Grappling with online chat

Last week's live chat with The Poetry School was weird.  I was very nervous and once things got going everything happened so fast!  I made a few comments in the beginning and then it all kind of overtook me and I found myself just watching messages come up one after the other - it was almost hypnotic.  I couldn't think fast enough to keep up with others but I managed a few feeble attempts.  We discussed Auden's 'Villanelle' and then went on to comment on each others attempts one by one.  We ran out of time (even after two hours!) and mine along with three others were left for discussion in the forums.  Actually, this gave me time to think so that I was able to make a decent contribution over the next few days.  My villanelle received good comments (why does it always surprised me when people like what I write?) and everyone seemed to enjoy it including the tutor.

Today is the last day for uploading poems for the second assignment which is a villanelle written using enjambent on lines and stanzas (lines running into the next line or stanza).  I have decided to write something more humorous this time (my first was traditional and lyrical) with a play on words. I hope it will be well received as it is so different from my previous poem. I have also written a more traditional villanelle again but have decided to take a chance! The next 'chat' is Monday week and I hope that I might be more prepared for it this time.  Well, I can hope.  At least I wasn't the only one who struggled with it so that made me feel better.

Imagism and poetry

It's half term so no poetry class this week.  Last week we looked at 'imagists' like Ezra Pound who wrote some 'sparing' poetry a little like Haiku but who wrote how things were rather than use simile and metaphor. Check out the links to find out more.

We had a workshop of our Haiku. Everyone produced good verse, very unique ways of looking at the world. Mine was the last to be looked at but we ran out of time to finish so the idea is to look at it again next time, but first comments from the tutor was very positive.

Tonight I have my first 'online chat' with The Poetry School Villanelle Studio.  Wish me luck!

Outlets and another course!

Back in the summer I became a member of OU Poets - the poetry society of the Open University (being a past student).  They produce a workbook with members poems about four times a year on which we can send in  comments on others work and make a note of our favourite poems.  At the end of the year members vote for their 20 favourites for the year for inclusion in the Society's annual anthology. Anyway, I have contributed for the first time with my comments and have submitted two poems (you are guaranteed to at least have one poem in the workbook).  I will now have to wait a while before I hear anything but at least I will be in print, though until a poem is actually published in the anthology it is not considered 'published'.

I have also started a short course with The Poetry School on writing a Villanelle.  It is an online course and tutorials and 'chat' take place on a Monday evening every other week.  Our first 'chat' is Monday 24th October but already we have had our first assignment and have uploaded our first Villanelle.  This form of poetry I have described in a previous post.  It is a challenge I relish (it can be very time consuming!).  I have to say there are some good ones from my fellow students and this course is open to all levels of poets and I certainly feel that there are quite a few who are more advanced than me!

I am extremely nervous about the live chat as I am not great at it.  I still can't gel with Facebook and Messenger is also alien to me.  I have already had to enlist the help of my IT savvy son to sort out Java for me (which I need for 'chat').  I've told him he'll be on stand by for Monday evening!

5,7,5 - it must be a Haiku!

We've been looking at Haiku at poetry class - a form of poetry I really like.  Haiku (like Tanka and Renga) comes from Japan and consists of three lines of 5,7,5 syllables.  With such a short piece of writing you have to be sparing on words whilst using one idea/concept.  To see examples of Haiku and to learn more go to http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku/ 

The class has been asked to write 5 to 7 linked Haiku using the notes we wrote in our notebooks the week before based on our 'senses'.  I've finally managed something with some tweaking and this morning wrote a separate one prompted by the weather outside.  Writing different forms of poetry is a nice challenge. There is something very satisfying when you complete it, especially as in the beginning you wonder how you will ever accomplish it (more so if you have lots of rhyming to do!).  I've only tried a few forms over the years - Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Tanka and Sestina.  Here is a Haiku I wrote some years ago:

Grace

Forgiveness is mine,

undeservedly so. Grace

is His gift to me.

©2004

2^nd Prize in “Areopagus” poetry magazine Autumn edition

A poem for National Poetry Day theme of Games

What I should be doing is writing a report for a meeting next Monday and I have a review to do about the Writer's Day for my Church publication but I haven't started either yet!

We took in our draft poems to class last week and spent the whole time looking at them.  In fact we ran out of time to look at them all, so we have four to do this week.  It amazes me how good these 'beginners' are. I was really pleased with the feedback I got, especially as I'd never considered this was my best effort.  I think everyone benefited from the feedback they received and as I said there were some really good poems.

This week we will have the intermediate class joining us because there are so few of them that the class has been cancelled.  Funding for the arts, especially poetry is declining - a sad fact but at Morley we are determined to put poetry on the map.  There was some very positive stuff said from a quick 'feedback' session with a member of the team that develops programmes for the college and there could be some exciting things to come.

Homework for this week to write in our journal every day using our senses (touch, sight, taste, smell and the physical feelings you get as you react to things).

I missed putting anything on here for National Poetry Day (very remiss of me). The theme was games.  So here is my interpretation of games:

Games

Her father was a director on the board

of some utility group.

I had my finger in many pies, ducking and diving,

but I played my chance card,

called in a few favours

and bought her a house in Mayfair.

Classy broad she was with expensive tastes,

a figure beyond my pocket to maintain, so

it started to slip away, most of it down the

bookies near Northumberland Avenue and

one dodgy deal too many took me to

Pentonville.

I did not pass go.

I did not collect £200.

And she threw away my “get out of jail card”.

How did you all get on with the exercise last week?  Hard?  Easy?  Still tackling it?  Didn't bother?!

Limited vocabulary (writing exercise)

I had an idea yesterday (don't all laugh at once!) and I thought I'd share it with you.  It's a poetry writing exercise you can try which really makes you focus.

Find a longish word with a range of different letters (ideally with a couple of vowels) and then make as many words from the letters you have.  When you are ready write a poem using these words you have made.  Depending on the original word you may need to add a few extra letters after you have completed your list.  I'd suggest an extra vowel or two and two conjunctions (joining words) if you don't have enough already.  There is no time limit to this exercise and it might be as well to do it in two/three sessions.  If you find the original word you choose doesn't produce enough letters to make many words, choose another.  You quickly find out if it's not working.

Here is the outcome of my try at this.  The word I used was THUNDERSTORMS and I added 'a' as an extra vowel and my two joining words were 'in' and 'of''.  These extras can be used as many times as you like and the rest of the words once unless they are conjunctions. You don't have to use all your words!  Here is my poem:

Storm


To the north, thunder
more a dust in morse,
then dense,
tone, a rude retort
thrust out, then a rest,
a stem, of sorts, on route
to some end.
Under the red rust sun
morn stuns, stands,
struts her hot house
to the south
to smother the storm.

What stood out for me was the words I made eched the original word creating atmosphere. They ring together.  You may not write a prize winning poem but it's a real challenge and great fun to do.  Have a go - post your poem here with the original word and any 'extras' you used.

The bad and good of writing

I love this mini heatwave we are having in the south of England but it doesn't do anything for my creative juices. At poetry class on Thursday it was just too hot and my concentration was nil.  We did have a good look at a poem by Gillian Clarke called Taid's Grave, which is a beautiful poem.  Mainly we were looking at the line breaks and language and it was interesting to see how others saw it/read it.  The more we looked at it the more we found and connections made.  A really useful exercise.  We also compared our homework and again it was interesting to see that most of us put the prose into similar lines.  The writing exercise on the day was dreadful for me.  The hum of the fan and the noise outside (the singing classes going over their scales) only seemed to make my headache worse and I felt hotter.  Most of us struggled, to be fair.  We were in fact supposed to be writing about the noises around us, though some ended up writing about the heat!  Only one person found any stillness (I wish I knew her technique!).  Our tutor recommended a book to us called Writing Poetry by W.N. Herbert which she says would be helpful to us in understanding how poetry writing works  It has interviews with poets about different aspects of writing.

Yesterday I attended the AGM and Writer's Day of the Association of Christian Writers.  We had the shortest AGM I have ever been at (if only other committees could be that brief!) and then the main attraction.  Adrian Plass is a well known Christian writer and speaker and happens to be our President.  This being ACW's 40th anniversary it was lovely to have him with us.  He spoke in three sessions across the day, firstly about how he ended up writing, his early life, his breakdown and his first books The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass which took off overnight (he thought they would be a failure).  He told us that the first writing he ever did was found by his brother and written when he was aged 5.  It said 'At Christmas we remember Jesus by having a turkey'.  Adrian read from the Sacred Diary as well as from his other books.  He stated that he wants to share the 'yes' of God in his writing and that the cross is a mission field.  He was utterly amusing with 'off the wall' comments, but also very moving.  He gave us a little exercise - we each had a small piece of paper and he wanted us to write My God is......and write what he meant to us that day, not want we thought we should say, the right thing, but how we felt.  Adrian then read each one out (it was all anonymous) interspersing with Our God is many things....so it was like a prayer.  It was very powerful.

Adrian spoke of his work at Scargill House, a retreat centre where he will be until next year but he has no concrete plans afterwards just ideas about books he would like to write.  He said that writing was a passion and I think most of us who write understand that to some degree as I can't imagine my life without writing, even if it's rubbish!  Adrian then helped cut out anniversary cake and I accosted him to sign his book of poems I had bought from the bookstall (Silences and Nonsenses). What a lovely day!