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…..
**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!!!
Bonespark~ 