C14
Collective Memory
Excerpt from novel: Just words in a certain order.

here is a lesson i had in writing class.

one day, at the start of the class,
we were assigned to select our favorite passage from a book.
the next day, we brought in our passages,
and our exercise was to rewrite the passage
“without plagiarizing it.”
the professor gave us an hour to do so, and when it was finished
students volunteered to read their not-plagiarized passages from the book.
after that, he asked us to rewrite our not-plagiarized passage again,
“without plagiarizing it.”
he gave us thirty minutes to do so,
and again asked students to read them allowed.

“that is all writing is,” he taught us,
“mimicking other people until you find your own voice.”

Samson Manoah