This week, we flip the script and read poems before writing, using them as prompts and as organizational templates. Imitating a poem's format or the poem's suggested topic is an informative technique to adapt into your writing practice.  Give it a go!

Things to do Around Seattle
by Gary Snyder

The Coming of Light 
By Mark Strand

Tell me about something that came, even though it was almost too late.  OR Make a list of all things that bring light; tell me about a few of them.  Write for 10 minutes.

Things to do Around a Ship at Sea
by Gary Snyder

"Things to do Around a Ship at Sea" is such a beautiful poem about the mundane/the quotidian, the sublime and even the primal.  The focus starts on the external landscape and funnels down and into the speaker's internal landscape. And what of the speaker?  Not one person but seems an amalgam of multiple young men aboard a ship at sea--what they do to pass the time, to better themselves, to observe the world, to plan for the future, while fulfilling a duty at hand.

The "things to do around-----" poem prompt is informed by the accessibility of Snyder's poem. Listing, describing, using full sentences and phrases, arranging details in subject groups are all techniques observed in Snyder's poem and gives writers a format to kick off their own poem.  Imitating writers you like, or poems you like is a great way to learn poetic technique, word choice, and the effect of form in writing poetry. 

Make a list of:
1—Things people have said to you beginning with the phrase, “This is how you---”  
2--Add to the list with accusations or words of advice that you’ve heard repeatedly in your life
3--Keep adding to the list with what people closest to you say when they are mad at you
4--What is something people say to you that you strongly disagree with
5--What are things people said that caused you pain? Caused you good feelings?
(Write for 10 minutes)
 

Using details from the first prompt, write a “how to” poem—how to do something in life that’s hard to do.  How to be you when you were a kid.  How to be something now.  To whom is the speaker directing the poem?  What is the overall tone? Let the tone change if it wants to. Think about rhythm or pacing in your poem.  (Write for 10 minutes)

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid
Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum in it, because that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers—you might catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won’t fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?
 
Published in the print edition of the June 26, 1978, New Yorker issue.
 

Tell me about a walk in the winter: pre dawn, midday, evening? In solitude, in anger?

Write a contemplative poem about winter walking. Do you relish it, endure it, get mystical about it? Whatever your mood is about winter walking, let that tone be evident in your poem.  Let your word choices and imagery illustrate that tone.

Jazz composer Maria Schneider (left) and soprano Dawn Upshaw collaborated on the album Winter Morning Walks,  2013.  Schneider took some poems by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, who lives in Garland, Neb., and set them to music. Hear an interview with the poet, the composer, and an excerpt from "Walking By Flashlight" in the link above.  

And, as we approach the end of the year, a reflection from Ted Kooser's Local Wonders, a book of essays.

Share lines from your writing with these prompts, or thoughts from your listening.  How do the different mediums of written text, spoken performance, singing, and music change meaning and intention? 
​Best wishes in your end of year reflections.
​

Fill in the blank. “This is what life does. Life lets you                                      ”   
(Write for 10 minutes.)

In your free write, what is the image with the most significance that captures what it is that life has “let you” (allowed you)?  Make that the title of your poem; then write the poem about the big and little things that life has “let you” (allowed you).  Will that image serve as an extended metaphor? Will that image even make an appearance in the poem?  Maybe neither of these?  I’m just asking.  (Write for 10-15 minutes)

Eleanor Lerman has a direct and sincere way of speaking of the practice of writing.  In the opening of the interview, Lerman describes how she became a poet (Leonard Cohen is influential) and whose style was mentoring in her own prose writing (Donald Barthelme, anyone?)   Lerman claims that poetry isn't pre-determined, but flows through the writer.  This is of interest to the PoetryBones group because it seems to echo our discussion about the decisions a poet makes regarding content and structure -- writing that lets the poem's storyline flow happens first and "structuring" comes later. 

The middle of the interview covers Lerman's 25 year break from poetry, during which time she met with mentor writers and explored writing in several genres. 

Eventually at the 13:28 mark, the host asks Lerman if from all of her works (displayed on the interview set) there is a particular poem she would like to read.  She chooses . . . you guessed it, "Starfish."   We wondered how she might read it aloud, pausing at line breaks or at sentence ends,  and now we know!  I will leave you to your own audience with Eleanor Lerman as she discusses the meaning of "Starfish"  and "the way" of and function of a writing practice.