Website SESSION TWO is brought to you by the letter "C".

1.
CACHE.
If you're online, you know what "cache" is. It's the stuff that's stored. That's the oversimplification. It is the piece of computer hardware or a section of RAM dedicated to selectively storing and speeding access to frequently used program commands or data. Before computertalk and still, we also refer to cache as a hidden stash of treasure, ammunition, food, etc.. What is in your psychological, spiritual, or metaphysical "cache"? Without becoming trite, merely religious, or predictable, make a list of some specific resources that are there for you. Write a list poem and name names, refer to those things you call up, that are there for you when you need them. It might be useful to limit yourself to no more than three lines for each item in your cache.

Variation: Make a metaphor of this. Your cache can hold you back, depending what it is. Consider the computer and online/Internet functioning. Many people who use their "bookmarks" or "history" instead of putting in an address fresh on the address line will not get the current most useful website. Their cache has stored the last visit to that site and might call it up instead. At www.puddinghouse.com we remind people to always type in our web address fresh on the address line so you can be sure to have the latest information. Internet providers recommend that you "dump your cache frequently." It clears out the system.

How can relying on old stored beliefs and information hold you back? What cache might you dump?

2.
CADENCE FOR THE INFLUENCE.
Think of the influences in your life, make a list, then choose one. List as many benefits as you can that this person, place, or thing has brought to you. Write these specifics in short choppy language but not if it means giving up concrete detail. Now, play a shell game with these specifics and sort them in order to make a kind of music with the language. Give it cadence--a rhythmic flow for the sounds of the words, a beat, and a slight falling into pitch of voice when speaking this. Create a sequence of perhaps musical notes or chords moving toward a harmonic point of rest or closing. Did this playfulness and work with the language add anything to your appreciation for this influence? Notice whatever physical, emotional, or intellectual response you can in processing and completing this exercise.

3.
CALLED.
Ministers talk about being "called" to enter the ministry. Others use the word to speak for that strong urge, a tugging, to persue a particular profession, vocation, or interest. Over the range of your life thus far, what one thing have you been most "called" to do more than anything else? Start your writing with "I have been called to..." and see where it takes you. This doesn't have to be anything religious or profession but it might be. It probably would be something that you feel a positive compulsion toward.

4.
CANCELLED.
What would you like to void, annul, revoke? Announce it (something that has happened in the past or that is supposed to happen in the future) will not take place. Write this in announcement style language. For example, "The wedding of Susie Sinpin and Peter Whipperstinkle scheduled for April 30, 1978 has been cancelled. We have notified the church and this decision has been blessed. We have sent postcards to all who have been any kind of friend to either of us just to say your friendship has not been revoked, just the marriage. The resulting children, well, they were never ours anyway, they belong to themselves and will continue and without harm. The 1982 vacation in Freeport, unfortunately, will have to be abolished; it was too much a part of the marriage which has now been wiped out of my journal. . .." and keep returning to the language of cancellation and notification. Choose something you truly want to remove from your life. It could be an upcoming commitment you don't know how you got yourself into--chairing a committee?. Where do you go from here?

5.
CAPACITY.
"I have a great capacity for..." Create a list of what you have tremendous ability to achieve, receive, or contain. This can be actual or potential ability to perform, yield, or withstand. This can address your quality or state of being susceptible to a given treatment or action. Where/when/how are you most highly capable? This can feed your list. Can the list become a poem?

What else can you do?

For expanded and detailed instruction on various aspects of leading workshops or self-guided writing using these and other topics, you might want the book. (See publications list/$25 from Pudding House by phone or email if you have VISA/MC, or check payable to Pudding House in the mail). In addition to the alphabetized topics, there are expanded sections on:

"Changing through writing and simultaneously processing art"--the opening chapter in the book.

"One Good Process"--my intensive approach for covering a subject and mining the most useful language, clarification, dialogue, images from the scenario, etc. toward making art of use. (Even though art is its own best reason for existence.)

"Critiquing Toward Clarification"--an expanded and comprehensive test for your writing once it has been processed to a stage where a closer look will advance the poem. You'll look at theme, language, logic, meaning, voice, focus, form, punctuation, conclusion, shelf-life, and more.

"Objects of Your Unique Symbol System"--your personal internal dictionary and the great challenge to communicate.

"Omni-dimensioning"--my approach to addressing the need to integrate all of the components of a life, to see how career, family, pastimes, spirituality, passions, home, entertainment and media, etc. are all effecting each other even when we think one seems to be irrelevant or fracturing us.

"Persona Poem"--resolving conflicts through writing from the perspective and using the dialogue and conviction of "the Other." A step-by-step instruction.

"Poetry Lifts"--many opportunities to use line-starts from others and go your own direction.

From "potluck poetry" to "new Proverbs", this book was built to be a treasure trove of writing resources.

This book is very labor-intensive and short runs to accommodate constant additions and changes mean high production costs. For the latest 1999 version, send $25 payable to Pudding House, 81 Shadymere Lane, Columbus Ohio 43213. You may also VISA/MC your purchase by phone or email and it will be shipped the day the order is received.