FIVE PANDEMIC POEMS

ByLee Ann

Hello there!

In June 2020, much of the world still lives with social distancing or isolation as the new realities.

What is the situation in your neighbourhood? Here in Ontario, Canada, most regions have been allowed to open up to “Stage 2.” This provides more freedoms but more need for individual decisions, like:

  • To mask or not to mask?
  • Who should be in my “bubble”?
  • Should I hug my son, who works in an essential service and interacts with the public every work day?

For a while I resisted writing about COVID-19. I already felt inundated with the pandemic, everyone was writing about it, talking about it, posting about it… What was one more voice?

Well, what are artists for, if not to hold up a mirror to the world and reflect it back to itself? A piece of art can help express, clarify and illuminate what’s going on.

Signs of spring and hope during early days of pandemic

So after all, I decided to write about aspects of the pandemic from my point of view. Events continue to unfold, but these five poems reflect what struck me – and possibly you too – during the month of April. The photographs that accompany the words show the view from inside my house looking out, which is where most of us found ourselves that month.

I offer these five pieces of my “Poetry Art” to you, because I hope that you’ll find within them a familiar feeling, or maybe words you have wanted to express but didn’t quite know how.

May you and yours stay healthy in the upcoming months!

Lee Ann

Five Pandemic Poems:

DIFFERENT WAYS OF LOOKING, Part 2

ByLee Ann

Hello there!

This week, I have another example for you of looking at an “old” thing in a new way. This example seems quite timely, as we remain hunkered down in isolation and try to keep ourselves productive, or at least amused.

As an artist, it’s natural for me, and SO MUCH FUN to look at something and wonder:

  • 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?

Looking at “old” things in new ways is a skill that all artists work to hone. Doing this can be a jumping off point for a poem, a new interpretative painting, or an invitation for a reader/viewer to STOP in their tracks and have a re-think.

I hope you enjoy “Life Lessons from a Jigsaw Puzzle.”

Lee Ann

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DIFFERENT WAYS OF LOOKING, Part 1

ByLee Ann

Hello, there!

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.

Here’s one example, where I explore “Ten Ways of Looking at a Candle.” Hope you enjoy it.

Lee Ann

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EVOLUTION OF A POEM

ByLee Ann

Hello there!

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.

The final version is here. I’d love to know:

  • Did anything surprise you about the “poet’s process” I described?
  • What do you think about the word choices in this poem? Did you “get” the image of the rushing river? Its history? The “epiphany” at the end?

Please let me know what you thought of this behind the scenes tour of the creation of Poetry Art!

Lee Ann

THE POETS AMONG US

ByLee Ann

Hello there!

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!

Lee Ann

GREAT NEWS! IT’S NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

ByLee Ann

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**

Lee Ann