Issue 15 presents two collaborative poems under the credit “Shafer & John”: “Emotiolution” and “Six Long Stories.” The issue’s contributor notes identify John Cotter and refer directly to Shafer Hall’s poetry, preserving the names behind the collaboration.
Shafer & John in the historical archive
The two poems use very different forms while sharing an interest in repetition, inheritance, and the strange logic of familiar stories. One circles phrases through a patterned exchange; the other compresses six miniature narratives around peril, sleep, childhood, and the recurring image of a pearl.
Emotiolution
“Emotiolution” begins with a request to describe how gorillas make music and how they play “Nights without Love” on the piano. Its lines recur in altered combinations, carrying monkeys, forests, throats, leather instruments, proof, and listening through a tightly interlocked pattern.
Six Long Stories
“Six Long Stories” builds six compact scenes from fairy-tale materials and domestic unease. A pea beneath a sleeper, a fortune cookie’s forest, an old carpenter, a frightened mouse, creatures under a bridge, and the word “childhood” converge through repeated pearls and perils.
Repetition and Story
Across the pair, repetition becomes a way of changing meaning. “Emotiolution” rearranges recurring lines, while “Six Long Stories” lets repeated sounds and images bind separate scenes into one sequence.