From "Dada & Surrealist Art," by William S. Rubin, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York 1968

Among Surrealist techniques exploiting the mystique of accident was a kind of collective collage of words or images called the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse). Based on an old parlor game, it was played by several people, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for his contribution.

The technique got its name from results obtained in initial playing, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau" (The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine). Other examples are: "The dormitory of friable little girls puts the odious box right" and "The Senegal oyster will eat the tricolor bread." These poetic fragments were felt to reveal what Nicolas Calas characterized as the "unconscious reality in the personality of the group" resulting from a process of what Ernst called "mental contagion."

At the same time, they represented the transposition of Lautrééamont's classic verbal collage to a collective level, in effect fulfilling his injunction-- frequently cited in Surrealist texts--that "poetry must be made by all and not by one."

Editors note:
This poem was written on a freezing fall evening. It was brick outside! Inside Town Hall was warm and filled with beautiful people of different colors and persuasions, all there to support poetry and the Nuyorican Poets Café. Backstage movie stars, radio personalities, band members, poets, performers, producers, stage hands and a very harried JC were running around making a show. The audience screamed as Reg E. Gaines spit rhymes over sax while Savion Glover smoked up the stage with flying feet, Pedro Pietri spoke volumes, Benjamin Bratt accepted an award from the hands of Miguel Algarin. Enough said: lots of cool people performed and witnessed. This poem was written by some of those people. Each person was allowed to view the previous line. All other lines were covered. Each person was allowed only to write one line. Spelling has been corrected. Case and punctuation were retained.

Recipe:
Start with surrealist form of poetry. Flip it. Take a bunch of people put them on the same road or place them in the same space. Add one black woman with a pen and a notepad and an idea. Serve with creativity, good nature and patience.