Stallings:
Two different forms, obviously, or
types of poem. Both, though, part of a project in which (when things
work) I've relied on following a rhythm or pattern of hesitation from
beginning to end -- less deliberate than other poems or types of poem
I've worked on. It seems odd to say it now (since there is so clearly a
distinct speaker operating in the poems, an "I" though not the
pronoun), but my intention was to speak from nowhere. One thing I was
thinking (having just completed a manuscript in which I had a lot to
say) was
have less to say.
Transom:
Hesitation as starting point?
Hesitation as a musical structure? Yes, please. In sound-based
poems, we tend to think about repetition as an operative structure, but
maybe it's hesitation. The little silences and hitches of breath.
What you've foregrounded is the negative space, in a way. And
it's good to think about the other side of the mask, the part that
faces away from us.
Stallings:
I do think the two go together -- hesitation as a form of repetition,
perhaps, more than the other way around. In that hesitation (stuttering
comes to mind as an extreme example) implies doubling back,
re-iterating, etc.