Dream of a Thing Poem/Cora Brooks Exercise

Prompt:



Imagine an ordinary object, one that you could hold in your hands.  Imagine that you could take this object to a field where you put it down and leave it.

Imagine that someday you come back to the field and find the object that you placed there.

Know that the object has been sleeping.

You are magic.  You can tell what the object is dreaming.

In the same way you can dream impossible or strange things, so can the object.  

Write the dream of the object.

Halloween Poems/Ghost/Negative Capability

AGENDA:

Happy Halloween!  Explore Halloween poems.

www.poets.org/poetsorg/halloween-poems

http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/y/1A7DDDF6757048EF/FF0EB04BBFA2CA21A2432AF2E34A2A5F

WRITING PROMPT:

Write a poem for Halloween or Autumn.  Read Keats "Ode to Autumn".  Post answers to discussion questions here.

www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/44484

Prose Poem

AGENDA:

Go to and read:


https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/prose-poem-poetic-form

web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/poetsonline/archive/arch_prose.htm

The Colonel:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/carolyn-forche#about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXMbpFvCWMs

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/49862

www.shmoop.com/colonel-forche/

http://www.webdelsol.com/tpp/


Francis Ponge:

http://prose-poems.com/ponge.html


Nin Andrews (BOA poet):
http://www.mobylives.com/Duhamel_one.html

CINDERELLA for my daughter, Suzanne So tell me this.  Why did that prince want to marry some girl, so slim she could dance in glass slippers? And I mean, dance, not pussyfoot around. And why is it that no maiden in the entire kingdom ever shattered that glass shoe?  One step in and smasho.  Now doesn't that tell you something about women back then?  Even those mean, ugly stepsisters . . . .  They didn't carry any weight at all. The best were as light as milkweed with nothing but dreams to keep them happy.  And the beautiful were always in danger of being blown away like kites or party balloons.  But there was one, once upon a time and long ago . . . There had to have been at least one who never gazed upon her prince with silken eyes . . . Maybe it was her scent of cinders, sweat and silt that really turned men on and drove them wild. So they galloped away on silver steeds, waving their lances in the air, chanting: "Mine's bigger than yours!" Because that, my love, is what men do best and have done and will do happily ever after until the end of time. https://superstitionreview.asu.edu/issue5/poetry/ninandrews James Tate: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/list-famous-hats The List of Famous Hats James Tate, 1943 - 2015 Napoleon’s hat is an obvious choice I guess to list as a famous hat, but that’s not the hat I have in mind. That was his hat for show. I am thinking of his private bathing cap, which in all honesty wasn’t much different than the one any jerk might buy at a corner drugstore now, except for two minor eccentricities. The first one isn’t even funny: Simply it was a white rubber bathing cap, but too small. Napoleon led such a hectic life ever since his childhood, even farther back than that, that he never had a chance to buy a new bathing cap and still as a grown-up--well, he didn’t really grow that much, but his head did: He was a pinhead at birth, and he used, until his death really, the same little tiny bathing cap that he was born in, and this meant that later it was very painful to him and gave him many headaches, as if he needed more. So, he had to vaseline his skull like crazy to even get the thing on. The second eccentricity was that it was a tricorn bathing cap. Scholars like to make a lot out of this, and it would be easy to do. My theory is simple-minded to be sure: that beneath his public head there was another head and it was a pyramid or something. Naomi Shihab Nye  Hammer and Nail "Would you like to see where our little girl is buried?" my friend asks as we walk between stucco shrines and wreaths of brilliant flowers. Even a plane's propeller is attached to a pilot's grave as if the whole thing might spin off into the wind. One man's relatives built a castle over his remains, with turrets and towers, to match the castle he built for his body in life. If you stand at a certain angle you can see both castles at once, the bigger one he lived in off on the horizon. An archway says in Spanish, "Life is an illusion. Death is the reality. Respect the dead whom you are visiting now." We hike down the hill toward the acres of "free graves." Here people can claim any space they want without paying, but also risk having someone buried on top of them. In the fields beyond the cemetery, women walk slowly with buckets slung over their shoulders on poles. Black cows graze on knee-high grass. The crossbar from the marker to my friend's child's grave has come loose and lies off to one side. My friend kneels, pressing the simple blue crossbar back into the upright piece, wishing for a hammer and nail. The cross has delicate scalloped edges and says nothing. No words, no dates. It reminds me of the simplicity of folded hands, though I know there were years of despair. My friend says, "Sometimes I am still very sad. But I no longer ask, 'What if . . .?' It was the tiniest casket you ever saw." On the small plots in either direction, families have stuck tall pine branches into dirt. The needles droop, completely dried by now, but they must have looked lovely as miniature forests for the first few days.

Favorite Poem Project

AGENDA:

This is a long term project that involves selecting a favorite poem and creating a video of your reading of the poem and explanation of why the poem has personal meaning for you.

To find out what the project entails, go to the link on this blog:
Favorite Poem Project

We'll take a look at a video example (a break up poem from the Renaissance period) and then you can explore the website.

Michael Drayton's "Since There's No Help"
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-lxi-since-there-s-no-help/

Sonnet XI

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part, 
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me, 

And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of Love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now, if thou wouldst, when all have giv'n him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover. 

Michael Drayton


Continue to work on ekphrastic photo poem and other poems for contest entries.

WORKSHOP?

Ekphrastic Poetry with Historic Photos

AGENDA:

Go to:


"The Buttonhook"
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/teach-poem

Find a photo that represents a moment in history.  Make a list of descriptive details.  What was that moment in history like?  How did the photo capture it?  Is that moment in history personally relevant?  Create a poem about the photo.

Some websites to explore:

http://www.boredpanda.com/historic-photos/

http://pulptastic.com/40-rare-historical-photographs-must-see/

http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/

http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-historic-moments/

Annie Edison Taylor, the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, 1901

ODES

AGENDA:

Workshop

Neruda's Ode
Check these out: http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/H%20-%20World%20Religions%20and%20Poetry/Poetry/Pablo%20Neruda/Eight%20Elementary%20Odes/Elementary%20Odes%20Pablo%20Neruda.htm

Tips for Writing Odes

An ode poem is a poem that is about only one specific thing that you think is truly amazing and praiseworthy. This type of poem can be centered upon an object, an idea, or even a person. The trick to writing an ode poem is to write using the same structure throughout, while using different words to communicate the one thing you are writing about. Here are some tips to help you out if you’re interested in writing an ode poem:

1. What really makes you emotional, either in a positive or negative way? Think of an object, person, or idea that you are deeply connected to, and this will be the topic of your ode poem. Remember, an ode poem can only be focused on one thing, so make sure that whatever you pick is something that you feel strongly about, so you have enough to write.
2. When someone brings the “something” you have chosen to write about up in a conversation, how do you react? Write down what you would say in such a situation, and next, think of specific adjectives to describe how you feel about the topic of your ode. Throughout the poem, you will have to use many words that have the same definition or meaning, so you might want to check out a thesaurus if you get stuck with this part.
3. How long do you want your poem to be? Odes are traditionally long poems, because chances are, if you’ve picked a topic you really feel passionately about, you will have a lot to write. Start by splitting up your poem into groups, or stanzas, of ten lines. Most odes have three of these stanzas, but if you want to write more, by all means do!
4. How do you want your poem to rhyme? It’s up to you how you want to format the rhyme scheme of this poem. You can make every two lines rhyme, every other line rhyme (most odes do this), or make up your own pattern- just make sure that whatever pattern you choose, you use the same one for the whole poem.
5. If you have written this ode about someone you know, make sure to read it to them or even give them a copy as a present so they know just how amazing you think they are. Then, post this ode poem to PowerPoetry.org so your fellow poets can learn what you feel passionately about!

ODE TO THE PRESENT
by Pablo Neruda
This
present moment,
smooth
as a wooden slab,
this
immaculate hour,
this day
pure
as a new cup
from the past–
no spider web
exists–
with our fingers,
we caress
the present;we cut it
according to our magnitude
we guide
the unfolding of its blossoms.
It is living,
alive–
it contains
nothing
from the unrepairable past,
from the lost past,
it is our
infant,
growing at
this very moment, adorned with
sand, eating from
our hands.
Grab it.
Don’t let it slip away.
Don’t lose it in dreams
or words.
Clutch it.
Tie it,
and order it
to obey you.
Make it a road,
a bell,
a machine,
a kiss, a book,
a caress.
Take a saw to its delicious
wooden
perfume.
And make a chair;
braid its
back;
test it.
Or then, build
a staircase! Yes, a
staircase.
Climb
into
the present,
step
by step,
press your feet
onto the resinous wood
of this moment,
going up,
going up,
not very high,
just so
you repair
the leaky roof.
Don’t go all the way to heaven.
Reach
for apples,
not the clouds.
Let them
fluff through the sky,
skimming passage,
into the past.You
are
your present,
your own apple.
Pick it from
your tree.
Raise it
in your hand.
It’s gleaming,
rich with stars.
Claim it.
Take a luxurious bite
out of the present,
and whistle along the road
of your destiny.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was the pen name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pseudonym after Czech poet Jan Neruda. In 1971, Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Neruda often wrote in green ink because it was his personal symbol of desire and hope. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez called him “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.” (Source: Wikipedia)

THE ODE

"Ode" comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry. Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments, the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.
There are three typical types of odes: the Pindaric, Horatian, and Irregular. The Pindaric is named for the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who is credited with inventing the ode. Pindaric odes were performed with a chorus and dancers, and often composed to celebrate athletic victories. They contain a formal opening, or strophe, of complex metrical structure, followed by an antistrophe, which mirrors the opening, and an epode, the final closing section of a different length and composed with a different metrical structure. The William Wordsworth poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" is a very good example of an English language Pindaric ode. It begins:

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 
The earth, and every common sight
                 To me did seem
            Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
             Turn wheresoe'er I may,
              By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

The Horatian ode, named for the Roman poet Horace, is generally more tranquil and contemplative than the Pindaric ode. Less formal, less ceremonious, and better suited to quiet reading than theatrical production, the Horatian ode typically uses a regular, recurrent stanza pattern. An example is the Allen Tate poem "Ode to the Confederate Dead," excerpted here:

Row after row with strict impunity
The headstones yield their names to the element,
The wind whirrs without recollection;
In the riven troughs the splayed leaves
Pile up, of nature the casual sacrament
To the seasonal eternity of death;
Then driven by the fierce scrutiny
Of heaven to their election in the vast breath,
They sough the rumour of mortality.

The Irregular ode has employed all manner of formal possibilities, while often retaining the tone and thematic elements of the classical ode. For example, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats was written based on his experiments with the sonnet. Other well-known odes include Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," Robert Creeley's "America," Bernadette Mayer's "Ode on Periods," and Robert Lowell's "Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket."

How to Write an Ode

Created by Pindar out of the traditional forms of Greek tragedy, the ode is generally defined as a rhymed poem of irregular meter that praises its subject. The English ode consists of an undefined number of 10-line stanzas.

1. 
   
   Consider the subject matter that you wish to write about, and remember that beauty can be found in the least expected places. Was watching "American Beauty" the first time you thought a plastic bag caught in the wind was beautiful?
   
2. Write a 10-line stanza of iambic verse using an ababcdecde rhyme scheme.
   
3. Proceed to write as many 10-line stanzas as desired. Use the same rhyme scheme pattern in the following stanzas, but with different rhymes. If you do this correctly, the "a" of a stanza will rhyme only with the "a" of that same stanza.
   
4. Revise as needed.

Arts and Lectures Oct. 13

Good Afternoon.

Rochester Arts & Lectures will once again host high school students at our Thursday night lectures. However, unlike past years and because we are expanding the program to bring speakers into the city schools, we will be offering three evening programs. We can accommodate 16 students plus their teachers. The programs are: 

October 13 Reimagining Home: Rochester. Three poets who grew up in Rochester discuss the influence or not of Rochester on their writings. Cornelius Eady, award winning poet, musician, composer. Marie Howe Poet Emerita of NYS, and Philip Schultz Pulitzer Prize winner. It will be moderated by our own Rochester poet Anthony Leuzi. 

March 23 Reimagining Home: Cuba. Richard Blanco, Inaugural Poet 2013 will discuss his memoir and growing up as a Cuban American.

April 20 Terry Tempest Williams is the author of Refuge, Finding Beauty in a broken world. She is both naturalist, ecofeminist, conservationist, whose writing is truly lyrical no matter the topic. I'm prejudiced, but I think her work is life changing.  

We will give you reserved seating, author background materials, and a copy of the author's book for each student and teacher that participates. 

I realize that transportation is an issue, and we can make volunteers available to assist. 

I will need firm reservations. Last year we were left with many books because of no-shows. Take pity on me. 

Please let me know if you want to attend, how many students and whether you need volunteer drivers. 

Also please FORWARD to any others you think might be interested. 

Thanks,

Naomi Shihab Nye

AGENDA:

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2007/07/23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_RAFdZHGoo 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?q=shihab+nye


This is Not Poem

This is not really an attempt to say what anything is

by trying to describe what it is not for it is not

a representation of a thing and yet it is a thing,

a drawing which IS a thing but a drawing

need not BE OF a thing.

It is not just a three dimensional object reduced to two dimensions-

lines, circling, slashing across a large piece of paper

blue ink spilling across a blank space,

some THING emerging out of NO-THING.

It is not a singular mind’s creation—abstract or concrete—

and while it was intended to be collaborative, it is not

a collaborative work of art.

It is not a flame, a game, or the name of anything.

It cannot be defined, cannot be explained, cannot be found

In our words.  Like the attempt to write a poem—

it is not solid and cannot be grasped in its entirety.

Piecemeal, partial, it invites us.

Go to Poetry Foundation link:
Look over Naomi Shihab Nye's poems and write a response poem to "Kindness" or one of her other poems.

HMWK:  For Wednesday: Read Ch. 2,3, and 4--Select one of the prompts from these chapters and write a poem for sharing on Wednesday