The moderator for this week is Abby!
Abigail Licad is an immigrant from the Philippines, a former editor-in-chief for Hyphen magazine, a full-on feminist, a diehard Tori Amos fan, a mediocre classical pianist, a dog mama, a chocolate fiend, a terrible cook, a succulent addict, a lover of sending care packages, and a poetry junkie through and through. She has no tattoos and lives in Portland, Oregon.
Tuesday, August 30th, 2022
"Sick Man in the Sun" by Pablo Neruda
1. Write a poem incorporating or responding to any of the following passages:
"Monday came/round again, ripe as a kiss, woven with sun"
"your heart's/silence, or some other/visceral menace/that hurts with its certain farewells"
"you delivered yourself/to your pain, gust after gust, like a wind"
2. Describe your ideal last day on earth. Where would you be? What would you be doing? Would you be alone or with others? Who? How would you feel? What thoughts might run through your head? 3. The description of the sun and its warmth in the poem are particularly sensual. Similarly, describe one of your most simple pleasures in close detail. How does it appeal to your different senses (sight, smell, touch, etc.)? When do you enjoy or make time to enjoy this pleasure? What might enjoyment of this pleasure say or illuminate about you?
Thursday, September 1st, 2022
"Part" by Phillis Levin
1. Write a poem incorporating or responding to any of the following passages:
"Part of me is here, part of me/Is missing"
"suffer the breaking of,/Become detached,/Broken; to go from, leave"
"part me from him,/I cannot bear to ever"
2. Follow Levin's example and explore the multiple meanings and uses of one word. To get started, see this list of homonyms for ideas: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/for-students-and-parents/words-with-multiple-meanings.html
3. Under one unifying theme, write a list poem of your favorite "parts" (limited to only one sense of the word). Examples below:
the varied, unique roles you play in life to different people (caretaker, chauffeur, tech consultant, teacher, etc.)
the features on someone or something (if writing about a Lamborghini, for example, list your top favorite features of the car; or describe body parts of a loved one)
episodes, segments, or chapters that you feel are underappreciated or overlooked in works of art like movies, TV shows, books, etc. (for example, my favorite part in The Odyssey is the death scene of Ulysses' dog Argos -- when Argos recognizes his dog dad returned home to Ithaca at last after 20 years, he finally feels ready to rest and lets himself die (see Book 17, lines 290-327 -- so sad!).
Friday, September 2nd, 2022
"Home" by Michael Collier
1. Write a poem incorporating or responding to any of the following passages:
"When I was young I couldn’t wait to leave home/and then I went away to make the world my home."
"In England a poet’s wife suggested 'heimweh' for what I felt – German/for homesickness even when you’re home."
"The agoraphobe and claustrophobe respectively/cannot bear to leave or stay inside their home."
2. Write your own ghazal. A ghazal's basic features are listed below (taken from Ravishing Disunities, Real Ghazals in English, ed. Agha Shahid Ali):
5-12 couplets
no enjambments between couplets
each line must be of the same length
the last couplet usually invokes the poet's name in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person
in the opening couplet, the rhyme/refrain occurs in both lines, but only in the second line of every succeeding couplet
3. Explore the notion of "home." Is your concept of it constant or changeable? Where is your home? How do you define it? Where do you feel or think you would feel most at home?
Comments