During April (National Poetry Month), I took a course with poet and author Sage Cohen, during which we wrote a poem a day for 30 days. For me, was an adventure in reading lots of poems and experimenting with different styles of poetry. But mostly I worked on honing the one skill that is key to any artist: different ways of looking.
It’s what artists do: examine an object, a person, an experience and ask questions like:
What does this make me think of?
What else does this look like/feel like/taste like/sound like? And probably the most important question:
What’s really going on here?
By looking at something in more than one way, a poet can open up a reader’s imagination, or offer a fresh interpretation. She can make connections the reader may not have thought of, or can probe more deeply into a specific aspect of life.
Continuing with our celebration of National Poetry Month, I’d like to take you behind the scenes and show you an example of how one particular poet (me!) went about creating a piece of what I call “Poetry Art.”
Step 1: The Photograph
Riviere la Peche
For me, the process usually begins with an image that I’ve captured with my camera. This is the Art part of my Poetry Art. For example, this little river in Wakefield, Quebec, caught my attention last year: rushing so fast it cut a line of movement through the frozen landscape. And I thought, “hmm.”
Step 2: Notes, Research and Scratching Out
I always start writing by hand, usually in pencil, making notes, jotting the phrases and feelings that come to me when I look at the picture, or that caused me to take the picture in the first place. In this case, you’ll see words like rush, tumble, foam, power… all words that I tried out, to find the ones best depicting what I saw and felt about the river. You’ll also see some dates and names as part of the notes. I researched the Mill at Wakefield and found out when the village was established, because I knew I wanted this poem grounded in history. My rough notes are here.
What followed was a lot of scratching out and playing with word placement as I worked towards saying what I wanted to say with this poem. Once the writing starts to flow, I usually switch to the keyboard, since I can type faster than I can write. That’s where I work out the first draft.
Step 3: Critique
I’ve had the great fortune to work closely with two excellent writers for over a decade now. Lynn, Jen and I work hard to help each other be the best writers we can be, and I don’t publish anything (except blog posts) without getting their input first. Here you can see their suggestions for this poem.
Step 4: Editing and Compression
A different example of compression!
Based on the input from my writers’ group, I then rework the poem. I pay particular attention to removing rather than adding words. Poetry is an art form that conveys much in few words, and I love this challenge! Poetry also evokes emotion and visuals in the reader’s mind through the use of the right words. Poets (me included) spend a lot of time finding the right words. In this poem, for example, I thought hard about the use of realize versus understand, finally settling on realize. This was important, because I wanted to convey there had been an epiphany of sorts on the part of the narrator, as she stood on the bridge at the top of the dam.
Step 5: Photo Edit
Finally, I need to ensure that I’m happy with the composition of the photo that will accompany the poem. I actually took over half a dozen shots from the bridge. I chose the above shot, but cropped it so that the tree forms a kind of border on the right hand side of the frame.
I hope all is well with you and yours in what by my count is Week 4 of Isolation (in my neighbourhood, at least.)
I want to talk today about the poets among us. Not all poets live on the pages of thin volumes found at the back of library shelves. Some poets are much more evident, although we might not always recognize them as such. I’m talking of course about songwriters!
Regardless of the era or part of the world you hail from, you likely have at least one favourite song, and likely that song means a lot to you because of the lyrics that go with the music. Yes? Think about what song(s) you’d name as perennial favourites and think about the message, or story, or refrain, that embeds itself into your mind and heart every time you hear it. I guarantee the songwriter is in fact, a poet.
I could name many poet/songwriters who continually speak to me through the words they put to music. One of my top picks: Paul Simon. Do you know his song, “Hearts and Bones”? It’s about Carrie Fisher (of Star Wars Princess Leia fame), to whom he was briefly married. The lyrics are a poem about the ending of the relationship, set on a trip that may have actually taken place, or may be a metaphor for their journey together, or may be both. As a musician, he evokes the sound of wheels on pavement in the rhythm of the music. As a poet, he tells this story in words that evoke images to describe the love affair. You can can read the lyrics as you listen:
So what did you think? Did you hear the wheels? That’s a master musician at work. The physical landscape? The lightning, the burning, the twining of hearts and bones? That’s a poet!
I have one more example for you: an early Bob Dylan protest song, performed in a very early music video. “Subteranian Homesick Blues” is very different than the Paul Simon song, with a much stronger emphasis on rhyming words and rhythm, two other things that poets are known for playing with.
Before you listen, I will add one more thing: just for fun, I updated Dylan’s lyrics into something more topical, called “Subdivision With COVID Blues.” Note the two titles have the same number of syllables, which is something else poets find very fun to play with. (Yes, really.)
Try listening to the song once, then maybe play it again while reading my new lyrics, here.
Poets! They’re among us, sometimes where we don’t expect them. You can always recognize a poet by use of rhythm; words and phrases that evoke images in your mind; and sometimes even rhymes.
I’d love to hear about the songwriters who bring poetry to your life!
Hello there! And welcome to National Poetry Month!
I know you’re excited about this, especially as we all need something inspiring during this time of physical distancing. To help you celebrate, I’m going to be posting a little more frequently this month, all things poetry! So whether you’re a poetry fan, or someone who wants to be a poetry fan (there are no other categories of people that I know of) I’m here to help!
I want to present to you some different forms of poetry – maybe some you’ve never experienced before. I want to take you behind the finished poem to a poet’s process and show you how this kind of writing is done. I want to introduce you to some poets I follow and whose work I love – hoping you will love them too.
You already know that the kind of poetry I write (and read) is what I would call “accessible.” Maybe it’s all the years I spent writing business reports that had to be clear to all readers, especially because I was always writing about new computer systems and how they were about to affect day-to-day office work at every level of an organization. (Anyone out there remember “Office Automation”? 1980s and ’90s, that’s my vintage.) Like those reports, I want my poetry to be understandable, to evoke an emotion, and ideally, tell a story.
Does this sound like your kind of poetry too? Good – because I’m not going to force-feed you epic elegies, sonnets, or esoteric modern verse that’s impossible to understand.
I want to start with spoken word poetry. Sarah Kay, whom you’ll meet in the link below, defines spoken word as: “poetry that can’t be contained on a page.” In other words, it must be performed. Out loud. There are actually competitions of spoken word poetry, called “poetry slams.” I hope you get to attend one someday!
Meanwhile, to start off National Poetry Month, please treat yourself to four minutes of spoken word poetry. Afterwards, please let me know what you think! And what other spoken word poems this one prompted you to google! Here is Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye with “When Love Arrives.”** You’ll have to press “skip ads” first**
I’ve been inspired by my mother’s sapphire ring to reflect about three generations of women in my maternal line. This blue stone has strong symbolism, and there are several characteristics that have been associated with it since medieval times. These include power, strength, kindness, wise judgement, protection, good fortune and spiritual insight. I’ve presented my maternal great-grandmother and grandmother previously in this series; today I’m thinking about my mother and what sapphire qualities she possessed.
Mary-Jane
Granger Eckhardt (1929-1998)
Mary-Jane Granger’s engagement portrait, 1953
My mother was one powerful, strong woman. She was never afraid to “tangle” (her word) with anyone, be it the notorious neighbour my sister and I called Motorcycle Lady, or the doctor treating me for chronic pneumonia (she insisted I be tested for cystic fibrosis), or the local tavern that thought a sign saying “Gentlemen Only” could keep her out.
Mary-Jane taught me that I could do anything I put my mind to – and this I believed because, well, my mother said so! In our house there was no concept of limitations for girls, probably because Mary-Jane was the one who fixed the broken toasters, claiming my father didn’t know which end of a hammer to use (something he happily agreed with.) Also, she was better at math than she was at English, or sewing, or gardening. In another era, I know she’d have made a crackerjack software designer.
She responded to people with kindness first and she did this even when others did not:
When an Indian family moved into our townhouse development and all the other neighbours stayed away, making whispered remarks about curry odours, Mary-Jane went over to introduce herself and struck up a long-lasting friendship with the beautiful young mother, learning about the lady’s culture and delighting in her wardrobe of exquisite saris.
When my cousin Brian’s third wife, Karen, first came to his mother’s house to meet the family, nobody said very much to her. Karen told me after mom died that she felt awkward and unwelcome until my mother crossed the room to shake hands, saying, “Hi. I’m Aunt Mary-Jane.”
Mary-Jane loved babies and children. One of the best
pieces of advice she ever gave me (and she gave me plenty of good advice) was when
I had my own children. She said: “just love them.” This I have found to be a
fine piece of wise judgement. What if
this were every parent’s guiding mantra?
Like the fascinating sapphire stone itself, my three maternal ancestors – Josephine, Mary, and Mary-Jane – were multi-faceted. There was much more to their personalities than the particular sapphire characteristics I’ve described. But I’ve enjoyed viewing them through this “blue lens.”
May I learn from them to exhibit strength, wise judgement
and especially kindness.
Something to ponder: Do you have any Sapphire Women in your life?
Are you looking for a reprieve from mid-winter? How about some excellent books that come with a strong dose of Canada?
Peace Tower Ottawa, Ontario
ANNOUNCING the release of my cover story for the Historical Novels Review: “Oh Canada! Understanding a Nation Through its Historical Novels.”
This assignment sent me to a joyful review of some outstanding Canadian historical fiction. I used the opportunity to introduce readers to some of our best Canadian novelists and fascinating stories from our past. I’ve set these novels within a description of key developments in the history of our nation – a kind of Coles Notes version of how Canada came to be, and how our geography defines us.
If you’re a member of the Historical Novel Society, you’ll already have the magazine in your mailbox. For those of you who are not members, click here for the article. I hope you find in it some appealing new books to curl up with this month!
