Graywolf Lab

Keith S. Wilson

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1. M_n_fest

“M_n_fest” is made of letters arranged in pentominos: a shape made by joining five squares together side by side. It is similar to a Tetris piece (which contain all arrangements of four squares). 

During the transatlantic slave trade, slave traders forced so many Africans on each ship that men and women had to lay side to side, head to foot, in order to breathe. Captains who ordered this “tight packing” knew the death rates from it would be high, but believed the profits would outweigh the losses. 

The pentomino pieces can be arranged into other poems the reader sees.

2. c(r)op rotation

“c(r)op rotation” is based on a famous puzzle created by Guarini di Forli in 1512: 

Place two black knights and two white knights at opposite corners of the board. Following the rules of chess, in which knights move hippogonally (in an L shape), how can you swap each black knight's position for each white knight's position?

In my poem, knights represent the police, and their moves are their transfers between precincts. 

3. Bonus Activity

“This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams has appeared in every edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry. That means dedicated space in five editions at this point; the poem seems likely never to be removed. 

When printed out, my poem lays atop Williams’s poem in the anthology and becomes a new one.

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“Bonus Activity” is included in the book Games for Children by Keith S. Wilson (Milkweed Press) and is reposted here courtesy of the publisher. 

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Keith S. Wilson is a poet, game designer, and multimedia artist. He is an Affrilachian Poet and a Cave Canem fellow and a recipient of an NEA Fellowship, a Kenyon Review Fellowship, and a Stegner Fellowship. Additionally, he has received fellowships or grants from Bread Loaf, Tin House, and the MacDowell Colony. His first book, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love (Copper Canyon), was recognized by The New York Times as a best new book of poetry. His second book, Games for Children (Milkweed Editions) was a winner of the National Poetry Series.

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