Point of View
What lens do we look through to tell a story? Poetry Fun: Write an autobiographical poem using NO pronouns Group Share From 5/4: Quarantine Lens, Ellen I am grateful for the space I'm in, I am thankful for the support I have, I am grateful to work from home, Yet I continue to remind myself to be grateful for these things because some days are frustrating and I just want to see another human, Talk about something other than COVID-19, Remember that normal is not quarantine. You sit inside all day, Working, isolated from the pandemic, Freedom to work, talk on the phone, Connect through zoom. Your biggest decision is what to make for lunch. You don't know normal. She sits inside working all day, Helpless in this pandemic, Thinking working harder will give her some control, But soon she'll forget what it feels like to lose so much and she'll return to what she's always known: normal. I am, Ricardo I am who I was, not proud saddening days, It's you who decided your journey, Your changed ways, How can he be anything but who he is, The good of all todays.. Thoughts, Po I thought to myself sometimes that I would never amount to anything... You need to just shut the fuck up and stop accumulating doubts and just apply yourself - and accumulate everything... I have faith in that motherfucker- He has the potential for good leadership and as well as for a good King... Me, them, and her, Sofia I see myself today. After 27 years I have come along way. From the past I come to tell you, you are brave. You see yourself today. After 27 years you came a long way. From the past you came to tell yourself, you are brave. She sees herself today. After 27 years she has come a long way. From the past she came to tell herself, she is brave.
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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.
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. This week, Jeff introduced the elements of a story: plot, character, and exposition. The handout he provided is below & the assignment is to begin to develop some D, O, A's (Desire, Obstruction, and Action), and the breakdown of what follows. The topic for SaCreatives this group was the Ekphrasis, a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art (yep, I had to look that up even after Jeff described it). Jeff went through a series of American Art and we discussed as a group what we each saw in the painting. We then wrote a poem or short story about the painting and shared out with the group. If you would like to write a poem or short story, you can take a look at the painting below and describe what you see (let your imagination run wild!) through words in the form of a poem or short story. Props to the folks who came to group and participated; you can view their masterpieces below!! Empty at Times, Isaiah J.
As I look through the window, I see only me. As I look into this room, It's empty just like me. But eventually it will be filled with things that I need. So as I said before, It's just like me. Don't go in, Luis P. The silence of the room says don't go in there As the neighborhood kids dare each other to go into the haunted house. The emptiness is really eerie with the wind blowing as the tree branches creak and scratch the window pane. The room yearns for attention but no one comes. The room stays empty. I'm so lonely. I just want a friend; Will someone please come in so I don't have to pretend. There is nothing so lonely then sitting inside an empty room inside your own head. Don't go in. Doors closed, Ellen Lena & Andy waited for days on the back porch, When Tab stormed out and said she'd never be back They thought it was as fleeting as the sun's shadows on the crabgrass. But as the clouds rolled in and the sky darkened, Even Lassie's last hope disappeared in the breeze. A defiant child, Tab had always been headstrong but her parents thought they could keep her close by isolating her - surely shed appreciate their rules later, she would understand that consequences can from love. But love made her leave - A love she couldn't find at home. Eddy enabled her to be creative and have fun, A wild taste in adventure - soon she's quite school and today she quit home. Lena shook her head and said, "what a waste." Andy replied, "just wait until she comes home." But Lassie knew that Tab would not return. The Empty Filled Room, Po An empty room with pictures on the wall. An empty room filled with images of nothing at all. The light from outside shines through the window and into the empty room. And now the room is no longer empty. But pretty soon, when darkness comes, it will not be plenty. The moon will be replaced by the sun - and the empty room will be full with plenty of none. Spaces, Vern I see a space that can be lended, Empty apartments waiting to be rented. End of hallway looking out into the shadows, Moonlight reflection in a dark room of bookshelves, Family with dog, sharing same view out in the yard of a friends house. News reports waiting on getting a scoop on something they can publish before morning to make the loop. Watch out for silent habits, Samora Their untechnical rendezvous was late. They stared hard into each others faces as they collaborated on a scandal that was not theirs but theirs to unravel. He ordered another 7n7, she wished he wouldn't drink on the job. Her eyes flashed with disdain. He could care less, this was evident by his arched brow. Together with their note pads, they strategized. he was ever so annoyed by the sound the pencil made when she took fast notes. The way she tapped her notepad while she was thinking irked him too. All these quirks and habits, everyone always sees but no one will every voice them, only silently notice. The old man in white, working the bare, he sees everything too, without even looking. |
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