Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Red Mill is the hub of the campus. There are offices, cafeteria (fabulous food), lounge, gallery and art library. Last night, several artists shared their work in a slide show here. The range of interests was extraordinary - pastels, layered newspaper, acrylic impressions on glass, paintings on found furniture, sculpture. It was the first glimpse we've had of the art backgrounds here. Later, there will be Open Studios, and we'll see what artists are working on while here.

Many are using this time to try something new. I'm continuing projects I need to complete, but I'm also trying new forms of poetry. This atmosphere encourages experimentation. Sometimes the new form takes me out of my comfort zone, and I'm not as sure of the results.

I wanted one of my poems for kids to evoke the summer experience of doing cannonballs off a raft. I tried the pantoum form because lines repeat like the cannnballs. Kids never do just one! The pantoum is a French form borrowed from Malayasia. Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza. The poem ends with the repetition of the first line. A traditional pantoum has rhyme scheme, but I ignored that part.

1 comment:

  1. I especially enjoyed your Pantoum when I read it today. We didn't get much swimming in this past summer but your poem made me feel the memory of it.

    M

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