In February 2022 I was inspired to write a long poem called “Something.” I wasn’t sure what it was going to be about, but somewhere in my mind I knew I wanted to explore the concept of language, and how a word’s intangibility has the power to captivate and liberate us. I wrote a page or two riffing on whatever came to mind when I thought of the word “something” but didn’t know where to go from there.
I chipped away at it, incorporating cultural, literary, and historical references to the word “something” and shaped the poem into stanzas, searching for a structure that worked best for the piece, but it never clicked. Something was wrong with “Something.” At some point I realized the poem required a wider scope to gain a better balance, so I added the theme of “other” as a counterpoint, an echo. Essentially I wrote a new version of the poem, replacing the word “something” with the word “other.” I combined both versions into a single poem, called it “Something or Other” and the piece improved a little, but there was still something missing.
I played with the structure, removing stanza breaks, adjusting line lengths. Nothing worked. And then my poet-artist friend Samuel Strathman gave me a book. Testify by Joseph Lease. The book didn’t feel like a book. It felt alive. The poems broke apart and joined together, weaving in and out of prose and poetry. Lines squirmed and curled on the page like bacteria between the graticule slides of a microscope. I read through it several times and felt a new experience with every read.
That’s when I realized why “Something or Other” wasn’t working. I was trying to force the poem into being a product, which went against its spirt of being a process. I scrapped my many drafts and started fresh, striving to create a kaleidoscopic, multifaceted reading experience. The long poem shifted into a poetic sequence, and the piece grew longer, more fragmented, more compositional, more musical. I learned a lot from Testify, and Something or Other borrows plenty of dance moves from that book.
I feel blessed looking back at the people and moments that helped bring this manuscript into being. Sam and Joseph are in my thoughts, for sure. It never would have crossed the finish line without them. And rob mclennan also comes to mind, for being such a champion of innovation, and allowing above/ground press to be an open and encouraging space for writers to experiment, fail, try new things, and grow.
Jason Heroux was the Poet Laureate for the City of Kingston from 2019 to 2022. He is the author of four books of poetry: Memoirs of an Alias (2004); Emergency Hallelujah (2008); Natural Capital (2012) and Hard Work Cheering Up Sad Machines (2016). His forthcoming books include a short fiction collection Survivors of the Hive (Radiant Press) and two poetry chapbooks: New and Selected Days (Origami Poems Project) and Something or Other (above/ground press).