Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the tag “Poetry”

30 Apr 2013
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Fare thee Well, and so it ’tis…


English: Daguerreotype of the poet Emily Dicki...

English: Daguerreotype of the poet Emily Dickinson, taken circa 1848. (Original is scratched.) From the Todd-Bingham Picture Collection and Family Papers, Yale University Manuscripts & Archives Digital Images Database, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

we part with such sweet sorrow,
the course is spent,
Come again Aprile as would t’morrow.

 

True–it’s over. Every day the Cricket has Mused her way through National Poetry Month.  Thanks for joining and I look forward to next year.  Thanks for the stop bys, comments, and new followers.

 

My favorite poems?  Certainly.  Glad you asked. Here a a couple I never tire of:

 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

 

254

“Hope” is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

Emily Dickinson

English: Billy Collins at D.G. Wills Books, La...

English: Billy Collins at D.G. Wills Books, La Jolla, San Diego Deutsch: Billy Collins bei D.G. Wills Books, La Jolla, San Diego (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Introduction To Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Billy Collins

 

Emily rocks. Hands down, she is ThE Poet who has changed the landscape of verse, that is except for The Bard.  Now, as for Billy.  He’s cool.  He is such a poet pro he’s even been named Poet Laureate (high honors, that). His “Teaching Poetry” always reminds me to NOT beat the snot out of a poem when teaching poetry.

What are your absolute all time favorite poems?

 

 

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Posted in Poetry, Teachers, Uncategorized, writers and tagged , , , ,
29 Apr 2013

500 Poems on the Wall…


Nope. A month is simply not enough. Thirty days hath April, but it would take a lifetime to truly discover the all and all of poetry.

There are at least a bazillion sites dedicated to poetry. I tend to gravitate towards http://www.poets.org, since they celebrate poetry in a BiG way. There is also http://www.poemhunter.com, which has this massive list of 500 poems.  Click and feast.

500 Poems

POETRY SOCIETY POSTCARD

POETRY SOCIETY POSTCARD (Photo credit: summonedbyfells)

Happy Poetry Month!!

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28 Apr 2013
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Video Poems


While there are many ways to share poetry, be it by book, blog, spoken, or some such communique, I have found video posts to be like Dark Chocolate Dove Bites–savory and long-lasting.

Here is the poem:

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

William Carlos Williams

And here is the video:

The poem came alive for me in a different way once viewing the performance.  I remember studying William Carlos Williams in college.  I thought his poems rather mundane–I mean, he talked about wheelbarrows, chickens, plums–all ordinary stuff.  And then I realized there is a cadence, a melody, in all those everyday aspects of life.

For more video poems go to:

www.poets.org

and

www.favoritepoem.org/videos.html

 

Happy Poetry Month!!

English: Photograph (believed to be passport p...

William Carlos Williams: writer of wheelbarrows, plums, and chickens

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27 Apr 2013

Poetry Workshop: #3 Inside, Underneath and Beyond


INSIDE, UNDERNEATH AND BEYOND

This is a poem of exploring matters contained within or underneath or beyond something everyday or even unexplained.  Choose something to explore and decide which direction of discovery to investigate: will it be to dive inside to see what makes it tick or will it be a burrowing sense of exploration where layers are removed and examined, or does the exploration go beyond known boundaries?

 Inside All Poems

Inside all poems

Is a question

And inside this question

Is a quest.

The poet rides out

on a journey to find

the meaning

or an answer

or maybe to hear

an echo of reply

from one who seeks

an answer to the

same question quest.

CM-2012

This form of poetry isn’t quite as popular as the other workshop poems. Upon reflection it might be due to having to look at something from several different viewpoints at the same time to really see it, which can be difficult.  It’s like those crazy illustrations of one viewpoint yielding two faces, one on each side of the goblet–but look again, and it is an old woman.  It means slowing down life for a few nanoseconds and really thinking about: am I looking or seeing?

Creative Challenge:
Take a look at something you see everyday and try on your perspective specs and really look at it–is there something more to it than you thought, or think?  For a real challenge, try this on a person you know.  Uh mmm, now that’s taking it to a new level of seeing instead of looking.

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26 Apr 2013
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Poetry Workshop: #2 Definition Poems


DEFINITION POETRY

Take any word or concept or topic and define through a mix or poetical flow and concrete definition to better understand what it is all about, especially on a personal level.

 So It Is With Language

Grammar is the spine

Of prose and all we know

That is called language,

Which is can be spoken

Or written down.

And all those nouns

And verbs

And prepositions

And modifiers that often dangle

And nominative clauses that

Sometimes tangle

Up

Our understanding

Are the vertebrae

And without our vertebrae

There would be not spine

To stand us up

So it is with language

CM-2012

 Childhood

Childhood is that momentary suspense

of disbelief and discovery

That happens all too quickly

Yet,

that eye blink lasts a goodly twelve years by the book

Or quicker

depending on the generation

And for a lucky few

childhood remains

only hidden in discretion

likely to pop out

as the sun peeps behind

the seriousness of gray skies

to offset the dour day

CM-2012

What I appreciate most about definition poetry is how it allows flexibility of perspective.  It captures connotation and denotation without being all textbookish.  And isn’t it oh so clever to sneak in a vocabulary lesson whilst having fun creating wordplay?

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25 Apr 2013
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Poetry Workshop: #1 Repetition Poems


I take seriously the celebration of poetry (understatement–AP terms #179).I took on the personal challenge of posting once a day some poetically inclined muse about poetry and as we wrap up the month I shall share some workshop poems from my creative writing class.

Poetry Workshop Poem #1: Repetition Poems

REPETITION POETRY

  1. Pick a word or short phrase for the first line
  2. Add a word or phrase to it for the second line
  3. Take the ending line to create the consecutive lines, adding a new word or phrase each time until poem reaches a satisfactory conclusion

In the garden there is a tree

And in that tree is thinking spot

And in that thinking spot are my daydreams

And in my daydreams are pathways

And on those pathways are choices to make

And from those choices to make I will decide

And from those decisions will become my destiny

And from that destiny I will live my life

And I will live my life always dreaming, always thinking

And I am thankful for trees

CM–2012

tree.jpg

 

Repetition poems are perfect for those students who lament how they can’t get into the poem groove and get something on paper.  It’s also perfect for those who can take its simplicity and play with it.  And yes, I create poems along with my students.  Who can resist coaxing a poem onto the page?

Happy Poetry Month!!

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23 Apr 2013

Forming Poetry: Parodies


Helvetica cattle

Helvetica cattle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Parody Poems

 

“Imitation is the best form of compliment” or so they say.  A Parody Poem emulates or copies a known style of poet.  Special attention is paid to tone, diction, rhythm, meter—basically getting the poet’s style so that it is recognizable.

 

Here are some parody poems using the famous “Purple Cow” poem:

 

 A Purple Cow

 

By Mr. Gelett Burgess
I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one.

 

 

 

And here are the parodies:

 

Edgar Allen Poe

 

Parody by Susan and David Hollander
One lonely, gloomy, windswept eve
A mournful sound did I perceive.
I cast my eyes beyond the pane
And to my horror down the lane
Came a sight; I froze inside
A spectral cow with purple hide.

Emily Dickinson
Parody by Susan and David Hollander
On far off hills
And distant rills,
Sounds a distant moo.
A purple spot
I think I caught,
Yes! I see it, too!

In Bovine majesty she stands,
Her purple tail she swings,
The amethyst cow,
To my heart somehow,
Perfect joy she brings.

And yet the thought of being
Of that race of royal hue,
Though glowing like the violet sweet,
It really would not do.

William Wordsworth
Parody by Carolyn Wells
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dee;
A Cow whom there were few to praise
And very few to see.

A violet by a mossy stone
Greeting the smiling East
Is not so purple, I must own,
As that erratic beast.

She lived unknown, that Cow, and so
I never chanced to see;
But if I had to be one, oh,
The difference to me!

Rudyard Kipling
Parody by Carolyn Wells*
In the old ten-acre pasture,
Lookin’ eastward toward a tree,
There’s a Purple Cow a-settin’
And I know she thinks of me.
For the wind is in the gum-tree,
And the hay is in the mow,
And the cow-bells are a-calling
“Come and see a Purple Cow!”

But I am not going now,
Not at present, anyhow,
For I am not fond of purple, and
I can’t abide a cow;
No, I shall not go today,
Where the Purple Cattle play.
But I think I’d rather see one
Than to be one, anyhow.

Challenge alert:

Do any of you feel the pull of purple cow within your poetry muse?

 

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22 Apr 2013

Shaping Up Poetry: Metaphor Thirds


 

joyous heart

joyous heart (Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews)

 

 

I’ve made this a part of our sophomore poetry curriculum and I am always taken by surprise at the superlative poems students produce with this format.  I found this form in  the book Risking Intensity by Judith Rowe Michaels.

Metaphor Thirds

1. Fold a piece of paper into vertical thirds

2. In the first third write five emotions, then fold back the paper

3. In the second column write five colors—these can be basic ones like red, blue, yellow or a bit more imaginative like periwinkle, chartreuse, silver-gray—then fold over this section

4. In the last column write objects or animals

5. Open out all the sections and read directly across

anger                    red                            door

sad                        periwinkle              mirror

 joyful                  chartreuse              star

loneliness         indigo                       blanket

nervous             brown                      rabbit

6. Read each line across to make five metaphorical statements. For example: Anger is a red door, sad is like a periwinkle mirror, joyful as a chartreuse star, loneliness is like an indigo blanket, nervous like a brown rabbit

7. Choose a metaphor statement and begin to think about the feeling, the color, and the object. What associations come to mind? Brainstorm some of what comes to mind with the image.

8. Begin to work the metaphor statement into a poem, either placing the statement as it is written or work the image into a conceptual piece. The metaphor thirds poem actually works best in a free verse form, although internal rhyme works well.

Chartreuse Leaf

Chartreuse Leaf (Photo credit: teresia)

multicolored splendor
that’s just how my day
has been
confetti bits of happiness
round about me
dancing
bright lights
of promise
like spring after
a tedious winter
A happy day filled
with greens, and light
Joyous like a chartreuse star
-(first draft of the poem found on the Triptych of Daffodils post)

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21 Apr 2013
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Shaping Up Poetry: Object Poem


Object Poem

1.  Select an object
2.  Explore it using the following questions:
What does it look like?
How or why does it look like that?
What colors do you see?
What do the colors remind you of?
What does it smell like?
What does it feel like?

3.  Here is a guide to help structure your Poem:
First it is….
And then it is like…
And then it is like…
And now it becomes…
and now it is…
And now it is…
And now I am …

Here is an excerpt from Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  Listen for the comparisons and descriptions based on the poem guide.

This snail shell, round, full and glossy as a horse chestnut.  Comfortable and compact, it sits curled up like a cat in the hollow of my hand.  Milky and opaque, it has the pinkish bloom of the sky on a summer evening, ripening to rain.  On its smooth symmetrical face is penciled with precision a perfect spiral, winding inward to the pinpoint center of the shell, the tiny dark core of the apex, the pupil of the eye.  It scares me, this mysterious single eye–and I stare back.

Find an object and explore it through imagery, seeing it for what it is through expanding vision.

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20 Apr 2013
3 Comments

Forming Poetry: Terse Verse


Terse: short or brief

Verse: associated with poetry, as in a line that rhymes

Terse Verse: a short poem in which the answer is a two-word rhyme definition of the presented word

Examples:

Kleenex–sneeze please
Perfume-swell smell
Bib–drool tool
Binder–holder folder
Pencil–school tool
Baker–flour power
Candy–sweet treat
Shakespeare–stage sage
Turkey–absurd bird

Submit your best (or worst–PG, please) Terse Verse.

Over the years I’ve collected quite a few, and the students keep amazing me with their ingenuity.

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