POETRY LAB: Dark Subjects Made Bright

Tags

Amelia's Magazine, Barbie, Colossal, Cristian Grossi, dark things made bright, Denise Duhamel, Diane Lockward, dVerse Poet's pub, Elsa Mora, fusion of opposites poem, Hello Kitty, Hollie Cook, Kittenchops, list poems, Look Listen Write, Michael Jackson, My Work, papercut art, Paw Powers Activate, poetry lab, poetry writing workshop, pop culture, Postman, Samuel Peralta, Sandra Faulkner, Slave to the Rhythm, The Crafty Poet, Things Every Woman Should Have In Her Closet, women's magazines, women's poetry, works in progress, Yulia Brodskaya

As my creative forces are converging on poetry once again,  I’m actually trying out a technique used in middle school workshops called “Look, Listen, Write“, but with a twist from Diane Lockward’s The Crafty Poet and a side of Samuel Peralta’s dverse Poet’s Pub blog.

In TCP, Diane presents an exercise called “The Fusion of Opposites Poem” (p. 163) that asks one to construct a scene based on lines built on opposites, such as quiet/noisy, hot/cold, bright/dark. She encourages working towards a prose poem, but I wanted to play with list poems as in Peralta’s forms exercise (linked above).

 

 

Also, I wanted to take something poppish (pop culture-based) and pair it with deeper issues facing women more like Duhamel’s Barbie poems or Sandra Faulkner’s Hello Kitty series.

Applying the middle school workshop model:

LOOKING

I pulled artwork from Colossal, Amelia’s Magazine and KittenChops that had women and this dark vs. bright theme…..

Cristian Grossi

Cristian Grossi

Cristian Grossi

Yulia Brodskaya

Yulia Brodskaya

Elsa Mora

Elsa Mora

Seattle Children’s Surgery mural by KittenChops

Paw Powers Activate–Kittenchops

Kittenchops

**Additional portfolio images here: Elsa, Yulia, Cristianand Zaara aka Kittenchops

and paired it with….

LISTENING

to various combinations of these (2) tracks,  which both layer pop music over deeper cultural issues facing women  [*funny how they give such different ‘feels’ to the art]

 

 

then after this immersion, which should take some quality percolating time…

WRITING

I borrowed headlines from some popular women’s magazines–doozies of higher-thinking like: “Perpetual Boyfriend Disappointments Diary” and “Things Every Woman Should Have in Her Closet”  and ran with it.

Here’s one of the Works-In-Progress from the second tag…..

 

THINGS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD HAVE IN HER CLOSET

 

an ill-fitting skeleton

shit-kicking boots stained with bad blood

a roadmap for sacrifices to whatever curtained god you are

currently worshipping

pinking shears for prettying-up broken hearts

nestled beside nuts& bolts & odd bits of timekeeping devices that

shook free of time

failures with exes napping with cats in neatly boxed rows (you know

for rehabilitation)

90’s haircuts sandwiched between diet books so you won’t go there

again (don’t   go   there  again)

dispatches to future selves that sting like papercuts  waiting

waiting with their metallic arms

pinned

—–C.A. LaRue

 

 

Feel like it’s at least a line short in there somewhere, but that’s why its called  W-I-P.   Please feel free to share what you come up with in the comments section or by emailing bonesparkblog@yahoo.com if you’d like to do your own guest post.

Peace out, poetry peeps!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Galoshes Optional: Rain-Soaked POETRY LAB

Tags

art prompts, Betsy Johnson-Miller, Games that Ogres Play, It's Raining in Honolulu, Jim Sallis, Joy Harjo, Kenji Miyazawa, Lawrence Raab, Millane's Creativity Club, Museum of Modern Art, My Work, Ocean Power, Ofelia Zepeda, Painting Rain, Paula Meehan, poetry drafts, poetry exercises, poetry lab, poetry prompts, Pulling Down the Clouds, Rain Room, rain sounds, rain themed art, rain themed poetry, Rain When I Want Rain, Rain's Eagerness, Strong in the Rain, Visible Signs, Why It Often Rains in the Movies, writing prompts

The Rain Room at the Museum of Modern Art. New York, NY. Friday, June 14, 2013.

Anyone lucky enough to have visited the Museum of Modern Art last summer, could have enjoyed its fun Rain Room installation without ever getting wet.  While most of us here in South Louisiana did not have that luxury, we are all very much acquainted with Nature’s slippery friend.  After a few mind-numbing days of downpours, one simply must retreat to the clean, dry page.

Alas, even there rain-themed verse is to be had aplenty. But with the sheer beauty of such lines as “Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more/than a season” from Harjo’s “It’s Raining in Honolulu” (full-text below), who would not want to have a good soak.  Enjoy this poem and the four other selections before we move on to penning our own.

 

It’s Raining in Honolulu
by Joy Harjo

There is a small mist at the brow of the mountain,
each leaf of flower, of taro, tree and bush shivers with ecstasy.

And the rain songs of all the flowering ones who have called for the rain

can be found there, flourishing
beneath the currents of singing.

Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more
than a season.
We stop all of our talking, quit writing or blowing sax to drink the
mystery invoked
by the night rain.

We listen to the breathing beneath our breathing.

This is how we became rain.

Translated, this means a white flower behind your ear is saturated with
faith after the second overthrow.

We will plant taro where there were curses.

 

 

That’s such a gorgeous one. Hard to beat a women in tune with the earth! Next have a listen to Rodney Jones reading “Rain on Tin” (text accompanies). Then peruse:

Lawrence Raab‘s “Why It Often Rains in the Movies” from Visible Signs.

Ofelia Zepeda’s “Pulling Down the Clouds”  from Ocean Power

Kenji Miyazawa’s “Strong in the Rain” from same-titled collection

 

And if that doesn’t get you in the mood to write something slick, trying mixing your own rain tract up over at NatureSoundsForMe. Or for those artists out there, try digging into the Singing and Dancing in Rain art prompt over at Milliane’s Creativity Club. You might like to use some of the images below for something similar to that one, or pull from the Rain art board on Pinterest.

 

But wait, I’m not done yet.  How about a few rain-soaked poetry titles like…

 

Painting Rain from Paula Meehan

Rain When You Want Rain from Betsy Johnson-Miller  OR

Rain’s Eagerness from Jim Sallis

 

 

I even have a draft that I’ve been playing with called “Games that Ogres Play”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feel free to share your drafts as well. Comments are open, skippy-dee-do-dahs!!

NaPoMo Check-In

Tags

art/poetry fusion, Cave Dwellers, My Work, NaPoMo 2014, Poem-A-Day Challenge

Since my art and writing life are merging lately, I’m carrying that over with my own take on the Poem-A-Day challenge.   First, I start with a “dump file” of images (some online, some scanned) that I pick through to find some interesting combination.  Then, I use whatever art I create from that exercise as a writing prompt.  Here’s today’s product:

CAVE DWELLERS

One day
my heart grew
wings like a pterodactyl’s
& burst from the
cage inside my
chest. It roamed far—
feeding on the
dust of stars &
the sheen of planets
like some solar
butterfly. When I had
the sense to
call it back, it could
not believe
the enormity of the
cavity it had
left. Tacked it down
with superglue
this time. Hope it doesn’t
wander off.

—–C.A. LaRue