Starting Points

Being in my current poetry class has reminded me how heated conversations around poetry can get. I imagine it's a good thing--poetry isn't all puppies and kittens, and we shouldn't spend all our time cooing away at each other with sweet nothings. Poetry often has tension, wit, anger--there's no point in shutting off the conversation in the name of niceness, or even *heh* civility (although dialogue is preferable to out-and-out shouting matches, I reckon). If you're new to the blog, I recommend reading through the archives--there's some good assignments in there, and a number of poems worth reading.

Something I've seen time and again are poems that cloverleaf off of a quote or found statement or phrase. This can be a good exercise as well, if you have something in mind, or if you have friends who would be willing to send you a curious sentence or two. It can be especially surprising to give yourself something really out of context, like lines from a recipe, something from a crazy advertisement, or bizarre newspaper headlines--these sort of triggers are more likely to dredge up something surprising from the back of your mind.

Take, for example, this Brad Leithauser poem:

After the Detonation of the Moon

"Hate Winter? Here's a Scientist's Answer: Blow Up the Moon." (WSJ Headline)

We *were* overwhelmed, just as they'd intended:
for wasn't this the greatest show of clout
the world had ever seen, and all without
loss of a single life--an exploit splendid
no less for its humanity than for
its sweeping expertise? And they were right
that life would go on as it had. The night
was still the night. The stars blazed all the more
in a cleared sky.
.........................These days we seldom fall
for that trick of the eye by which some tall
mist-softened clocktower or fogged street lamp will
recall a changing face, and something tidal
heave in the chest, then ebb, leaving us all
to wonder when if ever this sea too might still.

(I added the periods to get the formatting right).


...the rhyme doesn't become as apparent until the latter stanza; his meter is an irregular iambic, (you can hear it in these lines: for WASn't THIS the GREATest SHOW of CLOUT/the WORLD had EVer SEEN, and ALL withOUT/ & /these DAYS we SELdom FALL/--it helps to find meter by *really* exaggerating the stress when you read aloud).

so--find yourself a funny/sad/surprising line or two from somewhere unexpected, and allow a poem to evolve from it. Don't worry about editing right away--allow your brain to riff off of the idea, and cull later on, when the strongest idea emerges clearly from the bunch.

Best,

Dani