I started the month by finding another source of inspiration for my lake and river poetry: Moheb Soliman and his collection, Homes. I quickly moved to plastics.
from 1 july
Since March, or was it April?, I’ve been collecting the plastic that we use for some unspecified future project. It started with old freezer bags, but expanded to include grapefruit, zucchini, and mini cucumber bags. Now I have sandwich and pita bread bags and the plastic bags that covered the new fan I recently bought. My favorite one: the plastic shell my new googles came in, which looks like another pair of clear goggles.
Definitely in April, I began deconstructing the freezer bags — cutting off the bright blue (zip) locking part, cutting open the clear plastic, then cutting out the white label. Last week, I decided I wanted to use the blue zip lock parts for some sort of visualizing of the lake.
part of the process: I’m using my mother-in-law’s old silver scissors and snip snip snipping the strips. This snipping labor is reminding me of the satisfaction I got in the winter from drawing and shading in circle after circle on my New Yorker essays. There is something therapeutic about using my hands in this repetitive task, but also something that encouraged deep, creative thinking. These blue plastic strips are also satisfying to scoop up and sift through my fingers.
a few thoughts on plastic: As I cut up these little shards, I thought about all the plastic that ends up in the lake and an ocean and my organs and tissues and bodily fluids. Yikes! As I accumulate more and more plastic I wonder: how can I stop using so much plastic? First step: stop using ziploc bags for storing my half used produce! Make my own bread? What else?
from 14 july
What is the color of the lake water? As part of my plastics project, I’m gathering the colors of the water that I see when I swim. The plastics project = keeping as much of the plastic that my family uses for visual poetry projects — produce bags, seltzer water bottles, ziploc baggies, miscellaneous. packaging, T Joes’ pasta/rice bags. Here are the colors I’ve collected so far in greens and blues. (The lake is usually much moregreen than blue.)
plastic origins, from top left to bottom right: granola bag, little cukes bag, russet potato bag, Trader joe’s pasta bag, bottle of olive oil, bottle of seltzer water, squash bag
Are these all “green”? I see them that way. The bright green of the upper center is what the water looks like when a blue-green algae bloom is present. Last night’s warm and stirred up water at cedar lake resembles the brownish yellowy green in the lower left. Number 2 and 3 in the bottom row are shards from bottles, while the rest are bags, only colored on one side.
plastic origins, from top left, top right, bottom: Trader Joes’ rice bag, shards of the locks from ziploc baggies, Trader Joes’ pasta bag. I don’t think I ever seen the lake water look like this below the surface, but above, when it’s sunny and I’m looking at it from the right angle: blue, often with purple vibes.
Scott asked me what I plan to do with these colors. I’m not sure yet, but I know it will be part of something that expresses how I see color and how color works in a city lake that resides in a lake city that prioritizes access for everyone and that is working hard to keep the lake and its people safe and healthy in the midst of a climate crisis (almost apocalypse?).
The water was opaque and the color was somewhere between these 2 colors:
the plastic process
This morning, I reorganized the area of my studio where I gather and process my plastic. Then I cut up part of a milk jug, which creates a cool texture of brittle little shards, and another one of my seltzer bottles. Later in the day, I showed some of the stranger remnants of plastic to FWA and he suggested using the top of the seltzer bottle as some sort of view finder or monocle — something that, when you looked through it, created a visual effect. Distorts what you see? Adds layers of color? Allows you to isolate words? I’m going to have fun playing around with this!
I showed it to Scott and he said, it’s a loupe. A what? A loupe (loop) “is a simple, small magnification device used to see small details more closely.[1] They generally have higher magnification than a magnifying glass, and are designed to be held or worn close to the eye. A loupe does not have an attached handle, and its focusing lens(es) are contained in an opaque cylinder or cone” (wikipedia). A new word, learned!
Here are some things I’ve been doing with the plastic so far:
Cutting up plastic into strips and shards, separating them by color. So far, I’m using these shards/strips to show the color of the lake during open swim. Maybe I’ll turn them into some sort of mosaic, or create interesting sounds with them. As I handle them, I’ve been thinking about the importance of texture for how I see and how I understand/process/identify color.
Looking for and setting aside bigger strips of clear plastic to use for my holes/how I read series — to cover words and/or make them harder/impossible to read.
Cutting out and collecting words printed on plastic bags to turn into found poems about vision or swimming in the lake or something else I haven’t thought of yet.
I’m planning to make things with these plastics, and I’m also using the processing of them as an opportunity to critically reflect on how much plastic I use and to explore plastic as metaphor for my vision and distanced relationship to the world. Maybe I should study plastic for a month? I’m also using the act of processing as something I can do with my hands that is physical and tactile and repetitive enough to open me up to wandering and wondering.
from 16 july
- the plastic art of finding the words with Alice Oswald
- I Want Biodegradable Sex/ Oliver Baez Bendorf
- our “age of plastics,” I’m wondering about its history — here’s a brief overview from the BBC.
- Plastic: A Personal History/ Elizabeth Bradfield
from 17 july
- a podcast on myths about plastic
- consumption of plastic
- do you ever feel like a plastic bag?
from 19 july
color in layers: underwater / underside of surface / surface from above / sky
Playlist: Plastic Fantastic
Created this plastic playlist yesterday. I’m looking forward to listening to it on my next run.
- Plastic Hearts/ Miley Cyrus
- Midnight Sky/ Miley Cyrus
- PLASTIC/ sakehands (feat. Marty Valentine & Lo)
- Plastic/ Moses Sumney
- Fake Plastic Trees/ Radiohead
- Plastic/ New Order
- Plastic/ Portishead
- Plastic Doll/ Lady Gaga
- Barbie Girl/ Aqua
- Plastic Romance/ A Toys Orchestra
- Dear Plastic/ The Sugarcubes
- Plastic Jesus/ Jello Biagra & MoJo Nixon
- Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach/ Gorillaz (feat. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
- Plastic Beach/ Gorillaz (feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon
- Synthetic World/ Swamp Dogg
- Plastico/ Ruben Blades
- Plastic Girl/ CAPSULE (feat. EeL)
- The Bomb/ L7
- Plastic Factory (Mono)/ Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
- Polyethylene Pts 1 & 2/ Radiohead
- Toxic Garbage Island/ Gojira
- We Are Plastic/ Crash Tokio
- Living in the Plastic Age/ The Buggles
- Video Killed the Radio Star/ the Buggles
from 20 july
The water was green with notes of yellow and opaque. I was able to see a few of my bubble friends, but nothing else. No fish or milfoil or sparkle friends. I don’t think I ever see sparkle friend here — not the sediment sparkles under water or the glittery sparkles on the surface.
added the next day: I wanted to replicate the color of the water with my plastics, but didn’t have time last night. I’m not sure either of these quite capture the mix of (mostly) green with some yellow:
1: back of cukes plastic bag held close to the window
2: back of cukes plastic bag held far from the window
3: a square of a yogurt container covered with seltzer water shards
I think 2 is too yellow. I think there’s a section of 3, on the right side, that might best capture my memory of the water. I also like the overall color of 1.
from 25 july
today’s colors in plastic
At different times, depending on the how bright the light behind the clouds was, the sky looked either 1, 2, or 3:
Standing behind the sliding bench, looking down at the green gorge, I saw these 2 greens:
from 26 july
Today’s colors: yellow, orange, lime green, blue-ish green, olive green, bright pink, bright blue
big green buoy, 2 swimmer buoys: pink, yellow
from 27 july
Today’s color palette: white cylindrical buoys, faded pinkish-reddish spherical buoys, pale green water, bright blue sky, the clear bubbles and underside of water’s surface, a light brown sandy bottom.
from 29 july
Oh that green! Usually this deep into summer, so much green is accompanied by lots of bugs. Yes, I heard the buzz of cicadas, but there weren’t any mosquitoes or gnats. Where are all the bugs? Returning to the green, these different plastics roughly represent the green, either as I saw it, or as I remember feeling it:
yellowish green cedar lakenote: I’m writing this monthly challenge on 12 oct 2026. I continue to collect and process most of the plastic we use. And I’m still not sure what I’m doing with it, but I’m not worried. I’m sure some interesting ideas will come to me.