Collage Poems

I recently read William S. Burroughs' essay, The Cut-up Method of Brion Gysin. I wouldn't normally follow the advice of Burroughs, but one of the benefits of long writing retreats is that you get to goof around with experiments you normally wouldn't have time to try. This is how Burroughs explains the benefits of collage work: "You cannot will spontaneity. But you can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors." His argument intrigued me, so I spent an evening cutting up a local Montana paper, and littering the studio with tiny words. I can't say the poem I made was worth keeping, and it looked like a poorly pasted ransom note by the time I was finished. But, I did learn something about local language. The newspaper was full of words I don't normally use in my daily lexicon. Words like: blowguns, mauling, outlawed, drake mallard, and near-fatal. The word safety popped up over and over again, and if you are talking about grizzlies, mauling, blowguns and snow-locked winters, it makes sense that safety would be a frequent concern. If we are bold enough to attempt to write about cultures or places where we aren't natives, how else do we learn the vocabulary but by playing with it?