Compression: M.E. Parker
“Compression brings to my mind gravity. Compressed prose I feel is a big story that, once compressed, retains much of its gravity, as does a neutron star. Like the supernova remnant that transforms into a tiny sphere when it becomes virtually devoid of empty space, a story, once compressed must retain its gravity.” — M.E. Parker
Compression: TFD
“I am drawn toward how the act of hesitating, though seemingly open and ethereal, is a compressed form of acting—upon something; in a sense you’re acting upon not acting and doing so knowingly, and if you do the thing you’re hesitating to do you’ve essentially compressed what came before it. Hesitating is harnessed by compression, unavailable for the whole. Although hesitating is an anxious and drawn out action, being ‘within’ hesitation feels swift and jittery, compressed non-commitment. Here I think of trees and the forms of worry we take on, both are compressions we deal with all the time—we lack trees in a city, the city has compressed ‘tree’ and what we know of ourselves is altered, all the time, by the compressed, compressing us.” — TFD
Compression: Celisa Steele
“Compression is a kind of magic, isn’t it? Think, for example, of the magician’s collapsible top hat.” — Celisa Steele
Compression: Charles Rossiter
“In a compressed poem, every word is essential. Flowery language that calls attention to itself is avoided. The poem has a singular focus and direction. Rather than excessively elaborating, the compressed poem directly says what it has to say and ends. Heightened emotion also is a characteristic of the best compressed poems.” — Charles Rossiter
Compression: Michelle Morouse
“I prefer not to use extra words, in print or speech. We live in an age where the person who talks the most is perceived as the person in charge. I find that disturbing.” — Michelle Morouse
Compression: Matthew Davies
“Compression is recogonising, not refining, those first thoughts.” — Matthew Davies
Compression: Shauna Hargrove
“Compression is what this work is about. It’s a stake in the ground, a spare knot of matter holding everything down, keeping things from scattering. It’s the essential, a root, a single backward glance that tells the story of a whole life. Compression lets those who experience a work draw their own conclusions, add what they know to make meaning out of some stranger’s words. Compression is lacking, and is surely thankful that someone cares to cultivate it.” — Shauna Hargrove
Compression: Jennifer Abercrombie
“I read somewhere that, in simple, compression is a pushing force. Anyone who has ever been in love with someone controlling or self-absorbed knows about compression, resulting in the reduction of one’s full mental or physical state. It’s enough ‘push’ to make one move. Likewise, the poem itself, scrawled on a piece of rolling paper when there is neither time nor room to recount everything that led up to her leaving is compressed, and then experiences combustion, literally burning up in fire and smoke. ” — Jennifer Abercrombie
Compression: Judy Kronenfeld
“Why compression? Because there’s a kind of poem that is an arrow to the heart; it pierces the reader almost before s/he has had a chance to see it coming. Sometimes it’s a matter of letting all the dross slip off a poem I’ve been working on, as with ‘Now,’ dropping the lead-up, the less pure tonalities—even if that language might work elsewhere—and revealing the naked body of the poem. A matter of letting the strongest language stand. Anything other than the thing itself, with this subject in particular, floundered.” — Judy Kronenfeld
Compression: Andrea Potos
“For me, the compressed poem is a way of holding the breath, of bracing the reader/writer for the potency of truth and surprise.” — Andrea Potos
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Upcoming:
03/23 • Kenneth Pobo
03/30 • Roberta Allen
04/06 • Avril Shakira Villar
04/13 • TBD
04/20 • TBD
04/27 • TBD
05/04 • TBD
05/11 • TBD
05/18 • TBD
05/25 • TBD
06/01 • TBD
06/08 • TBD
06/15 • TBD
06/22 • TBD
06/29 • TBD
07/06 • TBD
07/13 • TBD
07/20 • TBD
07/27 • TBD
08/03 • TBD
08/10 • TBD
08/17 • TBD
08/24 • TBD
08/31 • TBD
09/07 • TBD
09/14 • TBD
09/21 • TBD