Here's a poet I found on Poets.org.  Check out his bio and his poems.  We'll be looking at them in class tomorrow.  I am going to ask you to annotate one of them line by line and then to do something more with the annotations.  See you tomorrow in class.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/246

Here's another from that same website.  Check out the box at the bottom.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15528

Questions or no Questions

Echo, echo, echo,

A future is coming

Echo, echo, echo,

Yet the past still

Echo, echo, echo,

I will not say it is boring

I will not say it is boring

Freedom of the future

Fixture of the past

A lamp that turns on

At the time before I sleep

Time before I heal

Future is coming

It may need all my strength

It may take a grain of mustard seed

Blue, green, yellow

No

The future is purple

The future is a mysterious haze

A never-ending cycle that happens

If it escapes our consciousness

If it disappears of our deep meaning

The future comes and always will be

As for the past

It has always been.

Though it may not be on

The lamp is still there

Its still in the small room

Surrounded by windows

Surrounded by doors

Never leaving that room

Always looking

Always changing

But if the future is day

And before I sleep is past

What is the night?

The time that I sleep

The time that has no consciousness

No meaning

Is it the time I am most conscious?

A time that has the most meaning?

Do we live life with our eyes closed

The present a time of sleep?

That seems incorrect

This metaphor is flawed

Or is it?

The times of the past fixed and present

Future never able to grasp

Never in touch

The present, dark and relaxing

Echo, echo, echo

OR

Echo, echo, echo,

A future is coming

Echo, echo, echo,

Yet the past still

Echo, echo, echo,

I will not say it is boring

I will not say it is boring

Freedom of the future

Fixture of the past

A lamp that turns on

At the time before I sleep

Time before I heal

Future is coming

It may need all my strength

It may take a grain of mustard seed

Blue, green, yellow

No

The future is purple

The future is a mysterious haze

A never-ending cycle that happens

If it escapes our consciousness

If it disappears of our deep meaning

The future comes and always will be

As for the past

It has always been.

Though it may not be on

The lamp is still there

Its still in the small room

Surrounded by windows

Surrounded by doors

Never leaving that room

Always looking

Always changing

But if the future is day

And before I sleep is past

What is the night?

The time that I sleep

The time that has no consciousness

No meaning

It is the time I am most conscious

A time that has the most meaning

We live life with our eyes closed

The present a time of sleep

That seems incorrect

This metaphor is flawed

Or is it?

The times of the past fixed and present

Future never able to grasp

Never in touch

The present, dark and relaxing

Echo, echo, echo

Week 4 - Eric and Lily

     In chapter 5 of The Portable Poetry Workshop, Myers discusses free verse. Occasionally, "free verse" seems to be a synonym for "laziness," as it is easy to go off on a rant, neglecting poetic tools. The chapter which we just read, however, gives the reader so many ways to improve their poem that they have no excuse to be lazy. In your poems, do you choose to employ these concepts when first writing the piece, or do you add them later? Also -- what were all of your thoughts on implication? We(?) found it particularly interesting in that it can add an unusually subtle dimension to a poem, but does it add anything else? Can it influence a reader's perspective on the narrator? Can it make an ordinary scene seem extraordinary?

     Oliver claims that free verse is more accessible because it does not follow a strict meter. Do you find free verse to be more or less accessible than metered poetry? What about in terms of the potential laziness referred to in the above paragraph? Oliver references speech being lyrical and free verse poetry using many of the same techniques. What do you think effective public speakers have in common with good poets (particularly spoken word or slam poets)? On page 116 of A Poetry Handbook, the reader is told that poetry improves significantly when written in solitude. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it could potentially add something to the poem if it is written with constant interruptions? Have you experimented with this on your own, and if so, what did you learn about your writing style and it's dependency on the presence of others?

     On a side note, if you had to pick one, would you say that diction, tone, voice or rhythm were most important to a poem's strength?

Week 3 (Riley and Claire)

Book by Mary Oliver:

We have noticed that with a lot of free verse poetry doesn’t seem to have the same meter from line to line, or even an apparent consistency. How important is cadence in the construction of a poem when you are writing? How important is it to the flow of the poem?

Which type of poetry is “better” (We know this is an extremely subjective thing), ones that rhyme (50-55ish) or free verse where the content is the center of the piece, not so much the words.

“The most important point in the line is the line is the end of the line. The second most important point is the beginning of it.” (Pg 52) Do you agree with this idea? Are their some cases where this is reversed?

Myers: On page 92, he talks about "Thematic Shapes of Poems". How do you think shaping a poem makes it better? Why do you think that poets use thematic shapes?

Kings And Rhiannan

What do you think of the "dingdong" theory on page 20 of Oliver? Why do you think the theory didn't survive?

I'm pretty sure I was asleep that day in kindergarten, when we learned that W was a vowel? Where did that come from (Oliver, page 21) and why do you think its considered one?

Do you think about sound as specifically as Mary Oliver does? Do you concentrate on something so precise when you write a poem, or is it less important to you in your everyday writing?

"The major problem in creative writing is creative writing." Pg 23, Myers. He goes on to say that the contents of a poem comes from itself, and we somehow want to or need to change a poem it is best to look back at it. First, do you agree? Do you look back at your own poem to change it? And are there poems you feel you don't need to change.

Words for thought,

R and K

Welcome!

Hey!  So this is the site where we will be sharing thoughts  on writing poetry and what that means.  The first posting should be up by class on Thursday by the students responsible for it.  They will be chosen in class on Monday, January 9, 2012.  We will be choosing pairs (and one triple) for this sort of work.  Everyone must respond to the official posts by 12 noon the Sunday after they are posted.  If you don't respond by then, you will receive a zero for that week's assignment.  If you respond tepidly, you will receive a tepid grade -- fervently, a fervent grade!

The goal is to develop a conversation about the technical and emotional elements of writing poems and where those intersect, overlap, influence one another.  A short, thoughtful response to the pointwill be more useful than a ramble that doesn't really get ius anywhere.