Jaymee's Poem/Effective Workshop

Cherry Blood

On cloudy mornings

I pluck big, bursting

fruits of your name

off of my fingers.

I let the juice of them

drip down my chin.

Let the pulp of what-was

dry on my skin.

And then I wipe you off.

I make myself bare,

again.

I have grown very good

at cleaning myself up.

You helped me with that.

After you I had no choice.

-Lora Mathis

"The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person."
                                                                                                          - Czeslaw Milosz 

 Here are some goals I have for you this semester:

 1. To find out if you truly like poetry, or only write it to “express” yourselves.

 2. Find out what your aesthetics are, the limits of your aesthetics, and how these may be expanded.

 3. Learn to be responsive to language both as written and performed text.

 4. Gain exposure to major poems without having to take a lecture class.

 5. Have a learning experience with your own minds and with the teacher far more concentrated than is usually possible in a class that consists of lecture, papers, exam.

 6. Learn to write daily, rather than waiting for the last minute. This means you are not feeling you are doing a lot of work, but are, in fact, doing far more—minus bibliography, and all that formal stuff.


How to Workshop a Poem

 Hopefully you had a chance over the past few weeks to work on some drafts of your poems and consider what it means to workshop. Please be reminded that a large part of your grade in this class has to do with the quality of feedback you provide your classmates. Please take this process seriously.  

Directions: Comment, in writing, on each poem that you are workshopping. Initial each comment. You will lose points if you fail to comment constructively on a peer’s paper. The creative writing environment relies heavily on input. Workshopping is a form of publication, and it is a time for you to receive feedback from others about your work. Consider the following when reviewing a peer’s work:

o Is the diction (word choice) appropriate for the topic?

o Does the poem have a rhythmic feel to it? Does it flow? Why or why not?

o Is there something that isn’t clear or that you don’t understand? o Is there enough detail? o Not enough detail?

o Is the language descriptive?

o Is there too much description?

o Is the language used effectively? Why or why not?

o Is the pace too slow? Too fast?

o Is the voice clear?

o Is the spelling correct?

o Are there grammatical errors?

o What words, lines, or stanzas move you? Why?

o What words, lines, or stanzas puzzle you?

Read through the poem a couple of times until you get a sense of what the poem is trying to do. Some things you can look for (in terms of suggestions): places where what the author is trying to say is unclear, places where the phrasing is awkward and needs to be reworded, places where you think a better word might be appropriate, line breaks that interfere with comprehension, places where you think more description or detail is needed, or anything else you feel the author should be aware of. Some things you can look for (in terms of letting the author know what’s working): strong images, effective similes or metaphors, effective line breaks, fresh or imaginative descriptions or details, moving or insightful ideas, or anything else you liked about the poem. You should also make use of the “Holding the Poem in Question” handout, which is a list of questions you can ask yourself when trying to generate feedback for a poem

Baggage Switch Exercise/Self-Reflection

Baggage Switch Exercise:

Make a list of all the verbs used in one of your poems.

Swap your list with a partner.

Replace the verbs in your poem with some verbs from the list you receive.  You can change the tense and number.

DO NOT MERELY CHOOSE SYNONYMS. LOOK FOR SURPRISING JUXTAPOSITIONS.  FOCUS ON WORD CHOICE (DICTION)!


Please reflect on the following: 
Take a look at your poems and read/think about the information below. Jot down anything you happen to notice in your notebooks.

Line breaking: Is this something you did with intention?

Speed:  Short or long?  Enjambed or end-stopped?

Sound:  Rhyme emphasized?  Emphasize or de-emphasize rhythm?

Syntax:  Does the poem have line breaks that are compatible with its syntactical units?  Where are prepositions placed--at the beginning or end?  If the line breaks are unconventional, what is the effect?

Surprise: When a line breaks at an unexpected place, what is the effect?  What is the strongest position for a word?

Sense: Do the line breaks add to the overall meaning or sense of the poem?  Do they further its argument (logical or sound sense)?

Space:  Do the line breaks represent the timing of the poem?  What do you gather about the poem based on its appearance?  Does the creation of stanzas organize the space of the poem?

Quiz/Aleah's Poem

After turning in your homework and taking your first quiz, please read the poem below for class discussion.

Phenomenal Woman

by Maya Angelou

 

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me

Upcoming EVENTS!

PUB Fair on Saturday (across the street at the VS Workshop)
http://www.brockport.edu/eagle/view_item.php?id=8513

The Roc Solid Poetry Slam (SPOT Coffee)

Homework/Expectations for class

Please write down your homework assignments when in class and/or ask a classmate if you are absent.

Homework that was due today: 2 poems chosen from chapters 1, 3 or 4.

BE VERY CAREFUL if you start to fall behind now it will be very difficult to catch up/pass the class.

I collected portfolios in class today. There should be at least 7 poems in there. One should be workshopped and polished. The others could be drafts, but should be honest attempts at responding to the prompts.

NOT READING THE CHAPTERS? Be very careful... a pop quiz and/or test are on the way... you should read the information provided as you are responsible for all of the information given to you in class in all forms.

NOT COMING TO CLASS? Sorry... It is your responsibility to be here. I will not give you extra time and or make allowances for people who are not in class. You will also receive zeros for the classwork grades, etc. Miss a quiz with an unexcused absence? Sorry... that's a zero. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to be here.

Please let me know if you have any questions about these policies.

Homework due Thursday: Complete the poem out of chapters 1-5 that you still need to do. When you come to class on Thursday, you should have chapters 1-5 and 28 complete (along with the other assignments give. Review any information provided. Expect a quiz.

Homework Due Today/Classwork

In class on Wednesday, we discussed metaphor and how to use it appropriately in poetry. Your homework was to choose either chapter 2 or 28 in your Poetry Writing books. For classwork today, please complete the chapter you didn't do for homework. Both of these chapters address metaphor and apply to our class discussion on Monday.

Here is some information on the Dine and Rhyme event happening Sunday:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/community/2015/09/15/join-boa-at-dine-rhyme-on-sunday-920/72324100/

http://www.boaeditions.org/blog/2015/08/boas-18th-annual-dine-rhyme-tickets-now-available/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61-lQULIBeI

Here is the poem Mathilda brought in for the class to examine:

 

Invictus

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

 

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

      For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance

      I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.

A Response Poem Shared by Zoe/Assignment

48. To A Stranger Born In Some Distant Country Hundreds Of Years From Now - Billy Collins

I write poems far a stranger who will be born in some distant country hundreds of years from now. – Mary Oliver

 

Nobody here likes a wet dog.

No one wants anything to do with a dog

that is wet from being out in the rain

or retrieving a stick from a lake.

Look how she wanders around the crowded pub tonight

going from one person to another

hoping for a pat on the head, a rub behind the ears,

something that could be given with one hand

without even wrinkling the conversation.

 

But everyone pushes her away,

some with a knee, others with the sole of a boot.

Even the children, who don’t realize she is wet

until they go to pet her,

push her away

then wipe their hands on their clothes.

And whenever she heads toward me,

I show her my palm, and she turns aside.

 

O stranger of the future!

O inconceivable being!

whatever the shape of your house,

no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you

may wear,

I bet nobody there likes a wet dog either.

I bet everybody in your pub

even the children, pushes her away.

Assignment: Please write a RESPONSE POEM in response to the poem you brought in today. If that does not inspire you, you have my permission to respond to the Mary Oliver quotation above or the poem above.

Homework Due Monday 9/14

ØBring in a workshopped and polished poem.

ØI would like evidence of workshop please.

ØFind

a quality poem that you think the class would

benefit from reading. Bring in a copy of this poem.

We will not read these all at once, but it is your

responsibility to bring in poems to share

throughout the semester.

This is a published poem you FIND.

The QUALITY of Your Work and EXPECTATIONS

What is poetry ?

Poetry goes beyond the rhyming of words. The object of writing a poem is usually to make a very complicated statement using as few words as possible; as Laurence Perrine says, poetry "may be defined as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language" (517). Thus every word and stanza is packed with meanings. Poetic language could be said to have muscle because, in a sense, it is powerful. When a poet writes, he is trying to communicate with the reader in a powerful way. He uses the elements of poetry to get his point across, and these elements consist of a variety of ways to use words to convey his meanings. In the analysis of poetry, then, two important questions the reader must ask himself are: What is the poet trying to say? How does he or she try to say it?
What does a poetry analysis paper look like?
Individual teachers may have specific requirements for papers written in their classes.  A critical analysis includes an introduction, a thesis statement, perhaps a map of the essay, the body of the essay, and a conclusion. The critical analysis paper will consist of a proof or a demonstration of the thesis statement. Always begin with a thesis statement, which usually appears at the end of the introductory paragraph. The thesis of a critical paper should include a statement of the poem's theme; everything in the body of the paper should apply in some way towards proving the thesis statement.
In critical analysis, one looks both analytically and critically at a short story, a novel, or a poem and makes an argument about what the meaning of the story or poem is. What follows is a discussion of what the words "critical" and "analysis" mean:

What is "analysis"?

It is helpful to think of analysis as decoding. Creative writers rarely say what they mean in a straightforward, obvious way, and this is especially true of poets. However, they are trying to communicate with readers. In doing so they use a variety of tools to enrich their purpose, and these tools are the elements of poetry. The combination of elements the poet uses makes up the "code" of the poem. Analysis means literally picking a poem apart--looking at elements such as imagery, metaphor, poetic language, rhyme scheme, and so on--in order to see how they all work together to produce the poem's meaning. By looking at a poem in terms of its elements, one decodes the poem. This guide is to help readers learn what to look for and what questions to ask in decoding a poem.  

What does "critical" mean?

To criticize means to judge the merits and faults of a poem. Questions to consider in this regard are: What has the poet done well, and what has he done less well? Has he successfully expressed his theme? Has he written a "good" poem or a "great" poem according to Laurence Perrine's standards?

How do I get started?

• Read the poem more than once.
• Use a dictionary when you find a word about whose meaning you are unsure.
• Read the poem slowly.
• Pay attention to what the poem is saying; do not be distracted by the rhyme and rhythm of the poem.
• Try reading the poem out loud to get a sense of the way the sounds of the poem effect its meaning.  

Elements of Poetry

Denotation and Connation Words in poems have denotations, or literal, easy-to-understand dictionary meanings, and connotations, or figurative, less specific and less direct meanings. The latter is the more important in poetry than the former. The figurative, or connotative, meaning of a word means everything that the word might imply besides its direct, dictionary meaning.
For example, the literal, denotative meaning of the word apple is something like this: It is the fruit of the apple tree, anywhere from gold to dark red in color, and it has seeds and a sweet taste. The literal meaning of a word, its denotation, can usually be defined in simple, clear language and can be understood right away.
The connotative meaning of a word, however, is much different. A red apple in a poem is never merely a red apple, but probably implies a lot of different things. The red color may symbolize passion, fertility, anger--anything one can associate with the color red could be a possible meaning. The apple itself could symbolize the Tree of Life, it could symbolize knowledge, Adam and Eve and their Fall from Grace, the harvest in fall, the forbidden, Sir Isaac Newton or Johnny Apple seed--perhaps a combination of these things. In this way a poet uses a word or an idea in a poem to express a variety of ideas at one time, and so deepens our experience.
Thus, in reading poetry one should look at words as having two kinds of meaning. They have dictionary meanings, but also mean other things besides. One should look at individual words and at phrases in the poem and brainstorm; that is, one should think about the literal meanings, but then try to think of every possible idea that the word or phrase could imply. Importantly, words do not mean anything and everything in a poem. Thus the reader should look at the poem as a whole and try to figure out which implications make the most sense within that poem.

Imagery

Images are very concrete "word pictures" having to do with the five senses--touch, smell, taste, sound, movement, and especially sight. As Perrine points out, images make readers experience things vividly. To figure out the imagery in a poem, the reader should first make a list of every single mental picture, or visual image, that comes to mind as he reads the poem. He can then go back and find other kinds of ideas that have to do with physical sensations--sounds, tastes, smells and so on. Finally, he can go back and think about all the ideas these different images could imply--figure out their connotations, in other words.
For example, if a poet compares something to a ship, the reader might think about what ships look like, and then think about what it feels like to be on a ship. How do ships move? Where do they go? What sights, sounds, smells and sensations can we associate with ships and being on ships? After thinking about these questions, the reader can go back and attach these ideas that a ship implies to the thing to which the ship is compared, and finally try to fit these ideas into the overall meaning of the poem. See Emily Dickinson's poem "There is No Frigate Like a Book" on page 575 of Structure, Sound, and Sense.
Importantly, poets often place images in opposition to each other. This creates what is known as "tension." Tension is often an important clue to the meaning of a poem; it also creates drama and interest and is a key to paradox (see below). One should look out for strange contrasts in images in the process of analyzing poems, and think about the responses they arouse in a reader. Images can be part of similes and metaphors, though they are not always (see below).

Figurative Language

Figurative language involves a comparison between two things--a literal term, or the thing being compared, and a figurative term, or the thing to which the literal term is being compared. As Perrine states, figurative language is a way of describing an ordinary thing in an un-ordinary way.  

Simile

A simile is an explicit, or clear and direct, comparison between two things that are basically unalike using dead-giveaway words such as "like", "as though", "seems", "similar to", "than", or "as". For example, "The woman moved like a fish--she moved as though she were as weightless as a fish in water. Her movements were certainly as graceful and fluid as those of a sea creature. She seemed ready to swim away at any moment, like a startled school of fish." Here, the woman is the literal term, while the fish, sea creatures, and school of fish are all figurative terms.  

Metaphor

A metaphor is a comparison that is not made explicitly--that is, it is not made clearly and directly and is not made with clues such as "like" or "as". It is, instead, an indirect comparison between two things that are basically unalike. In metaphor, the figurative term is substituted for or identified with the literal term, the thing being compared. This is done to make the meaning of a poem more forceful.
For example, the expression "The apple never falls far from the tree" contains a metaphor in which parents or family (literal term) is compared a tree (figurative term), while children (literal term) is compared to an apple (figurative term). The metaphor expresses that children are never very different from the parents or family from which they come. For further example, "The fire eye in the clouds survives the gods" (Wallace Stevens) also uses metaphor. Here, the sun is compared to an eye--one that has seemingly eternal life, and thus can watch the full course of human events. Here, one figurative term is "fire eye in the clouds" while the literal term is "the sun". The term "eye" may give the reader the idea that the sun is kind of like a conscious being, since conscious beings have eyes for purposes of perceiving the world; what a thing "sees" it can presumable think about in a conscious way. Also, the idea that the sun "survives" reinforces the idea that it is like a living thing, though it is not, in fact living. See also, "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," both by Robert Frost and appearing in Structure, Sound and Sense. These are good examples of easy-to-understand uses of metaphor.

Personification

Personification is a kind of metaphor, and it means to speak of an impersonal thing, such as a season, a natural element, any object, a country, etc., as though it were a person. For example, look at the line from the popular Seals and Crofts song, "Summer Breeze": "July is dressed up and playing her tune." Here the month of July is spoken of as though it were a woman. July is "dressed up", that is, July is in full swing--flowers are blooming and butterflies are flying, resembling the pattern of a summer dress. Also, to say that July is "playing her tune" is a metaphorical way of saying that birds are singing and nighttime insects and frogs are voicing their mating calls. Thus the figurative term, a woman in a dress playing a tune, is identified with the literal term, a summer month in which nature is at its peak of activity.  

Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a way of naming a thing: the word for a part of a thing is substituted for the whole. For example, in the sentence "I bought a new set of wheels this morning," the word "wheels" is substituted for the word "car." Wheels are part of any car; here the part is substituted for the whole. The following are further examples: "How do you like my new threads?" and "All hands on deck!" both represent synecdoche.  

Metonymy

Metonymy is a way of naming a thing: a thing closely related to the thing actually meant is used to name it. For example, "He came from excellent blood" substitutes the term "blood" for "family", and expresses the idea that an individual comes from a "good" family, perhaps a noble one. "Blood" and "family" are related because families are made up of people who have similar characteristics; people have blood, and people in families, being related to one another, are often said to share the same blood. Furthermore, "blood," a biological thing, is not part of a "family," which is a cultural institution. However, blood, part of the human body, can be substituted for "family," a group of biologically related bodies. Thus the figurative term "blood" is substituted for the literal term "family".  

Symbol

A symbol means what it is, but at the same time it represents something else, too. For example, "the straw that broke the camel's back" is a symbol of a last, remaining bit of patience with a difficult, ongoing situation.  

Allegory

An allegory is very similar to a symbol. Laurence Perrine describes it in this way: "Allegory is a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface one. Although the surface story or description may have its own interest, the author's major interest is in the ulterior meaning." (597) What this means is that in addition to the surface meaning of the poem there is also a more important, deeper meaning. Allegories relate especially to subject matter from the Bible and from mythology. For example, a garden in a poem may be not just a garden, but it may represent also the Garden of Eden and all of the ideas that accompany the idea of the Garden of Eden become potentially important in the poem. These might include ideas such as the seven days of creation, paradise, utopia, the Fall of Man, disobedience, human rationality, God's power, Eve's origin as Adam's rib, and so on. References to mythology are harder to catch because most Americans simply are not familiar with Greek, Roman, and Norse gods and goddesses and their stories. However, there are dictionaries of mythology in any public library, so use one if need be.  

Paradox

A paradox occurs when two things that should not be able to exist at the same time are said, in a poem, to exist at the same time. For example, it is impossible that it be both night and day, both spring and fall, both past and present at the same time. If, however, one were to say that night and day coexist in a poem, one would be expressing a paradox. Because human beings frequently experience two or more emotions at the same time (mixed feelings, ambivalence) or can see things from two points of view at the same time, they often use paradox in poetry to express such a situation. For example, if a poem were to say that the speaker of the poem is experiencing the past and the present at the same time, this may mean that his memories of the past are so vivid that the past seems to be existing in the present.
For example, "A poem should be palpable and mute/As a globed fruit" (Archibald MacLeish, p. 650 of Structure, Sound and Sense). This line expresses a paradox because poems are constructed through words--why should a poem be "silent"? A poem has the "silence" of a globed fruit because the poem should be able to communicate the non-verbal aspects of the fruit (the things we experience without words)--the fruit's roundness, its smooth or fuzzy texture, its sweet fragrance, its crunchy or soft texture once it's bitten into, and so on. These are all things which are not experienced nor understood in a verbal way but which a poem may paradoxically communicate through words. Thus a "silent poem" is a paradox.

Overstatement and Understatement

Overstatement is very similar to exaggeration. To say "You'll tear down that house over my dead body!" is overstatement; what is actually meant is that the speaker will do everything in his power to prevent the house being torn down. He will probably not, in fact, submit to death in order to prevent that from occurring.
Understatement is the opposite of exaggeration--one states less than one's full meaning. To say "It is on warm side in July and August on the Gulf Coast" would be an understatement. In fact, it is blazingly hot on the Gulf Coast. See Burns' "A Red, Red Rose" and Frost's "The Rose Family" on pages 611 and 612 of Structure, Sound, and Sense for good examples of over- and understatement in poetry.

Irony

Irony is a situation in which one thing is said but another is actually meant, or in which the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what one would have expected it to be. Irony is packed into the line, "The fire eye in the clouds survives the gods." Human beings are often said to create their gods, beings frequently presumed by humans to be immortal, all-knowing, and all-powerful because they are presumed to have created things like the earth, the moon, the sun. Rather, this line of poetry emphasizes the mythical nature of gods and goddesses; their existence, so to speak, is tied to a culture, and once that culture has run its course, those gods can be said to have "died". It is the sun, supposedly created by the gods, which actually "witnesses" the passage of time and the events of human history. Thus the opposite of what one would think to be the true situation is occurring: The sun, not the gods, can make a better claim to being immortal and all-knowing because it "watches" the rise and fall of cultures and of the gods associated with those cultures. Furthermore, it is the sun which has, in fact, inspired human beings to create gods in order to account for its existence. See the section in Structure, Sound, and Sense that covers irony for good examples of this element in poetry.  

Meaning and Idea

Remember that a poem might be summed up in a literal, one-sentence statement, a theme. Also remember that along with that simplified statement a poem has other ideas connected with it. For example, "The fire eye in the clouds survives the gods" means literally that the sun has a very long "life expectancy" of several billion years. However, other ideas are associated with this literal meaning; the line expresses ideas about the nature of time, history and the "immortal" gods. For example "the fire eye in the clouds" implies that the sun is in some way godlike because gods are often said to live in the sky, among the clouds, on mountaintops. Likewise, those aspects of the sun are represented here. Furthermore, eyes see, and the idea of the sun as an "eye" implies an all-knowing and perhaps all-powerful quality; for instance, God's eye is depicted above a pyramid on US dollar bills, and so we are "one nation under God." The words "fire-eye" allow us to experience the sun in an entirely new way, above and beyond its being a star in the sky which produces heat. (See above discussions of metaphor and irony.)  

Tone

Tone consists of the attitude of the speaker toward his subject matter. It involves practice working with the other elements--especially under- and overstatement, language, irony, imagery, the meanings and connotations (implications) of words--of poetry to judge the tone of a poem. In assessing tone, nevertheless, one might begin by asking oneself the following questions: Is the speaker involved or detached (uninvolved, unemotional?) How does he seem to feel about his subject matter? Is the speaker serious or joking, ironic or straightforward, condemning, approving or dispassionate, lighthearted or depressed, loving or angry? Does the tone change as the poem progresses? Is the tone mixed? For instance, is the speaker at once sad and apprehensive, happy and nostalgic, loving and angry?  

Musical Devices

To determine what musical devices are used in a poem, one should ask how sounds are arranged and used in a poem. What sounds and words get repeated? What are repeated but with slight changes? Is there rhyme? The following are kinds of musical devices. Keep in mind that the vowels are a,e,i,o,u and sometimes y, and the consonants are all of the other letters in the alphabet.
Alliteration--the repetition of beginning consonant sounds For example, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."
Assonance--the repetition of vowel sounds found anywhere in a word For example, "mad as a hatter," "blackjack," "knick- knack, paddy-wack," "picnic"
Consonance--the repetition of consonant sounds found at the ends of words For example, "knick-knack, paddy-wack," "bric-a-brac," "flip-flop"
Rhyme--also spelled "rime" rhyme is the repetition of ending sounds between words; poems can have end rhyme, in which words at the ends of lines rhyme; this is what we usually mean when we say a poem "rhymes." A poem can also have internal rhyme, in which words inside of individual lines for example, "Go with the flow, Joe."
The sounds used in a poem can effect its meaning and tone. The use of consonants, vowels and rhyme can effect the way the reader feels about the poem's subject matter; they can effect the poem's tone and reflect its meaning. One should think of the sounds of letters in terms of the range of feelings they may express. For example, lots of long vowel sounds accompanied by soft consonant sounds may contribute to a tone of sleepy restfulness in a poem. Short vowel sounds plus hard consonant sounds may express anxiety, quick movement, anger or happiness.

From studyguide.org

Welcome to Advanced Poetry!

This semester course is for senior Creative Writing students interested in studying the art of poetry and writing original poetry. An open mind and supportive attitude will be essential as we workshop each other’s poems. We will be exploring several approaches to the art of writing poetry through a variety of different exercises to generate poems in open and closed forms.

Please take some time to journal and reflect on your personal definition of poetry. What is poetry to you? Why does the creative writing we do matter? Whenever I ask myself this question, I always refer back to a letter written by my own poetry teacher, Jack Ridl. He wrote:

 

 

"... let's also remind ourselves that while it can be good to do good and good to combat what destroys the good, it is also crucial that we continue to create good. We are creative beings. We arrived with that as a given. And when you create a poem, you have placed good into the world... We artists are questioned over and over again about our "usefulness." We are vitally useful. Our use is to heal, comfort, to lead to realization, to bring laughter, to sing the blues, to celebrate, to be of soul-filling USE. This is a great good thing we do. 

The Christmas after 9/11 Sharon Dolin, Billy Collins, and I were asked to read our poems in NYC. Can you imagine how we felt? What could we possibly do to be of any "use"? We told those present that we would do what we could to give them two hours for their hearts, souls. And that's all we could do. After the reading, the audience stayed and stayed and said how much that two hours mattered."

I hope you know how much your poems matter!
We are going to take a look at a poem or two by Billy Collins today.

Some bio information:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/billy-collins#poet

Video of Collins reading "Names" and reflecting on 9/11
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/301

You can listen to "Workshop" here:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19755

You can read here:

 

Workshop

By Billy Collins b. 1941 Billy Collins

I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.   

It gets me right away because I’m in a workshop now   

so immediately the poem has my attention,

like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve.

And I like the first couple of stanzas,

the way they establish this mode of self-pointing

that runs through the whole poem

and tells us that words are food thrown down   

on the ground for other words to eat.   

I can almost taste the tail of the snake   

in its own mouth,

if you know what I mean.

But what I’m not sure about is the voice,

which sounds in places very casual, very blue jeans,   

but other times seems standoffish,

professorial in the worst sense of the word

like the poem is blowing pipe smoke in my face.   

But maybe that’s just what it wants to do.

What I did find engaging were the middle stanzas,   

especially the fourth one.

I like the image of clouds flying like lozenges   

which gives me a very clear picture.

And I really like how this drawbridge operator   

just appears out of the blue

with his feet up on the iron railing

and his fishing pole jigging—I like jigging—

a hook in the slow industrial canal below.

I love slow industrial canal below. All those l’s.

Maybe it’s just me,

but the next stanza is where I start to have a problem.   

I mean how can the evening bump into the stars?   

And what’s an obbligato of snow?

Also, I roam the decaffeinated streets.

At that point I’m lost. I need help.

The other thing that throws me off,

and maybe this is just me,

is the way the scene keeps shifting around.   

First, we’re in this big aerodrome

and the speaker is inspecting a row of dirigibles,   

which makes me think this could be a dream.   

Then he takes us into his garden,

the part with the dahlias and the coiling hose,   

though that’s nice, the coiling hose,

but then I’m not sure where we’re supposed to be.   

The rain and the mint green light,

that makes it feel outdoors, but what about this wallpaper?   

Or is it a kind of indoor cemetery?

There’s something about death going on here.

In fact, I start to wonder if what we have here   

is really two poems, or three, or four,   

or possibly none.

But then there’s that last stanza, my favorite.

This is where the poem wins me back,

especially the lines spoken in the voice of the mouse.

I mean we’ve all seen these images in cartoons before,

but I still love the details he uses

when he’s describing where he lives.

The perfect little arch of an entrance in the baseboard,   

the bed made out of a curled-back sardine can,   

the spool of thread for a table.

I start thinking about how hard the mouse had to work   

night after night collecting all these things

while the people in the house were fast asleep,   

and that gives me a very strong feeling,

a very powerful sense of something.

But I don’t know if anyone else was feeling that.   

Maybe that was just me.

Maybe that’s just the way I read it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Billy Collins, “Workshop” from The Art of Drowning. Copyright © 1995 by Billy Collins. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press, www.pitt.edu/~press/.

Source: The Art of Drowning (1995)

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