Pipeline

https://youtu.be/G5Eqs-3eREU

Letter poem

AGENDA:

Continue to work on letter poem.

Letter to Noah’s Wife Maya C. Popa

You are never mentioned on Ararat or elsewhere, but I know a woman’s hand in salvation when I see it. Lately, I’m torn between despair and ignorance. I’m not a vegetarian, shop plastic, use an air conditioner. Is this what happens before it all goes fluvial? Do the selfish grow self-conscious by the withering begonias? Lately, I worry every black dress will have to be worn to a funeral. New York a bouillon, eroded filigree. Anything but illness, I beg the plagues, but shiny crows or nuclear rain. Not a drop in London May through June. I bask in the wilt by golden hour light. Lately, only lately, it is late. Tucking our families into the safeties of the past. My children, will they exist by the time it’s irreversible? Will they live astonished at the thought of ice not pulled from the mouth of a machine? Which parent will be the one to break the myth; the Arctic wasn’t Sisyphus’s snowy hill. Noah’s wife, I am wringing my hands not knowing how to know and move forward. Was it you who gathered flowers once the earth had dried? How did you explain the light to all the animals?   Copyright © 2019 by Maya C. Popa. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 30, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.

Self Portrait Poem

AGENDA:

SELF-PORTRAIT POEMS


We have all seen self-portraits by visual artists—Frida Kahlo’s “Self Portrait with Cropped Hair,” “Self Portrait with Necklace,” or “Self Portrait with Monkey”—and what interests me in these works is what the artist chooses to highlight in these paintings.
For this writing exercise, you’ll begin with a title:
Self Portrait With ______________  (fill in the blank)
You are welcome to fill in the blank with any current obsession or interesting word/words you like.  Try to choose a word that excites you as in this exercise, as you will return to that word many times.  Your title can be anything from Self Portrait with Machete to Self Portrait with Mother Teresa.  You can use a few words to stretch your subject into something more such as Self Portrait with Broken Coffee Mug or Self Portrait with Winning Lottery Ticket.  It is completely up to you.
You are welcome to write a short story, creative non-fiction piece or in the form of a poem.  Or for an extra challenge, use the same title for two different genres and see what happens.
_____________
Self Portrait With Optic Neuritis
by Kelli Russell Agodon

The ophthalmologist is looking through me.
On the other side of my eye
is God or a peach and I can’t imagine

laughing again or seeing the purple
birthmark on my daughter’s arm.
When he speaks, I hear shadows.

I hear the empty mouths
of bells.  I begin to make promises
to remember long words,

to visit Taos before it is a cloudy city.
On the other side of vision, I can’t imagine
the braiding of nerves inside me,

the light reflecting off an unpainted wall
or the red matter, the rug from India
hanging across the window.

The eye chart hides beneath a haze.
They flip through a book and I am to see
numbers, what I say is: I don’t know,

I don’t know.  His assistant leads me
into the waiting room. I hear a man talking
to his child—she must be only two,

her footsteps sound like dancing.
I hear him tell her to follow him,
then say, I think you’ll need to hold my hand.

previously published in In Posse

Also:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/self-portrait

Self-Portrait

BY AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER

I see myself in the shadows of a leaf

compressed to the green blades growing

to a point like the shards of miles of mirrors

falling and cracking to perfect gardens.

I never inspect the withered assumption

of my face’s petty dialogue in raindrops,

the deceptive spreading of the words

oozing from the skin to the edges of water

etched on the ground by gravity and wishing.

Passing for the seriousness of my eye,

platitudes of my white collar or

the perfect posture of my lips, it skirts

from the leaves of the plant hiding me

and sits stoic like stone in my pupil,

mute and unassuming, like Rashi.

To gather myself I will swim naked

in the wind, bending my blind elbows

in circles, stopping now to dance

like the cherubic gold on the ark,

and gather myself from the particles

of this excitement another structure,

one closely resembling the beginning.

Afaa Michael Weaver, “Self Portrait” from Multitudes: Poems Selected & New. Copyright © 2000 by Afaa Michael Weaver. Reprinted by permission of Sarabande Books, Inc.

Source: Multitudes: Poems Selected & New (Sarabande Books, 2000)

Workshop #1 cont.

AGENDA:

Video--
Billy Collins and Marie Howe
http://www.mariehowe.com/

https://poets.org/poet/marie-howe

https://poets.org/poems/marie-howe

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/marie-howe

What the Living Do

Marie Howe

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Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up

waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through

the open living-room windows because the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off.
For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking,

I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those
wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve,

I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it.
Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning.

What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss—we want more and more and then more of it.

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless:
I am living. I remember you.

Continue workshop #1 as a class

Dine and Rhyme

BOA Editions 22nd Annual Dine & Rhyme
Featuring Naomi Shihab Nye

Friday, October 4th, 2019 
6pm-9pm (doors open at 5:30)
Rochester Academy of Medicine
1441 East Ave, Rochester, NY

Dine & Rhyme is BOA's one-and-only annual fundraising event. Featuring poetry readings, author talks, food & drink, and great company, it's a night to celebrate BOA's past, present, and future. All Dine & Rhyme proceeds support BOA's mission to bring exceptional and essential works of literature to the public.

WORKSHOP #1

AGENDA:

Billy Collins:  How Does a Poem Mean (John Ciardi)

Workshop #1

Select a poem to workshop.

http://lexwilliford.com/Workshops/Screenwriting/START%20HERE/Workshop%20Guide%20for%20Creative%20Writing.pdf

Poem About Complexity Not Understood

Only Child Adam Clay

Breakfast rained on again, and I’m lifted up the stairs on the breath of what the dark of the day might promise in its perfect silence. The light in my daughter’s room has been on all night like every night, but the sun shifting changes the shape of the space from a square into an unfolding universe. I had always imagined a different type of fatherhood before fatherhood found me, but if you asked me to describe it now, I don’t think I could find the words. Try to find a way to describe living a few different ways at once. For a while I imagined there would be more attempts at trying out what I’m still trying to see in the room that’s gone power out, but the weeds in the yard grow too quickly to be left alone for long. I had forgotten the strangeness of a humid February. I had forgotten all that makes up the memories that need me to exist. It was easier to carve out a place before I had words to describe it. Now looking back feels like looking forward. I am drawing a self-portrait and trying to remove the self.

W. S. Merwin/The "Break up Poem"

W. S. Merwin "The Nails"

AGENDA:
Vote for Creative Writing officers!


1. Read W. S. Merwin's "The Nails" and the reading guide

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69462/ws-merwin-the-nails

Explore writing ideas about a "break up' poem and discussion guide:

Answer discussion questions and post on blog.  Work on one of the two writing ideas.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52501/the-nails#tab-resources

Writing Ideas

1. “The Nails” plays on common, idiomatic expressions—“wearing your heart on your sleeve” becomes “I wear a torn place on my sleeve,” for example. Make a list of common expressions. Like Merwin, swap out words and images. Try building a poem from your converted clichés.

Examples of cliches:

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-cliche-1689852
https://www.be-a-better-writer.com/cliches.html

1. Merwin’s speaker discards his own attempts to name and describe grief through the almost-refrain, “It isn’t as simple as that.” Think of a situation that seems to defy your own attempt to understand it—it could be personal, like this poem’s break-up, or much more public. Using Merwin’s phrase only twice, write a poem that likewise tries to articulate complexity and acknowledge the difficulty of explaining “it.”

Discussion Questions

1. Jeffrey McDaniel notes in his poem guide to “The Nails” that, “what make the poem special is the intensity of feeling coupled with the startling imagery.” Make a list of all the images this poem contains; then, try to assign a mood to each image. How does Merwin mood through images and vice versa?
2. Try to sonically graph the poem: as you read it aloud, connect or otherwise indicate matching or nearly matching sounds. Do you detect any patterns similar to the Oh-I-Oh-I-Oh structure McDaniel describes?
3. In what ways does this poem seem to chart the emotional aftermath of a relationship? In what way does its subject—“the other thing”—also remain mysterious? Can you examine moments where the logic, emotion, or images “leap” in the poem?
4. While “The Nails” refers to the startling final image, how else does the poem imagine or create an uncomfortable sense of connection? What other senses of “nailing” or bonding are at work?

Teaching Tips

1. Have students assemble a mini-anthology of Poems About Heartbreak. Feel free to assign guidelines, such as having poems from a variety of historical periods, countries, and “schools” or moments in poetry. Students can explore library holdings or one of the Love categories on the Poetry Foundation. If “The Nails” is the starting poem for each mini-anthology, ask students to arrange their own selections (10-15 additional poems) in an order that makes sense to them. Then have students each write an introduction explaining their selections and ordering choices.
2. McDaniel notes the influence that Spanish language poets such as Federico García Lorca, Roberto Juarroz, Pablo Neruda, and Jean Follain have had on Merwin. Have your students research the poems of these other poets. What lines of influence can they draw between the techniques and styles of these poets and Merwin? If your students speak or read Spanish (or even if they don’t!), have them translate a poem or two from these poets. Lead a discussion on the challenges students faced in doing their own translation, perhaps drawing on “Various Tongues,” a conversation between Ilya Kaminsky and Adam Kirsch on translation.

Vocabulary.com sign-in

http://vocab.com/join/4P50A6T

Metaphor/Billy Collins

AGENDA:

View videos from last class.

Work on Metaphor poem.

View Billy Collins video.

Writing contests

SCHOLASTIC:
artandwriting.org

BENNINGTON:

https://www.bennington.edu/events/young-writers-awards

Week #3 Sharpened Visions Making Metaphor

AGENDA:

EQ--How do poets use metaphor?

1. View Week #3 Videos Sharpened Visions on coursera.org


2. Writing Prompts:

To review, this week's poetry prompts are below. Write to one prompt, or both. You'll have an opportunity to workshop one of these poems, as desired, at the end of this module.

You Are So Conceited: When A Metaphor Isn’t Tough Enough

As mentioned before, metaphors are often more powerful when the things made to seem similar actually seem, at first, very different. Yet when there’s a big gap between the object of the metaphor and its figure, you need to convince your reader of the validity of your metaphor. You need a conceit. A conceit is like an extended metaphor, but it argues for the metaphor itself. John Donne’s “The Flea”—where he argues that a flea is a marriage bed—is a prime example. Try one of those!

One of Us! One of Us!: Developing the Focused Image System

Write a poem in which you limit all of your figures of speech to refer to a general thematic unity—perhaps they’re all insect-related, all engineering principles, or connected to desert ecologies. You don’t need to pile them on—in fact, show restraint if you like, but keep them consistent!

TECHNICAL TERMS POEM--Handout

POST your poem on Google Classroom!

Object Poem/Week #2 Prompts

AGENDA:

1. Morning Reflection

Think, Pair, Share---Post a comment
With a partner, read over the poem for consideration (previous post).  consider the interesting line-breaking and the tone and theme of the poem.  How does the line breaking and stanzaic structure contribute to the meaning of the poem?  Discuss your analysis of the poem and post a comment on this post for credit.

2. Work on the poetry exercises from the previous class.  Post on Google classroom a poem for discussion.

3. Share out on google classroom.

A poem to consider

Fractured   Hali Sofala-Jones

My grandmother is only one day into her infirmity and doped up on Morphine. Her shoulder is immobile beneath layers of plaster. Her eighty-five-year-old frame droops from the weight of it. My mother confesses: she cannot take care of her mother. I am not she says a nursemaid. My mother is angry. Angry at my sister who didn’t give enough support, angry at my grandmother for shuffling her feet, angry even at the dog that was tucked beneath my grandmother’s arm as they all three tried to squeeze into the door of the vet’s office. She calls me from the emergency room to say that grandmother fractured her shoulder in three places. She’s become an invalid overnight, she says. My sister calls her cruel for refusing to run the bathwater, refusing to wash my grandmother’s naked body, for not even considering renting a wheelchair for her to move from place to place. When grandmother whispers that she is afraid to walk, my mother tells her that there’s nothing wrong with her legs, tells her she’ll have to go to a nursing home if she won’t walk to the bathroom: one piss in the bed is understandable, two is teetering too close to in-home care. My sister does not understand that there is too much to overcome between them— always the memory of the black dress grandmother refused to wear on the day of her husband’s funeral— the way she turned to my mother and said, I am not in mourning.

Week 2 Sharpened visions/Abstract vs. Literal

AGENDA:

LOCKERS

Share from last class.

EQ: What is an image? How do poets work with imagery?

Continue course:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/poetry-workshop/discussions/weeks/2

To review, this week's poetry prompts are below. Write to one prompt, or both. You'll have an opportunity to share and workshop one of these poems, as desired, at the end of the following module (Week 3).

Make A Still Life: Without All of That Messy Paint

In the tradition of the Imagists, write a poem that describes an object. Be as literal and vivid as possible. Pick up the object (if you can), look at it from as many different angles as possible. Consider its color, its weight, its texture, its material and write up a picture!

Hello, My Name Is…: Title as Poem Catalyst

Think up a poem title structured as such: The [Concrete Noun] of [Abstract Noun]. So, like: “The Cheese of Time” or like “The Monkey of Holiness” or maybe “The Steak Knife of Despair.” If a title like that doesn’t get you going… Then, write a poem based on that title.

Another variation on the Object Poem:


OBJECT POEM
https://penandthepad.com/write-object-poem-5085351.html

https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/improve-my-writing/spotlight-on-object-poems

An object poem describes an inanimate object in detail, focusing on singular characteristics of an animal, natural phenomenon or manufactured good. A vivid description of the object's physical form, functions and potential is used as a literary device to personify the object. Employing straightforward and highly descriptive language, an object poem leads the reader to fresh perception of the subject. Ultimately, the reader senses the significance of the object as a metaphor for human interaction, emotional situations or spiritual truths.