Subject matter compression: capturing a whole story in just a few words Example: Haikus (5-7-5), two lines of observation and one of feelings Assignment: take a public document (such as CDC guidelines on COVID or CDCR rules around visitation *attached*) and use parts of that language to write a poem If folks want to share their work, they can post it in the blog comments, create a new post, or send it to Ellen or Doug to post.
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When you are honest with your feelings, your subject chooses you, and your words generate meaning.
Freewrite!! Things I've noticed this week that I haven't noticed before... (this could be a creeky floorboard in your home, a heavy-footed neighbor, lines at the grocery store, no traffic in the streets...) Discussion Today we talked about triggering subjects, which tend to be the thing that allows the poem to take off and gives it shape. These are the objects (or setting) we use to give a poem velocity. We we introduce things into a poem or story, they can either 1. launch a poem (beginning) or 2. turn it in a new direction (middle of poem). Richard Hugo writes about this in his essay Triggering Town. His book of poetics, The Triggering Town (1979), contains a series of essays arguing against the idea that a poet should “write what you know,” advocating instead an approach to poetry based on triggering subjects and words. In this title essay to the collection, Hugo explains triggering subjects, using the example of towns, as points of entry into the realm of the imagination. Hugo suggests that new poets take emotional ownership of an imagined, or barely-known, town, rather than trying to convey the actual hometown in which “the imagination cannot free itself to seek the unknowns.” Once a triggering subject is located as a base from which to write, Hugo argues that a poet should turn his attention to the play and music of the language, allowing a private language—a personal connection, and perhaps frequent return, to certain words, and the richness of the poet’s complex associations with those words—to drive the poem forward. Notes Hugo, “Your triggering subjects are those that ignite your need for words. When you are honest to your feelings, that triggering town chooses you. Your words used your way will generate your meanings. Your obsessions lead you to your vocabulary. Your way of writing locates, even creates, your inner life. The relation of you to your language gains power. The relation of you to the triggering subject weakens.” An example of a triggering subject is The Cathedral by Raymond Carver. This story develops an ironic situation in which a blind man teaches a sighted man to truly “see” for the first time. Near the end of the story, Carver has these two characters work together on a drawing of a cathedral, which serves as the symbolic heart of the story. In this story, the cathedral that the narrator draws with Robert represents true sight, the ability to see beyond the surface to the true meaning that lies within. Another great example Jeff provided is Oranges, a poem by Gary Soto, that focuses on the feelings and thoughts of an adolescent boy about to meet up with a girl. Soto uses a range of poetic device to get his message over - simile, metaphor, personification and lots of figurative language help keep the reader interested and appeal to the senses. Finally, in Song of Napalm by Bruce Weigl, he relives a traumatic event that occurred during the Vietnam War. **Warning, this poem has some traumatic details that may be difficult to read. Metaphors are often used in poetry to represent much larger things that what they are and are used to take us into the real subject. An example could be the caution tape used in restaurants right now is meant to keep us out, which represents the division/isolation caused by the pandemic. Propaganda language is sometimes used in poetry to disprove a message that is being promoted in the media. The example Jeff shared was his own piece (the 9 steps to rehabilitation, based off the CDCR website) as well as a piece by Jimmy Santiago Baca, called So Mexicans are taking jobs from Americans, which captures the xenophobia present in American in the 70s (and hasn't changed much today). Creative Exercise: Write your own propaganda poem. Find language from the media that may generalize a group, an experience, or an idea, and use this to launch your own poem, cartoon, painting, or short story. Please email [email protected] with your work OR post it in the comments section below. |
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