Poem Tryouts: Poets Dreaming

1:23 p.m. — San Antonio

listening to the rustle of paper, as Skip unpacks another box of stuff from mom’s that I can’t live without

Aieee! WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S TUESDAY? The uppercase is to replicate what I actually said and which I cannot say here, when I realised, in the middle of unpacking boxes, that today might be Tuesday. Hello, everyone.

As I was noodling around coming up with the summer prompts, I came across a number of images of poets sleeping or dreaming. Long pause. Margo can be heard using language she does not usually use. There is a faint echo in the blogosphere.

So. My dropbox has decided to stop syncing; thus the images are sitting on my other computer, the one in Atlanta. Needing a couple of weeks to regroup, I will throw a curveball and we will all shift gears to the prompt for week 6: What does summer mean to you?

List all the things that summer means to you or for you. Pick one to focus on or, if you spot a thread, more. Don’t forget sensory details so we also feel what you feel, understand what summer means to you.

You can also find an image that shows what summer means and write a poem that parallels or embodies the image.

My apologies if I am not terribly lucid. My mind is mush. I shall see you next Tuesday for some oulipo-ing.

Happy writing, everyone.

P.S. Barb C.? Are you there? I need that photo of Rehoboth. I need an escape!

 

Poem Tryouts: A Single Image

7:00 a.m. — somewhere in the air between SF and SA

listening to the click of keys as my husband slays in WOW

Hello, all. I have been enjoying the poems that have been translated and wish I had the time to comment. Hopefully, once we are settled for our month in San Antonio, I can go back and reread and comment.

My mother is safely in SA in a guest apartment [with the same floor plan as the one she will have] waiting for her furniture, and us, to arrive. At this end, my two brothers and I were all together for the first time in twenty-five years. We have vowed to never let THAT happen again. The flat is packed out and there is just enough left that Skip and I are camping out. It’s rather fun until we go into the kitchen to microwave something and the microwave is no longer there.

This week is a lovely, easy prompt. Truly. Find a single image and stare at it. What is it you want to convey to your audience about the image? Convey it in a Japanese short form poem, such as a tanaga, renga, tanka, haiku or… there are others out there. Remember that it is not about the syllables.

These are small bites. Feel free to write on several images, each with its own conveyance.

I shall see you next Tuesday, for the next summer prompt.

Happy writing, all.

 

Poem Tryouts: Translate It

7:00

listening to a bird on a branch of the live oak outside mom’s porch — neither of us sound awake

Hello everyone. This will be the first week of summer for most of you with kids. For most of the rest of us, it’s a hot day. Like last week’s prompt — which brought forth a slew of poems, so go read if you haven’t — this is a simple prompt: find a poem in a language other than English and translate it into English.[ I didn’t say the exercise is simple, just the prompt.]

This can be a hair-pulling exercise but it is also fun, a lot like a treasure hunt, and it is valuable in what it teaches us about the importance of word choice. In translating someone’s poem, we take on the role of being that poet’s voice, that poet’s speaker’s voice.

First, find a poem. You can choose one in a language you feel some knowledge of, or one in a language totally foreign to you [Korean poems work a treat]. Working line by line is probably the most workable way, to start. Babelfish, Google Translate, and Reverso are just three places that you can use to help.

Make a rough and ready translation. If you know what the intent of the poem is start revising, which can mean changing the line breaks, choosing different words, or phrasing, even altering the punctuation, so that the English translation is the other poem. If you aren’t sure, leave it and come back to it; in essence, the poem is yours [in trust] and you need to see it that way once you are revising.

A fun possibility is for two of you to get in touch and choose the same poem, then completely independent of each other, do the exercise and post.

Be sure to credit the original. Have fun with this. If it seems overwhelming, choose something very short. Play

I shall see you next Tuesday. This week you really may not hear from me. The move is on.

Happy writing, all.

 

Poem Tryouts: Finish It

7:00 a.m. — Walnut Creek

listening to the dryer

Hello, everyone. I have arrived at my mother’s in California. We spent much of today going through drawers and closets sorting, in one room. She has collected a lot of stuff, a lot of tiny stuff. We’ll move to another room tomorrow. I have two thoughts already: Don’t get old and throw everything out. Now.

Our first summer prompt is an easy one but should be fun. Finish an unfinished poem.

That’s it. Bye. No? You want at least a semblance of chat, as long as I am here? Okay. Think about your notebooks/ computer files and go back to the oldest ones. Glance through your poem drafts and note the ones you never got back to, although you meant to. Or, the ones that just were not working but you really would have liked them to. The ones where you only managed a couple of lines and the brain said ‘Enh’. Or, go back to a poem you began this year and were interrupted/distracted from finishing and you forgot about it. Now’s your chance.

Finish an unfinished poem. You will feel great satisfaction. Then post it and bring us the link so we can see what you had left undone and have now completed.

I shall see you again next Tuesday, same time, same place.

Happy writing, everyone.

 

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