[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]to get up from your desk and clean out the cat box or call your best
friend.
The rules for these exercises are simple. First, read the assignment
and the model poem, if there is one. When you've done that, set the
timer for twenty minutes. Try to keep writing the entire time; try to
stick with the instructions, but if you don't, that's fine. The idea is to
trigger a poem, not to see how well you follow directions. Don't worry
if what comes out is messy, shapeless, or weird; that's exactly what
should come out in a first draft. Later, you can go back to the raw
material generated by the exercise and work on it. We recommend
doing these exercises when you're feeling blocked, or when time is at
a premium, or when you get together with other people to write.
A Simple Exercise
This was an exercise given to a class of advanced students. The rules
were simple:
1. Write about writing. All of us, at some time or other, are tempted
to write an ars poetica. Most such poems don't work out. It's as if we
are too close to our subject matter; we tend to get maudlin and sen-
timental about what we love. It's a difficult task and you will proba-
bly fail. But when has that ever stopped us? Go ahead. Write about
writing.
2. It's cold outside.
3. It should be snowing by now, but isn't.
4. Identify the time of day.
5. Use the pronoun "we." Our culture is enamored of the concept of
"the individual," and because of this much of our writing employs the
use of the lyric "I." It's very American, very "twentieth century," and
sets us apart from poets of other cultures, who tend to be more inclu-
sive, connected to each other by circumstance, politics, poverty, or
simple population density. It's an interesting exercise to try to think as
a group, to speak as a group, for others as well as for yourself. There's
a wonderful novel by Joan Chase called During the Reign of the
Queen of Sheba in which the narrator speaks as a group of sisters.
Twenty-Minute Writing Exercises 229
Siblings have that special feeling of connection and shared experi-
ence, as do families in general, as well as close friends and lovers. Try
for this feeling when you use the word "we."
6. Use the word "florid" in a way it would not be normally used. (Or
any other word you choose. Close your eyes and scan a dictionary or
newspaper with your finger. Stop. Use that word. Or ask a friend to
choose a word for you. Use a word you've always loved and wanted to
get into a poem. Be sure to use your word in an original or nontradi-
tional way.)
Here's a student poem that came out of this exercise:
BARE BRANCHES
"What would they say if they knew
I sit for two months on six lines
of poetry?"
Lorine Niedecker
This stark room, how simple, they say,
they not being we
who know it's easy to be florid,
not get
to the gut.
The bare branches of the maple satisfy me.
Maybe by noon a bird will perch on one
like a word on a blank page.
Soon, I hope, the snow will come,
complete the landscape.
The snow is miraculous every time it arrives,
like a poem.
Stephanie Mendel
What's wonderful about this poem is that it asks us to be patient as
writers, tells us that poems don't come often or easily. And yet this
poet didn't simply sit around waiting for a poem to appear before her,
free of charge; she worked at doing exercises in an effort to get the
230 THE POET'S COMPANION
poem to come to her. This is one of the joys of exercises; you can do
them while you're waiting for a poem to appear, and if you're lucky,
and work hard, maybe a poem will indeed appear. Obviously this
poet had been thinking about that quote by Niedecker for some time.
Maybe she wanted to say something about it but couldn't. Maybe she
didn't even know she wanted to say something about it, but the exer-
cise sparked her imagination. Not every exercise will work for you; in
fact, most exercises fail as fully realized poems. But even if you can
get one good stanza to work with, a good line, even a new word or a
title to add to your storehouse, the exercise has been worth the time
it took to do it.
In a U-Haul North of Damascus
Paul, formerly Saul, of biblical fame, experienced his great conver-
sion on the road to Damascus. He was traveling there to speak against
Jesus and when Jesus appeared to him on the road and blinded him
he became a believer. David Bottoms has taken the story of a man
who has sinned and is on his way to conversion and made it a mov-
ing contemporary story about divorce. Using the Bottoms poem as a
model, write a poem about driving to or from a place you either love
or hate. Mention at least two road signs-SLOW, STOP, MERGE,
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkajaszek.htw.pl
