On waking
There’s a time in the morning when you hover between wake and sleep. Practicing some rare yoga of holding yourself at the edge of consciousness while dreams lap at the shore of you. A strange narrative emerges, woven from memories and to-do lists, but also nonsense. At least nonsense to the waking brain. But the sleeping brain is less concerned with productivity or end results and, instead, splashes around in tidal pools playing at mermaid-ing and shell collecting.
If you could capture the narrative you think it would be something remarkable, but of course you can’t. You’re the reader, not the writer. The story is being told by your mind, but the you who is watching and hearing is not the you who is telling. Not the you who is compiling, collaging, clicking the controls of the slide carousel so the next image appears and the next and the next.
If you wake enough to write it down it will vanish. If you allow yourself to immerse, you will vanish.
So your best work is done in a place and language that is available to no one. The art of feeling a breeze, watching a bee drone around a porch post, the flick of a lady cardinal alighting briefly on a wire tomato cage.
The art of naming pain and walking with it, of knowing your body is different now and what it was before is gone. The art of realizing the past is wiped away with each wave, making the shore clear again. Blank. Somehow finding peace with that.
ABOUT
Alli Marshall is a poet, performer, writer, editor, teacher, content creator … and more. The process of discovery is ongoing!
Alli is interested in moving writing beyond the page, seeking the golden in the mundane, finding the intersection of art and social justice, and reconnecting with mythology — both ancient and modern.
Alli Marshall was named “Artist whose work pushed the boundaries of storytelling” for her multimedia project MER/made at the 2021 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival.
STAGE
• SWEET HEART / BITTER HEART, An audience-participatory, one-woman show and exploring the juxtaposition of relationship anxiety and environmental decline, told though spoken word and party games. Performed at the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival in 2020.
• Flyer in a Dark Chamber: Meditations on Lilith, an exploration of the Lilith archetype told through spoken word, ambient sound, modern and Butoh dance. Performed in 2019 at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
• The Oracle of Everything, An audience-participatory, one-woman show of spoken word and divination. Performed at the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival in 2019.
• Sleeping on Rooftops, a modern hero’s journey told through spoken word, dance, and experimental cello, performed at the 2018 {Re}HAPPENING.
Alli Marshall 