The Writing Experiment by Hazel Smith

Example 1.17

Travel is exciting

Excitement in travel

is there exciting travel?

Travel is titillating

Travel is tickets

To travel is to trek

Excitement is over-rated

Excitement is a word

To travel is unkind

To travel is wicked

To travel is a gum nut

To travel is a lie

To travel is insular

Travellers are hair nets

Shiny is new

Diamonds are forever.

‘phrase manipulation’ (Sweeney 1993a)

Note how in the first stanza Michele works by permutation of the phrase
and then substitution. She returns to the idea of excitement at the end of
the first section, but drops the idea oftravel. Notice also how the assertions
become wilder as the poem progresses. They take several new turns, and
end with the familiar saying ‘diamonds are forever’, which seems quite far
removed from the original travel. However, the last two phrases do relate
to the rest of the piece, because they raise the question of whether the
excitement of travel brings enduring value, or simply stimulates the need
for novelty.
The second piece, written by another student, Canadian Gabrielle
Prendergast—now a professional film scriptwriter—uses phrase manip-
ulation to build a poetic meditation on the subject of time. The second
section permutes the first by substituting, adding and subtracting words.
Sometimes, as in the last line, permutation occurs by simply moving the
position of a full stop, thereby changing the way the words are grouped
and consequently the sense:

Example 1.18

Time

bends backward. clocks explode. coiled springs into sets of wings.

flying falling to another lover another life. elements burn soak bury

14 The Writing Experiment