:: Mutating the Signature screenshot

Nathan and I have decided to start blogging together over at Mutating the Signature. Please update your blogrolls and rss feed readers to include this new site (http://mutatingthesignature.org), since that’s where all the action will be happening from now on.

We’ve both been posting to our blogs less frequently lately, and we thought that having a single shared space for blogging might make sense. We’ve also enjoyed writing collaborative poetry and editing the Mutating the Signature issue of Qarrtsulini so much that we thought we’d try our hand at collaborative blogging.

You can read all about what we have in mind for the site by checking out our “About Mutating the Signature” post. We’ve opened comments on that post so you can provide feedback and give us ideas for ways to stretch the bounds of collaboration and collaborative blogging even further.

Make sure you stick around and take a look at our blogroll and list of poetry sites and resources, both of which can be found in the header of the new site. And, while you’re there, read about why we both enjoy collaborating and share reasons you like (or don’t like, or are scared of, or don’t understand, or haven’t tried) collaboration.

We’ll be leaving our personal sites up as an archival record of our work. That way, if things don’t work out at the new site, we always have separate blogs to come back to. (But we don’t anticipate that happening.)

:: Failbetter

Click on the image above to read work in the current issue by the following authors:

Lori Lamothe :: Laurah Norton Raines :: Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet :: Glen Pourciau :: Sarah Leavitt :: Paula Cisewski :: Sarah Byker James

There’s also an interview with Elizabeth Strout.

Go writing! Go poetry!

The _____ will ____ ____ the _____ ______
____ was _______ on _________, a ________ ____.
That ___ _______ __ _____ in ____ _____
______ to _____, _______ ___ ________, the _______
of _________. But that _____ is ____
a _______ of ______ __ ____. If _____ ____
not _________, _____ will ____ to be _______
on ___ ___ __________ and, ______________, ________
of ________ _____ will be ____. ____ ____ ________
_________ to _____ __________ ______ ___________,
and ____ __________ from ___________.

* * *
Notes

This is a skeleton poem based on a speech, but I’m not telling you what the speech is, at least not until you use the skeleton to create your own poem. I don’t want the original text to block you when you sit down to create your poem. Leave the poem in the comments or post a link to your blog. I always love to see how people fill these empty poems up.