I Put an End to This Goofing Off

I've fallen way behind on my New Year's Writing resolution to be more productive, to show up at the desk more often. True, I've been busy with other things, but the itch to get the pen moving is coming back. I feel that in a physical way, a restlessness, a little tingly thing going on inside.

So no more excuses. I'm done with all my school visits. My new book is in the publisher's hands, though I'll still need to proof the galleys. The snow is finally gone and the flowers are coming up. Time to spring into action, into poetry.

I'll be leading two workshops this month. Time to practice a bit what I'll be preaching. So I'm turning to a book of prompts. I know that some poets disdain prompts. But this poet loves them and says so in public! Bring them on! I'm turning to Kim Addonizio's book, Ordinary Genius: Guide to the Poet Within. I've already read it and even gotten some poems from it. I need to dip back in and try some of the other prompts that I marked. If you don't already have this terrific collection of prompts and craft tips, rectify that omission right now. Get thee to Amazon. Order thee a book.

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I was delighted when I came across Kim's book trailer. It offers another example of what a trailer might do, i.e., simply show the poet talking about her book. I also enjoyed hearing what Kim had to say about the book, about how she put it together and why. Plus, I liked seeing her in her living room and feeling like I was there too. (If it's not her living room, don't tell me.)



Here's an interview Rachel Dacus did with Kim at Fringe Magazine. Kim talks about some of the differences between writing prose and writing poetry, learning the craft of poetry, and some elements of craft. Rachel is currently taking a course with Kim in Kim's house in California. That fills me with envy! I want to be there, too. At least I have the book which I've already pulled off the shelf and will use to get me back in action.

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What Releases the Poems?

The January / February issue of Poets & Writers came just when I needed it. After the brain-numbing, creativity-killing holidays were over, I was looking for something to stimulate some new poems. This new issue has just what I was looking for, i.e., an article by Kim Addonizio, one of my favorite poets.

The article is entitled "First Thought, Worst Thought: Poetry Exercises That Inspire." The first part of the article lists and discusses the qualities that Kim values in a poem: Surprise, Music, Sufficient Thought, Syntax, The Parts Contribute to the Whole, and Mystery. The rest of the article includes six exercises "to get you writing," ideas to use "when you feel blocked and need to reconnect with your muse, or as a way to begin."

I was immediately drawn into the first exercise, "American Sentences." The term was coined by Allen Ginsberg who created the American Sentence as a response to Japanese haiku. It's one sentence consisting of 17 syllables. Here's Ginsberg's example: "Four skinheads stand in the streetlight rain chatting under an umbrella."

Your task is to simply write your own American Sentences. Kim offers a variety of ways that the task might be approached. I spent one morning on my first sentence. I wrote that one sentence and labored over it. I returned the next morning and wrote another sentence. And another. Then I remembered a poem from many months ago that hadn't amounted to anything, and I thought it might work nicely as part of what seemed to be developing as a new poem. So I imported it, spending a few more hours counting syllables on my fingers.

Of course, at a certain point, I allowed for a few of what ended up as couplets, each one sentence, to be a syllable less or more. But what I liked and found exciting and energizing was the task of sticking to the plan. It made me pay careful attention to diction, to music, to the necessity of what I kept. It let me, or forced me, to surprise myself with the alternatives I explored in order to get the 17 syllables.

I plan to try some of the other exercises as well. And I immediately pre-ordered the book from which the article is taken: Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, forthcoming in February from W.W. Norton. I expect it to be useful to me as both a poet and a poet-in-the-schools.

Mystery Solved

Nobody came up with the correct name of the form in my last post. Fortunately, while I was straightening out my extremely cluttered kitchen table, I unburied the source. The form and the directions are found in Kim Addonizio's book, Ordinary Genius, which I previously blogged about here. The prompt is found on p. 254. The form is called a "sonnenizio," invented by Kim and bearing her name, i.e., a fusion between "sonnet" and "Addonizio."

Here are Kim's directions:
1. Begin with a line from someone else's sonnet.
2. Your poem must be 14 lines.
3. No meter or rhyme scheme.
4. One word from the first line must be repeated in each of the following 13 lines.
5. The last two lines must rhyme.

Now I think it would be fun if we each invent a form that is a spin-off of a known form. Then we name it using Kim's fusion method.

In my December Poetry Newsletter, which went out this morning, I recommended Strange Terrain: A Poetry Handbook for the Reluctant Reader, by Alice B. Fogel. Unfortunately, while the link had been working, I somehow messed up and the newsletter went out without an active link to Amazon. So I'm going to include my brief writeup here, along with the cover and link.

This month I'd like to recommend Alice B. Fogel's Strange Terrain: A Poetry Handbook for the Reluctant Reader. The book is designed to make poetry comprehensible and enjoyable to those who are intimidated by it. And it serves that purpose, but it also is a kind of primer, taking the reader chapter by chapter through an understanding of the elements of poetry. What to look for in a poem? What to appreciate? I think the book would also be useful to those hoping to enhance their own writing skills. It might also be useful to someone planning to lead a workshop as it proceeds in a developmental way with first things first, then moving on to more challenging areas. One aspect of this book that I find unique and interesting is that Fogel uses her own poems to illustrate the poetic concepts. I wasn't sure if I would like that approach, if it would seem egomaniacal. And what if I didn't like her poems? However, I found it enlightening and fascinating to observe a poet analyzing her own work, to witness this poet's mind at work. And I did like her poems.

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Revision in The Poetry Gymnasium

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I am not quite finished with this book, but I want to mention it now in case some of you might be interested in getting it as a holiday gift. This craft book would be a perfect gift for any poets you know who are looking for instruction and stimulation. Perhaps you yourself are just such a poet? Then treat yourself.

The book seems a bit pricey at $35, but it's a textbook so is priced as such. That doesn't mean, however, that you can't use it outside of the classroom. If you're a teacher looking for a good poetry textbook, this could be the very one. If you're a poet working on your own but hoping to expand your knowledge, this book really does contain the classroom.

If you keep in mind that Hunley offers 94 exercises, then the price does not seem so high. But there's more, much more. Each exercise is preceded by a rationale and some background (tons of information here) and then followed by model poems.

I found Hunley's revision strategies particularly interesting and exciting. I recalled and looked up Kim Addonizio's words about revision in Ordinary Genius: "If you don't think your work needs revision, here's a tip: Don't try to be a poet. You will never—and I mean never—be any good." Firm, but true. She goes on to say: "If you take your art seriously, you will write the poem again and again until you get it right, or as close to right as you can make it. Revision separates the professionals from the amateurs and the wannabes."

Sometimes, of course, that's easier said than done. You have the poem in front of you, ten drafts in. You know you've got something worth working on, but you're not sure what to do at this point. On page 52, Hunley provides a list of four suggestions. I immediately embraced the first and put it to use on two poems I'd been wrestling. Here's the suggestion for revision:

Reread some of your text. Along the way, collect five words or phrases from your text and freewrite on each word. Let the word or phrase take you anywhere. See if any of this new material helps you open up the draft; can you insert the new material at the point you find the original word or phrase? Somewhere else?I found this strategy very helpful in opening up the poem and forcing me into new thinking and material. I then incorporated some of the new stuff into the draft. To the poem's advantage, I think. Then, of course, some cutting was necessary. (I confess to not doing this with all five words or phrases. I revised the suggestion a bit.)

I think you'll also find much in this book to stimulate your own work.