Poetry Prompt: Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando

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Aerialist, Black Venus, circus performers, Degas, ekphrastic poems, high flying, impressionist, La Femme Canon, Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, mixed-race women, National Gallery, poetry prompt, poetry prompts, Sitting with Art, strong women, Syliva Plath, Victoria Hallerman, writing prompts

Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando (1879)–Degas, oil on canvas

 

Degas’ only painting of the circus, repeatedly called “one of his most surprising canvases” by biographers, it is now housed at the National Gallery in London. Find out more about the unique artwork and the mysterious mixed-race aerialist here.

Two poems for additional inspiration:

Aerialist by Syliva Plath

Aerialist by Victoria Hallerman

Share your own high-flying poems in the comments!

 

 

 

Galoshes Optional: Rain-Soaked POETRY LAB

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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!!

GUEST POST: Laura Grace Weldon Talks the “Witnessing Stranger” Technique

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Bruce Weigl, guest blogger, Laura Grace Weldon, poetry lab, Tending, The Abundance of Nothing, Witnessing Stranger Technique, writing prompts

Poet, Laura Grace Weldon

 

Poetry workshops are new to me. It’s not easy to muster up the time and money to attend. It’s harder still to tremble through harshly critical sessions, coming away with little beyond self-doubt. But when a poet I adore offers a workshop, I’ve learned it’s always worth it.

 Recently I spent an afternoon at Oberlin’s quiet public library for an Ohio Poetry Association program with Bruce Weigl, who writes about his experience of war and his Midwest surroundings with equally sharp focus. His recent collection is The Abundance of Nothing, a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Poetry Prize. He’s a kind, humorous, and relentlessly encouraging man.

The exercise he gave us was divided into two parts. First we wrote as if we were walking through our childhood homes and neighborhoods. Next we wrote our impressions of a foreign city we’d never visited. The take-away? Most poets tend to come up with far more irrelevant, far less evocative language for what’s familiar.

So for this exercise put yourself in a relaxed state of mind. Then pick a place entirely foreign to you. Perhaps a remote river valley in Ethiopia, the bustling city of Hanoi, a tea garden in Istanbul, or a taxi driving through Buenos Aires. Envision yourself immersed in the sounds, colors, and action of this place. Then write what you see.

 Here’s what I wrote in our session, a piece that’s still in draft stage:

Baghdad

 

Vendors hawk smells

I long to taste.

Street life clatters and hums

with music I don’t recognize

yet find familiar.

People pass in every direction

some with hair the

glossy black I envy,

their lips staccato,

eyes legato.

 

I want paint in my hand

and words truer than prayer

to write on park benches,

telephone poles, buses,

and street side tables

where cards are played

and tea is sipped,

I’m sorry.

We’re all so sorry.

Laura Grace Weldon is the author of a poetry collection titled Tending and a handbook of natural education, Free Range Learning. She lives on a small farm where she’s an editor, nonviolence educator, awe junkie, and marginally useful farm wench. Connect with her via her blog and Twitter.

The Floating Eyeball Technique: How to Rope a Poem

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floating eyeball technique, invite to guest bloggers, poetry lab, roping poems, writing prompts

Images carry our stories. Even a blind man can cup one in his mind and blink. This is the work of a poem—to string us along until our stories become one.

But it sure is hard to write one sometimes.

When I really get stuck, I play a little game that I like to call “floating eyeball”.  It is, at its heart, an exercise in observation, but with a WYSIWYG twist.  You must enter an environment, whether urban or rural, and attempt to catalog it exactly as you see it.

We had such lovely weather here today that I decided to spend much of it out of doors.  Of course, I had a notebook along (love those min-composition books Walmart had on sale during back-to-school).  Here’s a sample of the poem that I “roped” from the sky:

bird in treetop

blue sky

       black crow

slice of moon in

       the backdrop

he mocks two doves

on lowest branches

        but for me

he has a smile—

        mouthful of

butchered worm

See, that’s easy enough.  And fun to play in over-familiar settings (places you know like the back of your hand) because it forces you into close examination.

Sometimes, a panorama view can work out as well, as along is it is a powerful image.  I don’t have any of those panorama type poems on hand at the moment, but perhaps one of you dear readers will share???

Anyway, try it in your own little corner of the world.  And for the zealous, try setting yourself down in a “foreign” landscape, such as Mars or Wonderland.  This type of visit takes a bit more work, but can yield some surprising results.

If you have your own special technique for “roping” poems, I invite you to share it here as a guest blogger.  Email interest to bonesparkblog@yahoo.com, and I will get you set up ASAP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nose Games

Tags

Aimee Nez, Antoni Pitxot, Diane Ackerman, Mark Lindstrom, Nose games, power of smell, sensory maps, smellwalking, The Perfume Collector, writing prompts, Year of Wonders

Smell is a powerful thing. It bypasses the reasoning parts of our brains and goes straight on to the emotional center.  Diane Ackerman, author of The Natural History of the Senses (a recommended read), calls smell a “tripwire” that causes “memories [to] explode all at once..[in] a complex vision [that] leaps out of the undergrowth”.  

It is, in fact, such an powerful stimulant that many Alzheimer’s support groups are now using it as a means to help suffers recall otherwise blocked emotions and memories. [Start here if you want more info on this subject: HelpforAlzheimersFamilies.com]

Advertisers are also wielding the olfactory whip and not always to our advantage. Branding expert, Mark Lindstrom has written a whole book on how sense manipulation can be used to push products. I had no idea that Singapore Airlines had actually patented the smell of their cabins.  Who knew that you could even do that? Not me!

Neither did I suspect the Department of Defense to be sinking dollar after dollar into projects that focus on turning smell into a weapon, or as they more innocuously call it as “a tool for crowd dispersal”.

Ok. Creepy, but true. Here’s the American Scientist article. And there are more out there. Go look! But beware that even reading about all that burnt hair and vomit is enough to induce nausea or worse. 

At least, aromatherapists know that smell has a good side.  I won’t subject you to all of the research going on in this field, but just know that smell can open many doorways–some that lead to copious health benefits and some that go down the path to seduction.  Uh huh! Read that right.

Linger on that thought for a moment, and then go pick up a copy of Diane Ackerman’s The Natural History of Love. Another fascinating read on the role of smell in attraction. And it’s not just all about pheromones. Sections on aphrodisiacs, etc.

Smell can even invoke whole cities in one’s mind. One whiff of boiled crawfish sends me home. Not that I’ve left New Orleans for long. Who needs to? Some tours groups are even organizing around this little fad called smellwalking. I hear that it’s fun.

While it hasn’t yet made it to my city, “nosy” researchers like Kate McLean have already mapped out such places as Glasgow and Paris. To the left is a map of Edinburgh (known affectionately as Auld Reekie) that was done in 2011.  More on McLean’s work in the Daily Mail. And do check out her blog.

I found Dali’s old buddy, Antoni Pitxot featured there. Apparently, the painting below was a rendering of the smell of a fishing village in Spain.

But do understand that it’s not just visual artists who can stand to bring smell into their work.  Unfortunately, it’s one of the more neglected senses in literature, and this is truly a shame.

When done well, you get novels like
The Perfume Collector or the Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders. I will never forget how Brooks’ opening chapter invokes the aroma of apples and woodpiles and hay to bring one into the main character’s world. Transportive. Literally.

And in the poetry space, I find that Aimee Nez has a real gift for incorporating scents.  She will often speak of the pull of smell in interviews.  I will let you discover these tidbits and the rest of her work for your own, but what I will introduce you to is an exercise that she often employs with herself and her students. 

So, adapted from Aimee, your challenge this week:  to begin a journal of scents.  That’s right! For (at least) the next week, I want you to be led by your nose.

Then once you have collected a copious amount of those little emotion-invoking spigots, I want you to weave them into some linked poems or a good piece of prose. And as always, feel free to share them here on the blog or post other examples. 

Happy sniffing!!!

 

 

 

 

80’s Pop Culture Enters the Feminist Dimension

Tags

Barbie, craft, Denise Duhamel, Feminism, Hello Kitty, poet, poetry, poetry lab, pop culture, She-ra, writing exercises, writing prompts

She-Ra, Princess of Power

Hello all,

Today’s poetry lab is inspired by work from two poets who are not afraid to mix pop culture with feminist ideals: Sandra Faulkner and Denise Duhamel.

After reading three of their poems (see links below), try to come up with one of your own in the same vein.

I am drawn to She-Ra, Princess of Power, as my starting point, but feel free to use any pop icon of your choice. Remember to weave in a feminist flavor.

THE POEMS:

When Hello Kitty Registers for the Working Cats Conference, Security Confiscates Her Catnip NOTE: Poem is at the end of the book blurb

Buddhist Barbie

Hippie Barbie

Do you know of any other poets who have used pop culture in interesting ways in their work? Then post in the comments.