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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 17, 2020 17:24:58 GMT -6
Salzmark, get yer butt in here, boy! Alright, so I've recently purchased Addonizio's book, "Ordinary Genius: A Guide to the Poet Within", and I'm trying out some of her recommended writing exercises. Right now I'm reading over "The Six Doors". I'll just do one a day on this topic. So, the first door: repeating several words. From the text example: I admit I smirked at the end. In this exercise, Addonizio took the opening line of An American Sentence by Nion McEvoy ("I read her my poems and she said, "Oh, I am so sorry for you!""), and she used it to paint a portrait of a relationship. Addonizio doesn't provide the McEvoy original in the text, but she says she took those words in the opening line and created a new idea from them. So I'll try taking the opening statement of something preexisting to turn into an Addonizio "First Door" poem. I will be using Nick Fury's "There was an idea" speech from the first "Avengers". Not a great first effort, but this is literally the first time I've tried that particular "Door Poem". Who else wants to try their hand?
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 17, 2020 20:19:42 GMT -6
Oof, I’m so bad with modern poets and poetry. I like Derek Walcott, but he died a few years ago now. John Ashberry tends to go over my head. What I dislike about modern poetry is the pretension, which is probably ironic as the serious stuff I wrote in college is woefully pretentious, as college work tends to be. I like several of the light-versifiers, who tend not to be pretentious just because of the form they’re writing in. I lasted a single day in a college poetry class; I tried including (stupid idea) rhyme and alliteration and meter, and the prof stared at me like I’d dropped out of the 1800s.
Which is all to say I don’t know Addonizio and haven’t read her books or her verse. That said, I don’t think “I read her my poems” is a bad poem; it’s effective enough. The best advice I’ve read on serious poetry is T.S. Eliot’s: he advises getting out of yourself, divorcing yourself from emotion before writing the poem, rather than immersing yourself in emotion, as the confessional and most modern poets do. But probably the best poetic advice I know is reading lots of poetry: I like everything from Sappho to the Metaphysicals to Dickinson to the Modernists to Larkin to Kipling to John Masefield, and they’ve all helped my poetry. Anyway, I may well try my hand at something, but it may take a while…
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 17, 2020 20:35:27 GMT -6
Oof, I’m so bad with modern poets and poetry. I like Derek Walcott, but he died a few years ago now. John Ashberry tends to go over my head. What I dislike about modern poetry is the pretension, which is probably ironic as the serious stuff I wrote in college is woefully pretentious, as college work tends to be. I like several of the light-versifiers, who tend not to be pretentious just because of the form they’re writing in. I lasted a single day in a college poetry class; I tried including (stupid idea) rhyme and alliteration and meter, and the prof stared at me like I’d dropped out of the 1800s. Which is all to say I don’t know Addonizio and haven’t read her books or her verse. That said, I don’t think “I read her my poems” is a bad poem; it’s effective enough. The best advice I’ve read on serious poetry is T.S. Eliot’s: he advises getting out of yourself, divorcing yourself from emotion before writing the poem, rather than immersing yourself in emotion, as the confessional and most modern poets do. But probably the best poetic advice I know is reading lots of poetry: I like everything from Sappho to the Metaphysicals to Dickinson to the Modernists to Larkin to Kipling to John Masefield, and they’ve all helped my poetry. Anyway, I may well try my hand at something, but it may take a while… I take it you're going to take a pass on trying this out, then? Well, if you could provide feedback as I try my hand at her "Six Doors" poetry, that'd still be appreciated. Your college poetry professional thought you were in the insane one for trying to make poems poetry? Oof! Yeah, that's college for ya.
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 17, 2020 20:43:20 GMT -6
Oof, I’m so bad with modern poets and poetry. I like Derek Walcott, but he died a few years ago now. John Ashberry tends to go over my head. What I dislike about modern poetry is the pretension, which is probably ironic as the serious stuff I wrote in college is woefully pretentious, as college work tends to be. I like several of the light-versifiers, who tend not to be pretentious just because of the form they’re writing in. I lasted a single day in a college poetry class; I tried including (stupid idea) rhyme and alliteration and meter, and the prof stared at me like I’d dropped out of the 1800s. Which is all to say I don’t know Addonizio and haven’t read her books or her verse. That said, I don’t think “I read her my poems” is a bad poem; it’s effective enough. The best advice I’ve read on serious poetry is T.S. Eliot’s: he advises getting out of yourself, divorcing yourself from emotion before writing the poem, rather than immersing yourself in emotion, as the confessional and most modern poets do. But probably the best poetic advice I know is reading lots of poetry: I like everything from Sappho to the Metaphysicals to Dickinson to the Modernists to Larkin to Kipling to John Masefield, and they’ve all helped my poetry. Anyway, I may well try my hand at something, but it may take a while… I take it you're going to take a pass on trying this out, then? Well, if you could provide feedback as I try my hand at her "Six Doors" poetry, that'd still be appreciated. Your college poetry professional thought you were in the insane one for trying to make poems poetry? Oof! Yeah, that's college for ya. Oh, I’ll try it—just not sure when. I was off today but go back to work tomorrow, which I’m dreading. Yes, I’ll provide feedback, definitely. It was a weird class. I switched to something completely different—architecture, maybe?
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 17, 2020 20:51:06 GMT -6
Who’s your poem’s speaker? I’m trying to remember whose hand turns to dust. Stark’s? But he’s mentioned as a third person in the first line. Peter Parker’s? That’s not a criticism, it’s just my inability to remember Infinity War all that well! I like “there was an idea,” and I like the last line. I might parse it down a bit more: Brotherhood seems wobbly, it should probably be changed, but I couldn’t think of a better word: togetherness would be disastrous. In poetry, I’m constantly trying to get to the root of the concept and to minimize adjective-use, though of course that’s not always possible. I had “a dream of heroes” for the second line, but it seems too ethereal and clichéd. Just some some offhand thoughts, hope it helps some.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 17, 2020 21:11:16 GMT -6
I take it you're going to take a pass on trying this out, then? Well, if you could provide feedback as I try my hand at her "Six Doors" poetry, that'd still be appreciated. Your college poetry professional thought you were in the insane one for trying to make poems poetry? Oof! Yeah, that's college for ya. Oh, I’ll try it—just not sure when. I was off today but go back to work tomorrow, which I’m dreading. Yes, I’ll provide feedback, definitely. It was a weird class. I switched to something completely different—architecture, maybe? I await the Scribe's works! It sounds like it was a weird class. My old poetry teacher also showed us "free verse" poems and encouraged us not to just do the classic form of poetry, but he never docked you points if you always went with the old chestnut-styles unless the whole point of the current exercise was to emulate the style of a modern poet.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 17, 2020 21:11:56 GMT -6
Who’s your poem’s speaker? I’m trying to remember whose hand turns to dust. Stark’s? But he’s mentioned as a third person in the first line. Peter Parker’s? That’s not a criticism, it’s just my inability to remember Infinity War all that well! I like “there was an idea,” and I like the last line. I might parse it down a bit more: Brotherhood seems wobbly, it should probably be changed, but I couldn’t think of a better word: togetherness would be disastrous. In poetry, I’m constantly trying to get to the root of the concept and to minimize adjective-use, though of course that’s not always possible. I had “a dream of heroes” for the second line, but it seems too ethereal and clichéd. Just some some offhand thoughts, hope it helps some. Nick Fury, everyone's favorite pirate spy.
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 17, 2020 21:17:07 GMT -6
Who’s your poem’s speaker? I’m trying to remember whose hand turns to dust. Stark’s? But he’s mentioned as a third person in the first line. Peter Parker’s? That’s not a criticism, it’s just my inability to remember Infinity War all that well! I like “there was an idea,” and I like the last line. I might parse it down a bit more: Brotherhood seems wobbly, it should probably be changed, but I couldn’t think of a better word: togetherness would be disastrous. In poetry, I’m constantly trying to get to the root of the concept and to minimize adjective-use, though of course that’s not always possible. I had “a dream of heroes” for the second line, but it seems too ethereal and clichéd. Just some some offhand thoughts, hope it helps some. Nick Fury, everyone's favorite pirate spy. Ah, of course. The MCU’s biggest problem: Sam Jackson can’t curse!
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 17, 2020 21:22:07 GMT -6
Nick Fury, everyone's favorite pirate spy. Ah, of course. The MCU’s biggest problem: Sam Jackson can’t curse! Brotherhood seems fine to me, but as my recent attempts at a free weekly poetry workshop have shown me, I don't have an expert eye for what flows. Or even an expert eye for what a lot of poems even mean.
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 17, 2020 21:22:18 GMT -6
Oh, I’ll try it—just not sure when. I was off today but go back to work tomorrow, which I’m dreading. Yes, I’ll provide feedback, definitely. It was a weird class. I switched to something completely different—architecture, maybe? I await the Scribe's works! It sounds like it was a weird class. My old poetry teacher also showed us "free verse" poems and encouraged us not to just do the classic form of poetry, but he never docked you points if you always went with the old chestnut-styles unless the whole point of the current exercise was to emulate the style of a modern poet. I have no problem with free verse, but it’s not the be all and end all, and I like form, rhyme, alliteration, etc. It gives a poet a clearer structure on which to hang his ideas, for one thing. Here, by the way, is an example of a poem I wrote that a different poetry prof hated (I wasn’t in her class for poetry, but she was a published free verse poet and encouraged us to try our hands). It’s not anything great, but I think the summery mood’s decent.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 17, 2020 21:24:39 GMT -6
I await the Scribe's works! It sounds like it was a weird class. My old poetry teacher also showed us "free verse" poems and encouraged us not to just do the classic form of poetry, but he never docked you points if you always went with the old chestnut-styles unless the whole point of the current exercise was to emulate the style of a modern poet. I have no problem with free verse, but it’s not the be all and end all, and I like form, rhyme, alliteration, etc. It gives a poet a clearer structure on which to hang his ideas, for one thing. Here, by the way, is an example of a poem I wrote that a different poetry prof hated (I wasn’t in her class for poetry, but she was a published free verse poet and encouraged us to try our hands). It’s not anything great, but I think the summery mood’s decent. Well, I like it.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 18, 2020 17:39:20 GMT -6
Will be doing "The 2nd Door" tonight, sometime.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 18, 2020 21:10:33 GMT -6
The Second Door:
From the text: Never mind, its very similar to the First Door, but instead of repeating several words, you're simply starting each line with the first word, but the rest of it is different. She's keeping with the theme with borrowing a line from something else to get things started, but making her own concept out of it. Already, so let me see...
I will be taking a line from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven as my starter: That was surprisingly difficult. I first tried with the opening line, but found "Once" to be too limiting of a word to use as the start of each line at my level.
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 19, 2020 6:02:51 GMT -6
I have no problem with free verse, but it’s not the be all and end all, and I like form, rhyme, alliteration, etc. It gives a poet a clearer structure on which to hang his ideas, for one thing. Here, by the way, is an example of a poem I wrote that a different poetry prof hated (I wasn’t in her class for poetry, but she was a published free verse poet and encouraged us to try our hands). It’s not anything great, but I think the summery mood’s decent. Well, I like it. Thanks.
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 19, 2020 6:10:26 GMT -6
First door.
Line: “And then some day they may recall,” from Nat King Cole song “Too Young.”
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