Poetry empowers the simplest of lives to confront the most extreme sorrows with courage, and motivates the mightiest of offices to humbly heed lessons in compassion.
― Aberjhani
...when a good poet is confronted with difficult facts that he knows to be true but also are inimical to poetry, he has no choice but to flee to the margins; it was...this very retreat that allowed him to hear the hidden music that is the source of all art.
― Orhan Pamuk
Writing poetry is a passion, ignited by thoughts, fueled by ink. A way to travel through another mind, where souvenirs of tears are tucked away inside your soul. Or leave you with smiles for miles, depending on which route you go.
― Renee Dixon
This was the 8th Masterclass at Writersfest, presented by Nancy Jo Cullen, a Canadian poet and short story writer.
The blurb for this claimed we would explore how to transform personal experience into poetry. To my mind, all poetry is personal, whether you’re sharing an experience or not, but still, I thought it would be interesting.
We began with a discussion of fiction and poetry and I didn’t take many notes, other than writing down a cool idea for a collection of verse.
According to Ms. Cullen, poetry is a vehicle to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Poetry using the “I” exposes you as a poet. There should always be some kind of arc in a poem.
Think of the poem as having a speaker – ultimately, it should be a performance. Although it takes direction from emotion, you need to distance yourself from that emotion. Instead, look for vivid things to share.
For our first exercise, we were to write five sentences to create a narrative of home, expressed as a poem:
It stands halfway down a hill
beside a busy road
inside is love and comfort
shiny wooden floors
and a kitchen smelling of bread.
Our second exercise was to write about the same home again, but using different images and words:
Use the side door, the front is only for company
The living room, with its huge fireplace, is seldom used for living
Needlepoint covers the seats of the dining room chairs.
There are faces in the wallpaper of the guest room –
A blonde man with a beard, hiding amongst the roses.
We did this again for our third exercise, but expanding the images:
Cleaning is done by invisible elves, but only when we’re not there to see it
Picnic lunches on the sunken, flagstone patio
Climbing the hill through the woods to reach heaven
Sweet peas, rioting along the road and in the fields
Carefree summer days followed by slumbrous nights.
For our final exercise, we were to write a sonnet using the images from the above three exercises:
When I think of home, I see
halfway down a busy hill
the house tucked ‘neath the walnut tree
with flowers on its window sill.
Enter through the kitchen door,
The kitchen smells of bread and spice
All the treats that we adore;
The wooden floors are smooth as ice.
My aunt was never seen to clean
We thought it done by phantom elves
Who trod the flagstone paths unseen
Through blooming sweet peas in the dells.
Home was love and open arms
A haven safe from all the harms.
Okay, so maybe it’s not the best sonnet I ever wrote, but it’s not bad for the limited we had to write in.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
WORDAGE REPORT
This week I seemed to maintain a steady pace, although I didn’t pull ahead, as I’d hoped to be able to do. I had a couple of social obligations that, while pleasant, were a little time consuming. Actually, now that I think of it, every day except Friday had something else going on. Naturally, the kittens are still proving to be a bit of a distraction.
The hubby was not very receptive to the idea of putting up shelves above the medium sized bookcase I have beside my desk so I can get my plants off the window ledge, so I solved the problem by buying a taller bookcase to replace it. I figured the top two shelves would work great for plants.
The kittens and I had fun putting it together, but they were no help at all when it came to helping me figure out where to put the bookcase it was replacing. I didn’t like it behind my desk, and the only other place it might work meant blocking the window slightly, plus I’d have to unload it to be able to move it.
But then I discovered the new bookcase was not as wide as I thought it was, and the two bookcases just fit side by side against the wall beside my desk. Woot! However, I still didn’t get any extra writing done in my office because now I need to re-arrange bookshelves. LOL
NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 2,455+462+298+1,024=4,239
Extra poem – 97 words
Total Words: 4,336
UP 624 words from last week
Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts done on time and stay on track with NaNo.
NANO
Yes, I know NaNo doesn’t start until Tuesday, but I’m adding this category now as part of the NaNo prep.
No words yet, of course, but I have ideas. Lots of ideas. If anyone is my buddy on the NaNo site, you’ll have noticed I broke with tradition and declared my project last week, including putting up a cover. Normally I wait until November first, which is usually when I make up my mind.
And true to form, as soon as I put up the cover, a completely different idea popped into my head and I think it has even more potential – if I can figure out how it ends. It needs a little plotting and I don’t know if I’ll have time for that. If I start it as is, I can probably complete the story but it won’t be pretty.
AND THEN I considered doing another 30 days of flash stories. I had such great success with them last year. And I already have an idea for the first one that I really like. If I’d thought of this idea sooner, I could write more in this vein, but it’ll take some research.
So at this point, what I do for NaNo is anybody’s guess. Including mine. ;-)
EDITING:
16 pages
Finally, I got some serious editing done. But it was for someone else. LOL I had the pleasure of working on the final story in Alex Westhaven’s Death by Veggies series which is due to be released on Halloween.
If you can’t wait that long for your thrills and chills, you can download her story Jack from Amazon for free.
Goal For Next Week:
No promises on the editing – we’ll see how it goes with NaNo first.
MARKETING:
Okay, I think I’m going to suspend the whole marketing thing until the new year. It’s been months since I submitted anything, it just hasn’t been a priority. And with NaNo starting in a couple of days, and then Christmas right after that . . . Yeah, the new year it is.
TECH & TRAINING:
I’d still like to figure out Dropbox. At the very least I want to be able to backup to it automatically like I did before Staples got a hold of my laptop. And for extra back up protection, I’d like to unbox my external hard drive and start backing up to it as well.
Goal For Next Week:
Figure out how to set up the automatic back up for Dropbox. Set up external hard drive.
POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Last week’s form was a little more complicated than the one from the week before, but it had eight syllable lines, and I like eight syllable lines. :-)
I also wrote a very sad little poem for my poetry group, which met Wednesday night. It was only 97 words, but it still counts.
Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form.
CRAFTING:
I crocheted a dozen bookworms in a variety of colours for the craft sale my stitchery group is taking part of in December. We had a meeting Tuesday morning, and this week I’ll be meeting with the others on the craft sale organizing committee.
I’m not sure how much crafting I’m going to be doing during NaNo, but hopefully I’ll be able to carve out a little time.
Goal For Next Week:
Figure out dragon pillow for granddaughter.
WHAT I’M READING:
Reading? Who has time for reading?
Okay, I did treat myself to a new book when I grocery shopped - The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris, by Daisy Wood, but I’ve only read about half a dozen pages in it. It looks pretty interesting, so hopefully I’ll be able to make time to read more this week.
Goal For Next Week:
Spend a little time each day reading.
GOAL REVIEW:
It was a busy week, I tell you what. But despite that, I still got my blog posts up, and on time, too. And my serial installment actually ran a little long. I had a great time editing that story for Alex Westhaven – she just gets better and better, leaving me with less and less work to do. If only I could have that much enthusiasm for my own editing. LOL
I already mentioned that I’m putting the marketing on hold until the new year, and I’ll probably do the same with tech and training once I get Dropbox set up properly. I’m seriously considering recycling old post for my poetry Wednesdays for the duration of NaNo. Some days the poetry can take a lot of time and I don’t know that I’ll have it to spare.
While I did get my bookworms made, it was a near thing. November would be an optimal time to do Christmas crafts but, you know, NaNo. I can’t believe I did so little reading last week! I think I need to make time for it in the week ahead, because it’s a great way to relax the mind.
It was a busy week, but a good one, and looking back I may not have done any words beyond my blog posts, but I still felt pretty productive.
Here’s to the week ahead!
Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts done on time and stay on track with NaNo.
NANO
Yes, I know NaNo doesn’t start until Tuesday, but I’m adding this category now as part of the NaNo prep.
No words yet, of course, but I have ideas. Lots of ideas. If anyone is my buddy on the NaNo site, you’ll have noticed I broke with tradition and declared my project last week, including putting up a cover. Normally I wait until November first, which is usually when I make up my mind.
And true to form, as soon as I put up the cover, a completely different idea popped into my head and I think it has even more potential – if I can figure out how it ends. It needs a little plotting and I don’t know if I’ll have time for that. If I start it as is, I can probably complete the story but it won’t be pretty.
AND THEN I considered doing another 30 days of flash stories. I had such great success with them last year. And I already have an idea for the first one that I really like. If I’d thought of this idea sooner, I could write more in this vein, but it’ll take some research.
So at this point, what I do for NaNo is anybody’s guess. Including mine. ;-)
EDITING:
16 pages
Finally, I got some serious editing done. But it was for someone else. LOL I had the pleasure of working on the final story in Alex Westhaven’s Death by Veggies series which is due to be released on Halloween.
If you can’t wait that long for your thrills and chills, you can download her story Jack from Amazon for free.
Goal For Next Week:
No promises on the editing – we’ll see how it goes with NaNo first.
MARKETING:
Okay, I think I’m going to suspend the whole marketing thing until the new year. It’s been months since I submitted anything, it just hasn’t been a priority. And with NaNo starting in a couple of days, and then Christmas right after that . . . Yeah, the new year it is.
TECH & TRAINING:
I’d still like to figure out Dropbox. At the very least I want to be able to backup to it automatically like I did before Staples got a hold of my laptop. And for extra back up protection, I’d like to unbox my external hard drive and start backing up to it as well.
Goal For Next Week:
Figure out how to set up the automatic back up for Dropbox. Set up external hard drive.
POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Last week’s form was a little more complicated than the one from the week before, but it had eight syllable lines, and I like eight syllable lines. :-)
I also wrote a very sad little poem for my poetry group, which met Wednesday night. It was only 97 words, but it still counts.
Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form.
CRAFTING:
I crocheted a dozen bookworms in a variety of colours for the craft sale my stitchery group is taking part of in December. We had a meeting Tuesday morning, and this week I’ll be meeting with the others on the craft sale organizing committee.
I’m not sure how much crafting I’m going to be doing during NaNo, but hopefully I’ll be able to carve out a little time.
Goal For Next Week:
Figure out dragon pillow for granddaughter.
WHAT I’M READING:
Reading? Who has time for reading?
Okay, I did treat myself to a new book when I grocery shopped - The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris, by Daisy Wood, but I’ve only read about half a dozen pages in it. It looks pretty interesting, so hopefully I’ll be able to make time to read more this week.
Goal For Next Week:
Spend a little time each day reading.
GOAL REVIEW:
It was a busy week, I tell you what. But despite that, I still got my blog posts up, and on time, too. And my serial installment actually ran a little long. I had a great time editing that story for Alex Westhaven – she just gets better and better, leaving me with less and less work to do. If only I could have that much enthusiasm for my own editing. LOL
I already mentioned that I’m putting the marketing on hold until the new year, and I’ll probably do the same with tech and training once I get Dropbox set up properly. I’m seriously considering recycling old post for my poetry Wednesdays for the duration of NaNo. Some days the poetry can take a lot of time and I don’t know that I’ll have it to spare.
While I did get my bookworms made, it was a near thing. November would be an optimal time to do Christmas crafts but, you know, NaNo. I can’t believe I did so little reading last week! I think I need to make time for it in the week ahead, because it’s a great way to relax the mind.
It was a busy week, but a good one, and looking back I may not have done any words beyond my blog posts, but I still felt pretty productive.
Here’s to the week ahead!
No comments:
Post a Comment