3:15 am
August 23, 2010
East Nassau, NY
in the home of Bernadette Mayer

i try to wake up bernadette will she get up i start writing the house breathes air wind a mosquito bite on my toe paper in every house i think bernadette is awake light or darkness a pen works what comes of head to hand you are a paper clip you are a blanket you are the wind you are a book you are a light you are awake you are asleep blue is asleep blue is awake i prefer to write in blue ink over black ink but i don’t know why turn the typewriter on turn her on turn into someone new the news today what can i remember a three year old girl is a hero she goes to the fire station and tells the firemen that her father can’t wake up people in nyc protest over a new mosque to be built near ground zero credit card companies need to change their rules one man was driving around with a loaded shot gun and got arrested and had to go to jail there was a big fire somewhere the weather is windy and rainy the local news is different from the national news oh well i wish i could enjoy katie couric on tv the first female news anchor on prime time on a major network i wish i could enjoy the new alice in wonderland movie but it’s too patriarchal she must slay the jabberwocky with a big phallic sword master and conquer empower one woman over another then wake up to become a venture capitalist funded by the old lord’s money the caterpillar keeps asking her are you alice i wonder also is she alice who would have alice become a story is a myth we all want to believe metaphoric language of logic bernadette said that western logic has brought us backwards was aristotle an asshole linear logic is not really a poetic form i saw a picture of nietzsche’s typing ball on an ipod the typing ball looks like a brain with keys to push it looks something like what burroughs would enjoy he believed women are insects bugs butterflies maybe too how about spiders like the ones that surround bernadette’s desk webs web artist spider sanctuary she’s a real organic writer she’s a real orgasmic writer she’s a real organized writer she’s a real organ writer she’s a real or writer she’s a real an she is a typewriter she is a spider she is a butterfly she is a fly she is a flower she is a tree she is a picnic table she is a door she is a bed she is a suitcase she is a curtain she is an ipod she is a car she is a bank account she is a mosquito she is a pen she is a notebook she is a paper shredder she is tired i am tired i will change my position i will lay down and write the difference between sitting up ideas and laying down ideas the wind continues to blow the pen continues to write the poet continues to type light might kite bite site right tight fight fright flight uptight night goodnight

The 3:15 Experiment:
A yearly collaborative-consciousness writing experiment exploring hypnogogic and hypnopompic sleep/dream states. To wake every August morning at 3:15am and write. Originated in 1993 by poets Lee Ann Brown, Danika Dinsmore, Jen Hofer, Kathleen Large, Bernadette Mayer, and Myshel Prasad.

Sources: The 3:15 Experiment edited by Albert Flynn de Silver (The Owl Press, 2001); between sleeps: the 3:15 experiment 1993-2005 edited by Danika Dinsmore and Gwendolyn Alley (en theos press, 2006); http://www.315experiment.com.