Class #9 - 3/18/08

Tuesday's class consisted of Gabi, Gracie and me. Since they had both participated in the week-long poetry intensive, we jumped right in with Danika's latest suggestion:


The Dreams of Small Things

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
~William Blake

Often times in my workshops I ask my students to go "small." What I mean is that picking large, abstract topics to write about (like love, loss, war) can lead to cliche and vague poems. When you focus on the details of life, and think in concrete images, the more abstract will emerge. You can start off writing a poem about a snail and get to a poem about love. The poem's meaning will come through the objects themselves.

When you want to write about loss, don't try to explain loss, don't tell me what loss is, show me loss. Think of images of loss. And start small.

Part #1 - Find a small moment

In my adult workshops I ask participants to go outside and find the smallest "political" moment they can. There are a lot of politics in small things. Politics means the use "of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control." Do the cats in your neighborhood vie for control? Do the leaves? Does the wind?

If you find the idea of the "politics" of things too difficult, simply watch small things in action. Watch the wind blow the seeds off a dandelion. I like watching the pigeons gather on the roof of the tallest house on my block.

In the first part of this exercise, go outside and find this small moment and describe it. This can be done in poetry or prose. DESCRIBE and don't judge or try to make it mean anything. Then, after you've done that for a few lines, look around the object and see how it interacts with the other things around it.

(Thanks to one of my Creative Writing for Children (age 14) participants for the below examples)

The Top Leaf

The top leaf hides in the gray sky with a sigh
above all the other leaves, pointing to the sky
in between winter and spring it beats
its own drum, no wind, no rain, no tide
A plane buzzes overhead, a gull cries
the leaf stares straight up, holding a bud
that no one will ever see, except me
writing in my blue notebook, looking
for the mystery of small things


Part #2 - The Dreams of Small Things

Now that you've made friends with your leaf, or dandelion, or spider, or bird - go one step further and put yourself in the place of your object. Live like the object, and dream what the object dreams. Remember to use its surroundings.

If you'd like, you can use the start line "In my dreams..."

The Dreams of Leaves

In my dreams, at the top of the world, I open
my bud and bloom all year round, soaking the sun
up and never getting wrinkles
The gulls flock overhead in V-formation, calling down to me
an invitation to the beach
One plucks me in its beak and we fly to the shore
the wind laughing in my skin
as airplanes soar, caring for
passengers traveling to distant lands
I fall to the sand, as the gull gets bored
The waves tease slowly and grow
lifting me up to float
through the night by the moon's glow
through the day by the sun's gloat
I am golden and lost, like a delicate
boat

NOTE: I did not make rhyming a necessity for this poem, my student discovered that herself. I like the way it moves in and out of an unpredictable rhyme pattern.


Here is Gabi's completed poem:

In my dreams I wish to fly on and on
non-stop
with nothing in my way.
Open sky all around
with the beautiful world underneath.
Countries passed country, I'll discover what
I’ve only heard.
Bright and dark colors of the leaves.
Deep wondrous oceans.
Wide fields of just green grass.
Tall buildings reaching to touch me.
Dolphins leaping to greet me.
After the lion is done with his hunt, he will look up at the sky and let out a big roar when I’m there.
Flying through the rainbows,
over the waterfalls.
Floating down gently into the water.

Class #8 - 3/11/08

I walked you through a series of exercises designed to provide you practice in creating good images in your poems. Although I didn't say it this way in class, one way I've heard poetry teachers try to carry this point is through the mantra, "Show me, don't tell me." In other words, rather than describing an action the way a journalist does through straightforward reporting, engage the reader through the use of sensory words.

By the end of the class, you all had worked up some poems that could be considered finished or may be improved with minor tweaks. I called these your "Images" poems and asked you to turn in a final version by next week.

Summary of Homework Due on 3/18:
Revise your "Images" poem and be ready to share it in class next week. If you can, email it to me or post it in the comments section here.

Class #7 - 2/26/08

60% of our class was out sick! Should I be informing the Department of Health? Is there a virus afoot that afflicts poets?? Seriously, Rose, Eric & I had a good class. We focused entirely on Danika's latest recommendation, the "Cherish Wish" poem. If you missed class, here is the lesson:

The Cherish Wish

This exercise has three parts to it, and each part could be a poem in itself. Although, I think running through the entire exercise will bear the most rewarding fruit.

EXERCISE #1
In Cameron's book she asks readers to make short lists of things that they "cherish." They could be the small details of your life, objects you wouldn't want to part with, or pieces of the natural things around you. Set your timer for 3-5 minutes and without stopping to think or edit, make a list of things that you cherish.

Examples:
I cherish the birds flying east when the sun is on the horizon
the seagull who sits on the chimney of the blue house every morning
the full moon on a clear night
my father's reading glasses, which are the same prescription as mine
my "February" doll he gave me for my 12th birthday
the little wooden Buddha on my altar
I cherish my little coloured wooden cats that sit on the mantle
my cats themselves in their temperaments
my completely worn out and over-read edition of The Phantom Tollbooth
the walk through the cemetery on my way to the store

EXERCISE #2
Pick one of the lines above and write a short poem using the formula: cherish, cherish, wish. Meaning, you write what it is that you cherish, expand or relate a second thing you cherish. And then wish something about it. Do this at least 3 or 4 times until you have a series of small poems.

Examples:
I cherish the birds flying East when the sun is on the horizon,
and the caw-caw-caw as they make their way,
an entire city of crows moving together in space
I cherish the sun, too, as it sits there
admiring the birds
I wish I could fly with my home
anywhere
and bring all the world with me

I cherish my father's reading glasses, which he wore
for the months before his death, so he could see us
large moist eyes behind good-bye eyes
I cherish the moment in the hospital room when we discovered our
prescriptions were the same, and we exchanged glasses, laughing
I wish I could give them back to him, so he could see me, and I him
one more time

I cherish my walk through the cemetery on my way to the store
and my discovery of Ruth Mystic, who must have been a fortune teller,
her small old headstone buried in the grass
I cherish the way the trees are shaped like animals, as if the spirits of the dead
have taken on new forms, the coyote tree howls to the sky
I wish I could howl, too, like an animal tree-spirit, and shake my furry leaves of
all the winter snow

EXERCISE #3
Now that you've got these little cherish-wish poems, you can leave them as they are, or you can try something a little less formulaic. The formula was simply a way of getting the words out and onto the page, although the little poems are quite satisfying in themselves. Now you can play with what you have and merge them all into one long poem and see where it takes you. Add details, let it take you new places, and FIND the connections among them. There's a reason you chose those items in your last exercise. There is probably a theme running through them.

I see now in the examples above, a theme of longing and loss. What connections can you make with the mini-poems you wrote? Take that connection, that theme or tone or idea, and base your final poem on it, keeping that connection in mind.

I recommend a circular path, meaning go back to where you began at the end of the poem. This will make the connection complete. You'll see in this one that the reference to the birds returns at the end:

Every day as the sun sits on the horizon
the crows head East
a city of birds
cawing together in space
I head West, taking a short cut
through the cemetery
on my way to the store to buy
more fruit
the trees are shaped like wild animals
howling across the graves
I visit Ruth Mystic, born 1889, died 1947,
a plain stone with no flowers
a tree-rabbit peers down at us
snow at its feet

At the store, I wear my father's glasses
to read the labels on cans of beans
the same glasses he wore for the few months
before his death, after eye surgery
large moist eyes behind good-bye eyes

I cherish the moment in the hospital room
when we discovered our prescriptions were the same
and my mother exclaiming,
when she learned there was
nothing to be done for him
that he had just gotten
his new eyes

Returning from the store
I fill the space between my self
and my home
the city of birds long gone,
the cemetery dark as
silhouettes of tree-wolves bay
at the moon


Summary of Homework Due on 3/11:
- "The Cherish Wish" - Follow the directions to write a "Cherish Wish" poem. Once completed, email it to me so I have an electronic version of it.

Note, no class next week due to it being intensives week.

Class #6 - 2/12/08

We wrote more Dream Deferred poems in class (see last post) and then transitioned into the next exercise Danika suggested, outlined as #2 here. I'm calling this the "Crazy Lie" poem. Here are some you wrote in class:

Joy:
Wooden walls are see-through.
Water floors are solid.
Firey ceilings reach into the air.
Smoke with no boundaries stops in a cage.
Drink with limits sets you free.
Food at the edge is a trap.
Vomit in a bowl is liberatingly disgusting.
Fresh breath with a plate is infuriatingly attractive.
But the truth is...
Mornings on a shard of ceramic are happily ugly.

Gabi:
Penguins climb trees better than monkeys.
Flamingos fall worse than rats.
Cotton candy is more common than a Good Samaritan.
And the truth is...
Broccoli is very unhealthy compared to a serial killer.

Eric:
I am a chicken with LA Hats.
Roosters hate LA Hats.
LA Hats love Eric.
Eric loves his hat.
Pigs hate hats altogether.
Mickey Mouse loves Disney.
The Grouch hates Disney.
Bill loves his family.
Wow, I'm so confused.
And the truth is...
I'm not going to stop.

Summary of Homework Due on 2/26:
Write another "Crazy Lie" poem per the directions on Danika's blog and bring to class on the 26th.

More Dream Deferred Poems

Gracie:
I'm working at a coffee shop.
I'm working at a coffee shop to see people satisfied.
I'm working at a coffee shop because I've always loved making coffee.
I'm working at a coffee shop and selling pastries, seeing smiling faces. It makes me proud to see smiling faces, even when I would have a lemonade stand when I was little. At 12 I knew I loved coffee. I would make it for my dad and mom when they had no time. The smell, the taste, the milk, the sugar. The warmth and the sense of comfort. Sharing the feeling with tired, hard-working people is what I want. Interacting and making new friends. Having people at work with these similarities.
I'm working at a coffee shop.

Gabi:
I'm driving a car.
I'm driving a car to get away from it all.
I'm driving a car because I want to explore.
I'm driving a car and listening to my favorite music with my Stunna shades on and eating a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos and passing by city after city with friends looking all pretty for just a drive and singing as loud as we can and laughing as hard we can and stopping at beaches to swim in that blue water and throwing away our cell phones and iPods and buying strawberry milkshakes and fries with ranch and then keep on driving and at night, get out of the car and lay on the top and look at the stars and make jokes and tell scary stories...

Joy:
I float on my back.
I float on my back to feel like I'm flying.
I float on my back because I need to relax.
I float on my back and stare up at the sky trying to imagine how far it goes. I can't, but I try. The definition of crazy is trying the same thing over and over and wishing for different results. I suppose I'm crazy then. I'm okay with that. I've introduced myself as crazy for years, after all. The water at my back gently hops at the edges of the hot tub. It seems like it is trying to lull me into sleep, a sense of security. I don't give in.
I float on my back because my body won't sink.
I float on my back to stay alive.
I float on my back.

Andy:
I'm playing the guitar.
I'm playing the guitar to get these thoughts in my head out in the open.
I'm playing the guitar because I promised myself I would learn.
I'm playing the guitar and I'm enjoying myself, alone though I am, without a care or at least forgetting my cares. I'm singing and not worrying if I can't sing in tune and I'm reaching to play a G and not worrying if the chord is fuzzy and unclear.
I'm playing the guitar and singing the words I wrote, the words I wrote the day you left and I cried on the inside, not sure how to express myself on the outside. My friends said that's what beer is for, slapping me on the back, unsure how to support me. I laughed and drank a 6 pack and woke up the next day sober and sad.
I'm playing the guitar because it's cheaper than therapy.
I'm playing the guitar to not feel alone on a Friday night.
I'm playing the guitar.

Class #5 - 2/5/08

Another great class. Thanks for bringing in your "Jigsaw Puzzle" poems and being open to considering how to take them to a more complete state. Note, completing that work is OPTIONAL but still encouraged. Many of you seemed interested in doing it. If you are intending to make a case for English credit for your participation in this class, it would be a good idea to do it.

The "Dream Deferred" exercise conceived by Danika (see Supplemental Post below) was not just a homerun but a grand slam. I have posted 4 of these so far in the comments section of the Supplemental Post. Be sure to click on that and review them. These are definitely going in the Student Showcase in April. Remember, your homework is to complete your "Dream Deferred" poem and email it to me BEFORE next week's class. Joy, Rose & Eric have already done just that.

Summary of Homework Due on 2/12:
- "Dream Deferred Poem" - Visit Danika's blog and follow the directions to write a "Dream Deferred" poem. Once completed, email it to me so I have an electronic version of it. Feel free to do this more than once. It's a great exercise!!

Supplemental Post - 2/2/08

A friend of mine, Danika Dinsmore, a published poet and former PSCS staff member, has agreed to offer me some ideas for our class. This is a tremendous offer and one I'd like us to take full advantage of.

Danika has created a blog to communicate with us and to make suggestions for assignments. Link to it by clicking here. We're going to try her idea in class this coming week, but if you want to try it out ahead of time, go ahead and give it a go. She calls it "The Dream Deferred" poem.

Thanks, Dinky!