My “open text”

Winter Skies

By: Kerri Fallat

The winter sun
swells and shrivels
Rises and falls–
Painting the pale and gloomy atmosphere
with scattered swatches
And slabs
Of exquisite and
sometimes undiscovered
colors.
Many may have not been named yet
Labels have not yet been assigned
Nor have they been sorted into
Neat and tidy
categories or
Families
Bearing fancy and definitive brands.
Their sole existence and–
the act of viewing their bold streaks
And stains in the
Skies
Almost feels like a revolutionary act.

I may bare the unpopular opinion that winter skies are–
By far
more alluring than
Any other heaven present
Out of the four seasons

That slumped and thirsting
Body of yours
craves
To be met with luster rays of
Sunlight
But
The languid blue-violet sacks of flesh
That inflate and droop simultaneously
Underneath your fatigued eyes
match the winter skies-
perfectly.

Winter is misinterpreted.
Winter is misunderstood.
Days mutate into nights quickly
Layers upon layers ought to be worn-
Daily.
Thick, lumpy coats seem to
Both mask and
Disguise the
Feeble skeleton from the
Harsh bites of the
cold.

A time to burrow into
Pillow forts
Bundles of blankets
Oversized sweaters
The inner psyche.

A time to cook
A time to boil.

The marinating of ideas that have been
Squirreled away
Suddenly coming forth that were
initially
Tucked away
During the fun, joyful and busy
warmer days.

Examples of “Closed” text and “Open “ text from found poems:

Poem 1: “It’s Going to Hurt” By: Sandra Simonds

Closed Text examples:

1.2) “The lone survivor will speak on the radio
As you drive down Highway 27.”

Open Text Examples:

1.3) “In the middle of Florida in the middle of the night after you
Step off the plane you see the swamps morph
Into the mountains of your childhood
They raise their heads like giants
The Sierras stare; do not go there”

1.4) “Continue to drive through hornets and testicular small towns
Some flags raised
Some flags down
The god of the underworld has let you go from his hand
Into the empire Floridian
He says you have a pure heart
So pure he cannot destroy it
Some people look pure but they are not

He says he cannot see you destroy yourself so he has let you
go
And he will protect you with his anger and melancholy

It will hurt
You know this

Poem 2: A Dream Within a Dream
By: Edgar Allan Poe

Closed Text Examples:

2.1) “I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of Golden Sand—“

Open Text Examples:

2.2)

“You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”

Two sentences from “Rejection of Closure” That stood out to me: (pg.3 of 20) "Writing’s initial situation, its point of origin, is often characterized and always complicated by opposing impulses in the writer and by a seeming dilemma that language creates and then cannot resolve. The writer experiences a conflict between a desire to satisfy a demand for boundedness,for containment and coherence, and a simultaneous desire for free, unhampered access to the world prompting a correspondingly open response to it."

Answers to Discussion Questions:

1.) When considering the political implications of both "open" and "closed" texts, it is essential to look at their definitions, similarities, and differences. Open texts are compositions of words that evoke multiple meanings through elements of the form(spacing, placement, punctuation, arrangement/rearrangement), language selections (choosing words that marry direction and language, repetition), and subject. Closed texts are strings of words that direct the reader to a single, fixed meaning. Open text can lead to more extensive inquiries and form philosophical or creative ideologies regarding the many factors that penetrate the human experience. In her text, 'The Rejection of Closure,' Lyn Hejinian suggests these questions could encompass themes of gender, identity, complicated social structures, authority, patriarchal power, and control. However, the closed text minimizes the possibilities of these questioning of politics and ethics, though they are clinging to providing a singular interpretation. I feel that closed texts can limit readers' imaginations at times, thus making the process of digesting the material a far more linear mode of participation than the circular nature of the open text. The open text could very well be a revolutionary act because it encourages the reader to seek a multitude of meanings and could birth multiple ideas with it that would put the oppressive social structures that mark our world at stake.

2.1) Although Hejinian notes that there are both positive and negative models for closure, I feel that by rejecting closure through text, you as a writer are urging the reader to more actively engage and interact with the text. This energetic and thoughtful triple date between the writer, reader, and the text, can open doors for new perspectives on subject matters, the reader/text interaction, and language itself. While closed text takes the opportunity to simplify and make the message clear through its formation, language, and content choices, it can close off the gifts that stem from open text and the lack of closure it provides.

3.) Some devices that Hejinian offers to "open" a text include rearrangement, arrangement, repetition, compositional techniques that create gaps, looking critically at language selection regarding directions such as horizontal and vertical, inside, outside, or up and down. By embracing and reenacting the movement we experience in the world, these elements open the door for interpretations of those choices and their meanings. They invite readers to connect the text to real or fictional things.