What is Cleave Poetry?

Cleave poetry

Cleave poetry is who I am. A dichotomy. I am a Vietnamese boat person, a refugee in England. I am a doctor yet I see death everyday. I am a poet and an artist. I believe there is truth beyond what can be scientifically proven. Cleave poetry is a concept, a poetic form, a doorway – a paradigm shift in poetics opening up an unexplored land.

My life is a dichotomy on many levels, there are many areas in need of fusion and synergy: the East and the West, science and art, science and faith, life and death. I was planning a novel in which two different species on another world needed to communicate, one by light and image, the other by sound and word. From this grew the idea of information fusing to form a synergistic new language. The concept was already within me, it was inevitable – a form without a concept is a barren woman; a concept without a form is an orphan.

I needed a form that was a dichotomy that embodied the concept of fusion and was instantly recognisable as a work of art. For me a good poem should be an epiphany. It should be well crafted, with depth and meaning, not mere entertainment, not the random scribbles of a disordered mind. The cleave form was a logical step – two poems fusing to become a third new poem. Each poem can stand alone, a true poem in its own right. In its most basic form the cleave poem is a vertical stanza on the left hand side, a vertical stanza on the right hand side, and a third horizontal poem which is read straight across from left to right, as though there is no gap between the left and right vertical stanzas. The cleave form is a contranym: at once a fusion of two poems to form one, and a splitting apart of one poem to form two. Not surprisingly interpretations and variations of the basic form, by others, have been numerous, and the form has been ‘invented’ a number of times by other poets in the last decade or two.

Cleave poetry is a new way of thinking about poetry. It opens out onto a land where structure paradoxically allows greater exploration of language, context, meaning. I can say more with fewer words, each word having a greater depth. The concept of fusion inherent in the form invites poets to collaborate. The possibilities are as numerous as the combinations of minds.

The doorway is cleave poetry; it leads to a poetic land where form allows freedom from the old structures, where poetry is synergistic on an interpersonal as well as a personal realm. The concept is relevant to our fragmented world, the form is elegant and flexible: the doorway is open.

(Written for the July 2009 edition of The Firmament)

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My thoughts on cleave poetics are being focused and will be made more coherent at some point in the near future. For now here are some links.

• A new experimental poetic form?
• Dennis Kelly’s thoughts on Cleave poetics 1
• Dennis Kelly’s thoughts on Cleave poetics 2
• Andrea Barton: Cleave
• A cleave by any other name…Part 1: Welcome Michael Williams
• A cleave by any other name…Part 2: Greg Williamson & Octavio Paz
• A cleave by any other name…Part 3: Trigee poetic form
• A cleave by any other name…Part 4: Triptych

A summary of my thoughts so far

What is in a name?

Cleave : is a contranym, a word with 2 opposite meanings:

• verb 1) split or sever along a natural grain or line. 2) divide; split.
• verb 1) stick fast to. 2) become strongly involved with or emotionally attached to.

— ORIGIN Old English Compact Oxford English Dictionary

In its most basic form it is three poems:

• two parallel ‘vertical’ poems (left and right)
• a third ‘horizontal’ poem being the fusion of the vertical poems read together.

This is a simple and elegant concept, but it is a paradigm shift.

It has been interesting to see the development of the cleave form so far. In less than 2 months cleave poets have modified and made it their own, making cleave in their own poetic image by cleaving in at least these ways:

1. fusion
2. division
3. seeding
4. co-operating
5. using cleave as a meta-form

It has been incredible to see the versatility of the cleave form. Something I had not expected, indeed it is very exciting.

As a summary, here are 11 points. These are my current thoughts on cleave poetics.  I will expand on each subsequently. They are for discussion. Please comment and dialogue.

1. a foundation for creativity
2. gives freedom to explore
3. a framework for that exploration
4. art fused with craft
5. focuses on multiplicity of meanings
   
6. allows simultaneous seeing of the whole and its parts
7. synergistic
8. exercise in poetics and linguistics
9. a meta-form
10. poetic maturity
11. communication and dialogue

Finally here are some thoughts for the future:

• Potential for multiple cleave forms and ways of cleaving including multilingual cleaves.
• The cleave in education as a tool around which language can be taught and skills honed.
• The cleave in poetry as a new poetic form.
• The cleave as a way of bringing people and cultures together.

Phuoc-Tan Diep