Assign three poems for your students to read before the next session. These poems ought to have some common threads, in terms of the writing style or content, but that’s not required. In the meantime, cut 15 words out of each poem. (This exercise assumes a class size of 15 students.) (Adjust as needed.) Choose words carefully: pick nouns that might double as verbs; avoid too many modifiers; include a few muscular verbs but you’ll probably want to err on the side of choosing more nouns than anything else; don’t worry about prepositions, articles, or conjunctions; select a rich vocabulary. When done, place the cut-out words from each poem into a separate envelope. That is, the 15 words from Poem A should go into their own envelope, the 15 words from Poem B should go into their own envelope, and the same for the words from Poem C. Arrive at class with three sealed envelopes in hand, A, B, and C. You could always type-up the words in a festive font, if you’re the benevolent sort.
Lead a discussion of the three poems. For this exercise, I
had chosen “Colorado Blvd.” by Lorna Dee Cervantes, “Santa Fe” by Joy Harjo,
and “The Colonel” by Carolyn Forche. I dig these three pieces. Two of the three
were written in prose, and the Cervantes poem, which employs line breaks, offers
the tidy block of its one stanza. The narrators describe similar worlds, in
which they, as women, face danger or cope with marginalization; contemplate
escapes or seek justice; dream with all the resources of their imaginations or
bend the rules of time or narrate startling transformations. Leave about 40
minutes for the writing exercise.
Now you get to haul out the three envelopes. Send them
around the class. Every student should select one word from each envelope. Once
the envelopes have circulated around the room, every student should possess one
word from each poem, and three words total. Ready a stop watch. Students should incorporate the three words into a couple lines of
poetry, or a sentence, before two minutes have elapsed. Run a tight ship. Once
the two minutes have expired, students should pass their three words to the
person sitting beside them. The three words, therefore, will “rotate over” to
the student’s neighbor. Once they have received their three new words, students
should write another couple lines of poetry or another sentence—you got it—in two
minutes or less. Keep practicing this ritual until the word groupings make a
full rotation around the room, until the poets receive their original three
words. At that point, the exercise should stop. Your students might have
guessed at where the words came from, but at this point, you can tell them.
7 comments:
I knew Forche's was from 'The Colonel' Funny huh? Just from the three words on top, pistol, bell and fooling…!
Indeed, and of course, the vocabulary influences the writers to emulate what they've just discussed.
It'd be one thing to give students a set of words, (fine in its own way), but then another thing altogether that it follows a discussion of the word-hoard, if you will.
DG
this is a found exercise… I included something like it when I did a course with Kaia Sand … I think I called it paper bag poetics… poetry to go! (cut up poems were inside)… way fun!
it is a version of the found exercise -- what i liked best was that the students had all the same words -- and the rotation of the words around the class created a good atmosphere. anyhow, as i said, it's the second best exercise. i know what the best is -- but it'll take a stout to pry it loose.
--------------b.a.
i want to know the best (in yr humble stout imbibed opinion ;)
in which case -- we shall meet someday for a stout!
will you too have a stout? i think one needs to receive the #1 writing exercise details w/ stout in hand!
----------------------ba
sure thing! stout away! somatic poesy style!
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