Widerruf

In a recent class Matt Malyon introduced us to the german term widerruf, loosely translated as to revoke, contest, appeal.  To answer back.

All writing is a conversation. Yet when we consider the idea of widerruf  as we write we engage with the text in a more immediate and intimate way. Suddenly we are on equal footing with the  text, no longer receiving information but participating in its creation. This is a primary tenet of our practice of wordsquatting, our way of moving into a piece of writing, perhaps removing or renovating the structure as we make it home.

Two poems we answered: Baudelaire’s Meditation (translated by Robert Lowell) and Christian Wiman’s From a Window. As we shared what we wrote there were exclamations of surprise, some “right ons!” and a few encouragements to go further with a promising piece. The widerruf, in opening a channel, becomes an amplifier.