Elegies and Odes: 10/1 in-class discussion

Elegies

1.  James Reiss' "The Breathers"

2. Joan Larkin's "Afterlife"

3. Jericho Brown's "Another Elegy"

4. Jimmy Santiago Baca's "Meditations on the South Valley: Part XX"

5. A.E. Housman's "To An Athlete Dying Young"

6. Mary Jo Bang's "You Were You Are An Elegy"

7. Yusef Komunyakaa's "We Never Know"

Odes

1. Allen Tate's "Ode to the Confederate Dead"

2. Pablo Neruda's "Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market"

3. Alexander Pope's "Ode on Solitude"

4. Elizabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day" (Read for Obama's inauguration)

5. John Keats' "To Autumn"

6. Kevin Young's "Ode to the Midwest"

7. Anne Sexton's "In Celebration of My Uterus"

Sonnet Examples

Here, the Poetry Foundation has a great page for you to explore further.

As for our second goal of the day, to introduce the idea of sonnets, we will look at another Jehanne Dubrow poem (one that she read and has stayed with me since last spring's reading): "Non-essential Equipment"

Here are some other modern sonnets for your inspiration:

1. "Death and Taxes" by Urayoan Noel

2. "Interstate Sonnet" by Carl Marcum

3.  "And Indians" by Glyn Maxwell

4. "The Consent" by Howard Nemerov

5. One of the best modern English poems: James Wright's "Saint Judas"

As we will discuss, sonnets were historically seen, thematically, as addressing the ideals of love. Therefore, love today's activities all coalesce into a big love festival!

Epistolary Poems: Assignment 2 examples

The Poetry Foundation has a great link to epistles/epistolary poems (also called letter poems or verse letters):  click me!

Here are a few poems from the first Latino winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets (most prestigious American award for a 1st book of poetry), Eduardo Corral, who is reading in DC tonight while we cover the letter poem:

1. "To Robert Hayden"
2. "To the Angelbeast" and an interview that gives us insight into the title's allusion to Hayden's poetry 

Also, check out "Love Letter (Clouds)" by Sarah Manguso.

And, Dorothea Lasky's "Poem to an Unnameable Man."

Because I write many epistolary poems, and because these two are linked, I am sheepishly using here are two examples: "To Mockery:" and "To Failure:"

Here is another "To Failure," this time from a famous poet -- the poet Philip Larkin.

To further my teacherly ego, here is a poem from Verse Daily, originally published in Columbia Poetry Review, where I was editor (and chose this poem for publication): "Black Iris"

To seal the ego -- um, I mean -- deal, here is a poem published by a grad-school mate, Ian Harris: "XOXO Los Angeles"

Example A from class' Exquisite Corpse

I would be little Alex from "A Clockwork Orange". I don't wish this to reflect his behavior, but he is a thrill seeker, and...

My friends call me a droog.

If I could obtain a superpower, it would be time travel, so I may go back in time and right wrongs that have been unleashed upon my city

self-absorption has poisoned our youth!

A wet nose, soft fur, and a hundred licks from Reina the Siberian Huskey keeps me sane.

Softly, sure-footed, I swiftly climb the mountain ridge, howling to my pack, fur ruffling in the crisp air.

The abstract perfection of natures hiccups. That result in asymmetrical form, in what is normally symmetrical and perfect. A beauty in the deformity making it unique.

The Rudy Giuliani Game

Vice President Joe Biden, in his run for presidency, once quipped during a Democratic debate that former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani made his own presidential candidacy out of saying three words: a noun, a verb, and 9/11.

Putting politics aside, Biden's critique does imply the power of two things: 1. A historic event and it's connotations, and 2. the simple sentence!

How can this help our writing? Quite simply, we are going to use he Rudy Giuliani method to brainstorm a handful of possible "non-traditional patriotic images"for Essay 1.

Here are the simple steps of the The Rudy Giuliani Game:

1. Draft a simple sentence using:  a noun, a verb, a preposition (on, during, after, ...) and 9/11.

2. Repeat this formula five to ten times, so that you will have a list for the class to discuss which images both surprise and engage us as an audience.

Here are a few examples of how students have responded to the game in the past. For one, we can see powerful, serious, and evocative images created out of such a simple exercise:

• Flags fly on 9/11.
• Shadows died after 9/11.
• Firefighters fought on 9/11.
• Dust settled after 9/11.
• Strangers cried on 9/11.
• Doors opened on 9/11
• Pens wrote because 9/11.

Event Poems [examples]

Poems can arise out of the writer's meditation on those typical events -- birthday parties, weddings, national holidays, religious events (not just holidays but ceremonies and rituals within a church, such as Catholic communion or a bar or bat mitzvah) -- but also out of historical happenings that in someway help define a culture, an era, a country -- 9/11, the Cold War, Desert Storm, the Exxon Valdez spill, the Million Man march, and more.

Below are a few poems of which we can see how an event can be inspire a poem that goes beyond just the event. and uses facts and details about and from the event to create a piece that is more than just about the event.

Below are a few poems of which emphasize different elements:  imagery, metaphor, sound patterns, and point of view/locus in using their events to create art:

1. First, let's study Jehanne Dubrow's "Chernobyl Year" to see how the a famous nuclear plant explosion is the backdrop for a poem whose heart is really in a family conflict. What do you find intriguing about Dubrow's images?

2. Now, let's experience Josh Clover's "Nevada Glassworks," which explores more than just the US nuclear bomb tests happening in Nevada in post World War II.  What are some of the surprises, even confusions, that you find in Clover's poem?

3. Jane Hirshfield uses the poetic technique of anaphora to create a wedding poem: "A Blessing for Wedding."  What are some of the surprises we see in what Hirshfield observes, and why is the beginning repetition appropriate for the occasion?

4. How does Tony Gloeggler say a lot in what he doesn't say, in his poem "Five Years Later"?

5.  Kenneth Goldsmith crafted his poems out of found material from the day of the bombings.

6. Here is a poem from an Iraqi solider, Hugh Martin, called "Four-letter Word."

7. Frank O'Hara's most famous poem is "The Day Lady Died," and is known cherished by lit crits for the vivid recollection of the speaker's day on the day Billie Holiday died.

Exquisite Introductions

Exquisite Corpse is a poetry form originated by French surrealist poets in the early 1900s.

To get to have some fun in getting to know each other, and to get your brains rolling with delightful lines, we're going to use the exquisite corpse form. 

Try to write with creativity and clarity (whatever that means at this point!), and to respond to the other writer to link your line to the last:

Line 1:  If you could be any character from a literary piece, who would you be and what quality/characteristic/action of that character stands out?

Line 2: Better yet, if you could re-name yourself, what would your new name be and why?

Line 3: What super-power would you have, and what would you do with it? (Be appropriate!)

Line 4: What bothers you about people? Make sure to define the people! Generalize an issue you have with the world.

Line 5: What is your daily savior from the world's chaos? Detail an action/object and how it keeps you alive!

Line 6: Transform yourself into another animal without telling us. Clue us in with your action and description.

Line 7: End on an image of nature: make a strange observation about something happening in nature.