Pastiche:

1. A dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous works of other artists.
2. A pasticcio of incongruous parts; a hodgepodge.

Literary allusions, academic quotes, and musical sampling are all accepted practices. Pastiche is nothing more than remixing, recombining, and speaking new meaning through the words of others. Context has a very transformative power.

The process may vary, but the technique remains the same. When I am composing pastiche I select disparate lines from previously published works and allow them to mingle with one another until a new story emerges, until my tale is told.

These poems are now the identical twins of mixtapes. (Oh the stories I would weave by creating these collections of music!) Piecing together songs, the poetical lines of an album, for the narrative purpose of compliment and contrast. An intimate gift of identity.

Examples of my pastiche include: https://germanjones.wordpress.com/category/pastiche/

Salvation army clothing, fictional inspirations from life (my own and others), and the recycling of myths to form religions are additional examples of the practice of pastiche.

Although it does not account for all, this can be read as an introduction to the writing. A skeleton key. A doorman.

Tony is both my literary agent and muse. My lover is my love. And my memory, at least for now, is a reason.