Composing Fragments

In “Papyrus Pantoum,” Arthur Sze composes a complex and powerful landscape through the evocation, repetition, and recombination of vivid and delicately rendered images. Sze uses negative space, located in the extended white spaces inside the lines, to define and redefine, trouble, and subvert the connections and relationships between the images within the line. As each line is repeated in the pantoum form, the white space shifts, creating new relationships and divisions. 

Read “Papyrus Pantoum” and the glossary definition of “pantoum.”

Questions to consider, on your own in writing, or in discussion with others:

What happens when a word, phrase, or sentence is repeated? 

When is language repeated? Why do we repeat language?

Assignment:

Take 10 minutes and write down everything you can about a particular landscape: this can be a landscape you are currently experiencing, or a landscape that you know very well and that is meaningful to you. Write down everything you can see, hear, smell, taste, and everything that you can feel in this landscape. Are there other people here? Animals? Plants? Can you see the sky?

Leave your writing for a bit, and when you return select around 10 images that you find particularly significant, interesting, or strange. Compose 8-10 sentences or phrases using those images. Then, write each sentence/phrase two times on two notecards or slips of paper. You should have 16-20 slips of paper by the end, with two copies of each sentence.

Using the structure of the pantoum and your notecards, arrange your sentences/phrases into a pantoum. You are encouraged to play with the sequence, and to try out several versions of your pantoum, taking photographs of the different options before deciding on a final sequence. When you type your pantoum out, experiment with including negative or white space in different places in the lines. What changes? What stays the same?