Thursday, January 18, 2007
Another Round
I woke up sick this morning, lying flat out on the bathroom floor, shivering and sweating. Either poetry doesn't agree with me or I have the flu. I apologize if you had any close encounter with me yesterday. I didn't know. On the other hand, if fear of poetry is the culprit it is not really contagious, so in that case you should be okay. To that end, we didn't get to the dreaded timer thing in poetry class, you'll have to wait for Monday for that exercise. But if you'd like another of David's assignments, try this one, the one I'm trying to revise. Write a poem on grief. Include these four words: distance, harsh, drink, heaven. Write the poem in couplets. Make it 20 lines long, 5-14 syllables per line. Set the timer for 20 minutes. Go. Revise a little, but not too much. Endeavor to persevere. Try not to think of killing the white man.
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3 comments:
Did you look at the poems handed in for next time? Quite amazing, all that torque because of compression,
and the inevitable leaps of association. Not every exercise works for every writer, alas.
And besides, those "criteria" really just operate to get you to a first draft you may never have gotten to. First drafts can be the hardest part (Is that a famous song?) I'm sorry you're sick. I had that kind of flu on New Year's Eve. It lasted about five days,
terrible. It's not poetry (I hope not.) I like how all these people are trying out these exercises. The
next poem will be open only you pick five words from a word grid I'll hand out. But really, check
out the poems Vince and Naoko and Neil and Chad turned in. In one manner they are very centered in a clear "I" and have a clear intent
for a certain kind of narrative,
epistemological or psychological
or simly what happened in the light
of day (a story).
I glanced at the poems handed out yesterday. They look very good, but I haven't really given anything a close look at all -- still shivering and sweating and buried in court reporting work. This flu certainly better not last five days. But I think I know where I need to go with the poem. Thanks for the encouragement.
I like how you are struggling through this.
Keep at it. I had the same issue with my personal trainer at the gym - and I kept at it.
Now I have great abs.
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