galimaufry gang

Last night's Poetry Group meshed together beautifully. We were seven, all ages, a galimaufry gang. See, I used the word! We wrote a Moebius strip poem - one continuous line on a twisted loop. Our topic was an unexpected turn in our lives. The exercise was fun and helped us become better acquainted.

Next, we "unpacked" Longfellow's "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls." What a great discussion! I was impressed by the insightful comments as we looked at word choice, connotation, repetition, alliteration. Our sharing really helped us discern what the poem is about, or what we think it's about! This technique that I learned in poet Baron Wormser's workshop is really valuable. It forms a solid foundation on which to write our own poems.


The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

I had asked participants to bring a photo, and we began to write our way into a poem that should end with a revelation we had not thought of before. The exercise comes from In the Palm of Your Hand, The Poet's Portable Workshop by Steve Kowit. The poem will be homework, and I can't wait to hear the results.

I share my work-in-progress poem that resulted from last week's exercise. Leading this group is helping me to produce more work, which is good.

A raspberry mousse plum
waits for the brightest star
to whisper waves lapping sand.
Foreign fruit, you dangle in my
willow branches as they sway and sing
laments of losing.
Meanwhile, a periwinkle bug
hops gurgling brooks
in search of an elliptical moon.

it's all about words

Poetry is all about words, particular words. Word choice can be an obsession for poets. Which fits better, door or gate, forest or woods? Sound, rhythm, connotation and more affect the decision.

I just enjoyed a wonderful weekend with my Uncle Fred in North Carolina. He is a word wizard and a Scrabble master! When I was a child, I had to pass the sycamore spelling test every visit. I cannot pass a sycamore tree without thinking of him.

In two Scrabble games, I learned that a runnel is a brook or a rill and a jo is a Scottish sweetheart. Ka is apparently the name for part of the soul in an ancient Egyptian religion, though it's not in my dictionary. I should have challenged him! Did you know that xi is the fourteenth letter of the Greek alphabet?

Play Scrabble with a word wizard. Collect words. Add to your word pool! In Uncle Fred's Oxford Dictionary, I finally found the definition of a delectable word I had been looking for. Galimaufry - any absurd medley, a hodgepodge of things or persons. Someday I'll find the right spot for that word.

unpacking a poem

If you're looking for new ways to teach poetry, get to a Baron Wormser workshop! Wormser was Maine's Poet Laureate in 2005. He's taught poetry for years and knows what works. In a recent "green" workshop (no handouts!), he helped participants "unpack" a poem - look at the poem's ecology or its many aspects.

Word choice was the first step. We spent 45 minutes discovering the richness in the connections among words in a seven-line poem. Step-by step, it was easy, fun and led us to figure out what the poem was about. Not what it meant because distilling a poem to a one-line meaning reduces its impact. Better to ask, "What is this poem about?" so that we can discover its expansiveness and find our way into relationship with it.

After exploring a John Haines' poem, "The Long Rain," I wrote a poem about a place dear to me.

Lincolnville Beach

Under gulls’ cries and a blinding sky,
sparkles shimmer on the bay
while pebbles shine in shallow water.

Toes grip the stony shore,
but waves suck the stones away
and there, bathed in salt

and caressed by tides
waits a heart-shaped stone.

Check out Baron Wormser's website. baronwormser.com

Still Hungry

 

eric carle museum of picture book art

My grandkids, our kids and we met last week at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA. The Carle exhibit was down as they are preparing an exhibit for the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, shown here in its quilt form above the registration desk.

The highlight of the visit was a living history presentation of Beatrix Potter Heelis. One of my favorite movies is Miss Potter, so I was into this. Marcia Estabrook really engaged the audience, some very young. She sprinkled Potter's Victorian background with questions and remained in character while responding to answers. She was just delightful.

In the gallery, the adults examined original picture book art by the Dillons, Beatrix Potter, Chris Van Allsburg, Trina Schart Hyman, Sendak and others. The kids plunked down on benches and read books! Finally, my seven-year-old grandson Wil, book in hand, led me to a Gerald McDermott painting from Arrow to the Sun and said, "Look. The cover of this book has the same colors as the painting."

We looked through the pages until he found the reproduction. He was pleased with himself and I was proud he had made a connection! Then he was off, grabbing books and searching the gallery until he found the right style and discovered the book art to match the painting. Of course, I thought he was very intelligent and happy he had found a way into the exhibition.

For my Maine poems, I experimented with the Higgledy-Piggledy or double-dactyl form yesterday. It's a challenging, playful form with nonsense rhymes and a single six-syllable word. Here I share my poem about shampooing a sheep for the sheep show.

Sheep Suds

Sudsion wudsion
Cheviot Champion,
hosed down and lathered with
copious suds.

Squeaky clean wooliness,
impeccability,
will win a ribbon for
Best of Show duds.