Experiment 6: Write about one day in minute detail
One cannot be afraid to watch too long to render the world uncanny. – Lyn Hejinian
Spot the Difference
I dropped a cardamom pod in my Turkish coffee and played
spot the difference. Spot the difference
in today, where you put rose oil, not serum
on your cheeks and learned a card-game, not to fish.
Spot the difference in today, where
you burned frankincense, not lavender
and dumped laundry on your bed to do not now,
Later, you roast crackling, not
Beef. And strip your sheets to do not now,
Later, lay a blanket on the grass and play
Spot the difference. Today,
There was sun, more sun than that time
You lay a blanket on the grass and played
spot the difference about that time you made
coffee, and forgot the cardamom.
In today’s experiment, I took another one of Mayer’s suggestions: ‘Write once a day in minute detail about one thing’. What I did instead was write about one day in minute detail. The days have been streaming into one, lately, and I’ve been having a hard time telling them apart, as well as what I did yesterday as opposed to the day before. I began logging minute differences as well as details: today I made coffee with cardamom as opposed to without, did my washing as opposed to didn’t…etc.
It may seem monotonous but I have begun seeing that a small detail that sets a day apart from another can be as singularly significant as a ‘big’ event. If you spend enough time watching the monotonous, you may find it become stranger; as Hejinian writes, ‘one cannot be afraid to watch too long to render the world uncanny’.
Stay inspired.
