Poem Pen
by Amy LV
Students - the structure of this poem came from an old ghost story I remember from when I was a little girl camper. You probably know it too - "In the dark, dark woods....there was a dark, dark house...and in that dark, dark, house...there was a dark, dark room...: The story went on and on until the end when the storyteller would shout, "THERE WAS A GHOST!" and everyone would fall apart laughing or crying or both.
When I sat down to write this poem, that spooky story structure popped up in my head. It's funny with writing...if you write frequently, sometimes you will be grabbed by a word, sometimes a question, sometimes a story, sometimes a structure. Today it was structure, a pattern. April Halprin Wayland talks about writing to the beat of a song here at Teaching Authors, another way to let the structure of another written piece influence your writing.
TAKE ME OUT OF THE BATHTUB AND OTHER SILLY DILLY SONGS, by Alan Katz, is just one example of a book written from the structures of already existing songs!
Have you ever had a butterfly land on you? It's a gift to be chosen as a butterfly landing spot! This is true for writing and poems too. Leave your mind open to accept whatever type of inspiration lands on you! It might be a song. It might be a piece of art. It might be a fascination. It might be a sadness. It might be a story you heard long ago. Let it land!
All of this nature and quiet imagery has me thinking about Mary Oliver and her gorgeous poem The Place I Want to Get Back To.
This week over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am happy to introduce artist Cynthia Iannaconne. Hop on over there to take a peek into her process and to try a neat drawing exercise, one I am sure to be trying in my own notebook very soon.
Cynthia's Cats & Cookie Jars & Teapots
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