceding.  The poems emerged through each writer’s response to the line before, without knowing anything about the shape of the overall piece.  We were all working within the broad themes articulated in the Gero-Punk Manifesto, but each with our own ideas about what those themes might entail.

Starting today and over the next seven days I will be publishing the eight Gero-Punk Poems that emerged from our creative play together.

Poem 1

What will it take to change age segregation?

Will the fear of dying forever be tied with old age?

Or is there a way to embrace what I can’t quite imagine?

I call out to my future older self.

She says, “I’ve been waiting for you, Dear One!

Sorry for being so late. My dog was sick this morning.

And my life is full of complexity and challenges.”

I shall embrace all that appears before me, with wisdom and fierce grace.

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By Libby, Glenna, Cyndi, Jackie, Masaki, Aisling, Jenny and Simeon

Gero-Punk Salon, 12/11/16