Somatic Lab #18: Ring around the...

a revisionary exercise that explores imprint–what lines do we leave behind?

James Dalton Trumbo - Writing in the Tub.jpg

Belewe moon—betrayer moon—once in a blue moon when: this month I experienced my first Super Blue Blood Moon (and perhaps, my last). On such occasions the tides (and my cerebrospinal fluid) are exaggerated under the pull of gravity. The docks bare their barnacles and boats their bellies until we littoral dwellers are aware of how ill-equipped we are to practice impermanence. In the moments of exposure there is a sense of peeling back, draining, seeing into that which is often hidden—the man behind the curtain [Oz] or the man inside the mirror [MJ]. In moments of erasure, the tides full and filling, the threat of losing ground, of floating away, of being displaced or pushed out looms [migraines
and maniacs and groaning wood].

Reichard’s Doppelganger holds the space for exploring these rings, traces, and marks: in bifurcation (a trauma of rupture, reach, split) how is time and presence renegotiated?
Both Reichard and Park1 scratch at the rings around shadow self and shadow site: what is the carrying capacity of the container and how can that be tested, disrupted, dismantled?

At sites of violence or upheaval—storm and storming—what residue remains: skin cells, blood, shadows, screams?

In Somatic Lab #18 we use the “ring around”—the trace—to revise a text. Locate a piece of writing that needs a shift: sitting on a plateau, unaware of edges or teetering
on the edge, unaware of ground. Gather some water-soluble (washable) markers. Do not steal from children; rather, liberate the markers from their fists. Write the text round and
round and round the tub, bowl, vase [a basin of sorts]. As you fill the container with water, watch as the words morph, dissolve, shift, move, slide, disappear.

The sloshing of water in belly in basin in moon—what does the gut say? What lingers, remains? What will the writing contain? What will it not? What should the container
look like? If there is a ring in the tub, what color is it? What is made visible? What escapes?
Write down the imprint: physical, emotional, cognitive—process and processing.

 

To access the Somatic Lab Notes for this exercise, check out our anthology Writing at the Edge. Share your creative and critical responses here.  Let's continue the conversation at/on/of/through/with the edge