LESSONS 5-8

WELCOME TO LESSONS 5-8


BASIC DIRECTIONS FOR THIS SERIES OF LESSONS

This series of lessons deals more with content or brainstorming
for ideas.  These topics will work whether you are into poetry or prose. 

1.

Unlike Lessons 1-4, you don't have to write the poem 3-4 times
unless it just helps you or you want other people's opinions on
which way looks best. (If you wish for opinions, put that on your
piece somewhere or label each format 1, 2, 3 etc so reviewers
can tell you which they liked best.  If you chose to show just
one method, I would love to hear at the end what you learned.
(ie. I tried it centered but it didn't look right so I did it left aligned.)

2.

If you wrote a long one and then shortened it, leave your first draft
lower on the screen with a note stating it was your first draft.  I'm
always interested in seeing how a poem evolves.  It would be
good for others also.  I have done one long poem and then
turned it into three separate ones that I think ended up
better than the original. 

3.

If you did not do any of Lessons 1-4, I would recommend at
least trying one of them in order to practice with visual effects
of your poem such as spacing, centering or not, dividing lines
at different points to accent different words, and for getting an
idea of irony, compare/contrast, questioning, and simile/
metaphor, as they could be useful for the following lessons. 
Doing something in Lessons 1-4 is not mandatory, just suggested.


Here is an excellent list of forms if you do wish to use a specific
poetic form. Thank you Kansaspoet for giving me permission
to do a link to your site and thank you Bianca for allowing Kansaspoet
to keep your wonderful list of over 100 poetic forms safe for you while
you were away. 

BOOK

Poetry Forms  (13+) Poetry Forms Easily Explained - a work of Bianca with additions by kansaspoet #945530 by Bianca

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LESSON 5                         
(AUTO)BIOGRAPHICAL/EXPERIENTIAL
LESSONS LEARNED, WISDOM SHARED

Many poems we run across deal with someone's experiences,
background, hopes and dreams, fears, and emotions. 

Sometimes we come across poems written by someone
who did not experience the event but who describe it so
closely that it makes us cry or truly feel emotions as
if we wrote the poem ourselves. 

Contrary to popular belief, it is not false advertising to
write a poem about abuse if you yourself have never
been abused.  It is called empathy-trying to understand
what others are going through. 

Therefore, when I wrote Autobiographical, I put AUTO
in parentheses.  Don't feel like you need to dredge up
something you are not ready to talk about.  Writing can
be free therapy, yes, but I don't want to distress you here. 
You can try to share wisdom you think someone else
would want to share or write about experiences of
someone else, not necessarily yourself.


Write a poem (or prose if you insist) about one (or more
if you choose) of the following prompts within this category.


1.          
Write a poem giving an apology or forgiveness (or even
refusal to apologize or forgive) about mistakes you or
someone else made that effected yourself or someone
else.  This can be written as a letter or conversation
with a child or parent, spouse, grandparent, or friend but
in poetry.

2.          
Write wise words to your child/a child as if you might
not be there to tell them later or you just wish them
to read the letter at an important time in their lives. 
Imagine giving this letter to them to open when they
have a child of their own, or when they get married or
even when they go off to college.  Give them the love
and advice you wish you had (or maybe you had) when
you embarked on those memorable events or milestones
in your life.

3.          
Write a public service announcement or awareness
speech (in poetry form) to the leader of your government
or society in general, giving wise words about how
things need to change or how we can all make a
difference if we listen to your words.    Think lyrics to
a song, a speech at a war rally (for, against, or in
support of troops, etc),  or even, with Earth Day
coming up, write about conservation, respect for the
Earth, how we can make a difference. 

4.          
Come up with your own prompt that fits this topic
of imparting wisdom to others by either what you
know others have experienced or what you have
experienced.



Post your entry with  Lesson # 5 in the title somewhere. 
Remember to post your entry in the Message Forum.

Hope you have fun with this one. 

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{b}LESSON 6               STORYTELLING IN POETRY

Some of our favorite children's stories and fairy tales
are put to poetry form and tell stories about a character. 
Many times they give a lesson, warning, or example
but isn't that what storytellers do also.  They have
some reason for telling the story and a specific
audience in mind.

Try your hand at writing such a story in poetry form.

1. Tell a story using the following elements:
  Character or characters
  Beginning, middle and end
  Time frame (be it an hour or a lifetime)
  Twist at the end, something unexpected

2.This can be any genre or could be free form.  Limericks, other
  children's poetry, elegies, odes, and ballads tell stories and
  have specific forms.

3. Show, don't tell.  Okay, I know it's story TELLing.  But, instead
    of saying someone was nervous, say how they twisted the edge
    of their shirt or kept looking at their watch, or say they were
    wringing their hands instead of saying they were nervous or
    they refused to make eye contact rather than that they were
    lying.  Get my drift. 

4. Let us know who you feel your audience might be or for whom
    your poem is written.  (Who is your reader?)


See the link immediately before Lesson 5 for a link to an
excellent list of poetic forms if you need wish to do a
specific form.  It is not required but poetry calls for more
organization than free form allows.

Again, HAVE FUN.  This is a learning experience,
not a contest.  You gets points for participating but that's
as far as it goes.  You can do it!! Can't wait to read your
entries.

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LESSON 7      OBSERVATION
AKA-"Walking a mile in someone elses shoes"

How often do we sit in a restaurant and people-watch. 
Imagine yourself sitting in a decent restaurant, cloth
tablecloths but paper napkins.  Candles but no roses
on the tables.  You are waiting for a friend to arrive and
you've ordered yourself a cup of coffee. 

FICTIONAL SITUATION:
You look to your right. You see a mother, father, and
teenage son.  The mother goes to the ladies room.  The
father leans forward, voice low but strong, his index finger
and middle finger aimed at his son obviously making a
point.  The boy is leaning back, arms crossed, looking
at his shoelaces. 

ASK QUESTIONS:
What is going on?  Why did the dad wait until
the mother left the table before he started in on the son? 
Did the mom leave momentarily (on purpose) to allow
time for the dad to have this talk or is the dad taking
this opportunity to say something he doesn't want his
wife to hear?  Or, is he allowing his son to save face by
discussing something out of the mom's earshot?

ANOTHER FICTIONAL SITUATION:
At the table to your left, a couple sits, looking mildly uncomfortable.
They are a little overdressed, perhaps trying to impress each other.
The man is talking. He is fumbling with his knife.  He has a pale
space around his ring finger but no ring.  The woman is listening
intently, rubbing her finger on the top of her wine glass, sipping
carefully, as if she wants to look like she isn't usually a drinker.

QUESTIONS:
First date after divorce? Maybe.  Is he talking about his ex-wife?   
What is she thinking? How is she taking what he is saying?
What if he is talking about his ex-wife being an alcoholic
and she is afraid he will reject her because of her own
little secret?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LESSON:
1.
You can find material anywhere you go.  Watch people for a few
days and carry a small notebook.  Try to imagine conversation,
then pick one of the people in the scene and jot down a few
ideas of how you think that person was feeling. 

2.
When you have a few observations, try your hand at describing the
scene with a few sentences on your own just to get in that person's
head.  Please include this little summary if you would like.  It might
help the reader get into the scene before reading your piece.  You
don't have to write what you think they were saying, just try to
describe your character's emotions by describing their behavior,
body language (eye contact, posture, etc) and take a guess at
what they were thinking.

3.
Write your poem (or piece of some sort) and try to incorporate
some of the body language, such as this example of a
woman at dinner with her husband whom she suspects
has been unfaithful:

His eyes scanned the room
as he professed his love for me. 
I knew instantly his love was meant
for someone else I could not see.

EXAMPLE IN MUSIC:

If this is still confusing, read further.  Maybe this will help clarify:

I remember an R.E.M. music video from years ago to the song
"Everybody Hurts". 

Take a look at the words and how the video showed how people in the cars were thinking.  I just cut out about five paragraphs to make this shorter but I still think this is an excellent example. 

http://www.music-videos.duncans.tv/2006/rem-everybody-hurts

You don't have to try something that depressing, though. You 
could also write from the perspective of a woman talking to or
playing with her child and thinking how thankful she is that
she has this child in her life.  Watch a mother with her children. 
She is usually experiencing a mixture of wonder and exhaustion,
not always in that order.

THIS LESSON AS A LONG TERM DAILY PRACTICE METHOD:

After this exercise, go the dollar store or book shop and find
a small discrete little book you can keep with you, in your
car or purse.  When you are stopped in traffic, waiting for
someone in a restaurant, or stuck in the waiting room of a
doctors office, watch folks and jot down some ideas.  You
can find daily writing prompts everywhere if you look.  Make
it a habit and just save these notebooks.  If your creative
juices are hanging out in the desert, pull these out and
enjoy the cool water of your portable oasis.  (Okay, goofy
analogy but you got the point, right).


NOTE: To those patient enough to have gotten through
exercise 7 without going blind or falling asleep, I offer an
extra 100 points for everyone completing this assignment. 

WHY? I was quite verbose but I think everything needs
to be included right now and I am not ready to edit it. 

AND I feel this exercise, more than any other I have
done so far, will come the closest to helping you develop
daily habits that will continue to serve you in your creative
life, whether you do poetry, prose, screenwriting, songwriting,
painting, acting and virtually any other creative art. So, you
might want to print this lesson out and take it slowly. 

I am looking forward to seeing what is written.  I will be
trying this out also, because I am, like most, not great at
sticking with daily routines such as writing every night for
x number of hours or pages. And, I'm not the best at reading
body language either so this won't be an easy task for me.

SWPoet

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If you've made it through lesson 7, I offer my sincerest applause!  Here is short one to reward you and a wonderful little nugget of truth attached.
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LESSON 8    DEEP THOUGHTS.

http://www.101zenstories.com/

Take a look at some of the zen stories in the site above to get a feel for simple truths.  I am Episcopalian not Buddhist, and this exercise will not be one of a "religious" nature so bear with me.  My thought is this:if we look to the wisdom of other cultures, we will find quite a deep well of poetry and spirituality and perhaps some very good prompts for our writing.  We may see that we are much less different than we are alike.  For example, this particular zen story highlights what an "enlightened man" wrote certain passages in the bible.

http://www.101zenstories.com/index.php?story=16

Once you check some random stories out, click onto this one below (#88)

http://www.101zenstories.com/index.php?story=88

ASSIGNMENT:

Try to write a few stanzas (different topics-not two stanzas of the same poem) in this Chinese poetry style.  It is very simple and the directions are self explanatory.  You can put these directly below rather than putting them on bitem but if you really like your entries, it might be nice to create an item so others can rate it.  If you do this, you might want to cut and paste the link to #88 so others will see what form you are using. 

I look forward to seeing what you have created.

SWPoet 


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BONUS EXERCISE:      PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER. 

                      WRITE ONE TERRIFIC POEM USING ONE OR MORE OF THE   
                      PREVIOUS EIGHT LESSONS AND LET OTHERS GUESS 
                      WHICH COMPONENTS YOU USED IN YOUR PIECE.  WE NEED
                      TO BE ABLE TO SPOT THESE FACETS OF POETRY IF WE 
                      WANT TO BE GOOD WRITERS AND REVIEWERS.