Saturday, July 28, 2018

Thursday, July 12, 2018

More FutureLearn Poems

No matter how much
stretching
our hearts attempt,
even at a distance,
I see you hurt
because we do not fit.

Keith lives on Young Street,
West of Olympia,
Mudd Bay Freeway
to Steamboat Island.
Drive carefully,
soft shoulders.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Thoughts on Rhyme from How to Make a Poem

I have found it fun and helpful to play with rhyme when I am suffering from writer's block. It's like the block occurs because there are too many words from which to choose, creating a blockage in the conscious channel of the mind. By limiting the words to ones that rhyme, the blockage is loosened and flow can be reinstated. Later, it may be desirable to go back and edit out the rhyme if it sounds too cliche, but the rhyme has served a purpose either way. Rhyming seems to allow the mind to drift to a more lyrical, unconscious level where Pete picks a peck of pickled peppers (obviously not a rhyme, but an example of how a little silliness can loosen the death grip our hyper conscious censors wield over our creative efforts.

Futurelearn How to Make a Poem exercise

Why so many?
Because these
bound
pages
of ink
are my tools.

My hammers,
My squares,
My drills
for repairs.

The right tool
for the job...
You say,
with blue collar
confidence,
makes all the
Difference.

Cento by Hsintao Chang

Hugged by my plain old wrapper of no-expectation
What falls away is always. And is near

"when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story" By Gwendolyn Brooks
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49269/when-you-have-forgotten-sunday-the-love-story

"The Waking" By Theodore Roethke
https://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/waking

Compliments of Hsintao Chang
From FutureLearn.com How to Make a Poem

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Found Poems

Another exercise from FutureLearn.com: How to Make a Poem

Not My Mother's Keeper

Mothers are dying after childbirth
and are all slightly insane
You can't fix your mother

We are all hard-wired for bonding
how strong you are to have made it this far
Mothers are like that, yeah they are


Sources:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/too-many-mothers-are-dying-after-childbirth-hospital-hopes-save-n873531

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10858-mothers-are-all-slightly-insane

https://www.bustle.com/articles/123975-6-signs-you-have-a-toxic-mother

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZJLWkzYyE

Monday, July 09, 2018

Cento = a poem collage

A cento is a poem that is made from lines of other poems, a poetic collage.

An exercise from the Future Learn free course on How to Make a Poem:

No longer the light of my dream before me
But ah! thought kills me that I am not thought


Langston Hughes "As I Grew Older" https://allpoetry.com/As-I-Grew-Older
Shakespeare's "Sonnet 44" http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/44.html

Poem collage! How brilliant...I could do this all day long. : )

The thing that really gets me, is how not only are the lines and words of the poem descriptive, but there is an invitation to read the whole of both poems in relation to the selections as well as consider the works and life of the poet's experience in relation to the poem. Layers upon layers of meaning and insight...

Tools for Writers

http://www.writerlywords.com/tools/