The Writing Experiment by Hazel Smith

phrase, as well as one which relates to the rest of the poem, and takes
on the connotation of ‘she stood in for something’. It thereby acquires
another level of meaning, which is superimposed upon the overall
meaning it has as part of the sentence. We can also read ‘wondering
whether to open’ as an independent configuration. So the poem becomes
about a woman wondering whether to open herself up, as well as wonder-
ing whether to open a door. By lineating the sentence we are creating
several levels of meaning; these co-exist with each other.

Spacing and typography

You may want to play not only with the lineation, but also with spacing
and typography:

Example 2.14

she stood in front of the

door

wondering

whether

to open

IT

Here the spacing of the words, and the use of different font styles, reflects
the hesitation that the woman feels. In the next example the words are
spaced differently again, and some words are edited out, making the poem
more elliptical. In this case the reader has to do more work, because she or
he has to fill in the context:

Example 2.15

THE DOOR

to

open

or

This is a minimalist poem in which the emphasis is on extreme compression.
It is also possible to activate an acrostic or mesostic structure. In an acros-
tic the vertical word is on the extreme left-hand side and each letter forms the
start of a line, as in Example 2.32 later in this chapter. In a mesostic the ver-
tical word hangs down the middle of the poem. So the word ‘door’ becomes
a hook for other words (this can be quite effective with names), with the
result that the poem functions on both a horizontal and vertical axis:

Genre as a moveable feast 39