| Author | Message | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30441 Registered: 11-1998 |
. Dearest Membership -- Here is the third in The Poet's Note Card series. These Note Cards come from a book entitled The Mind's Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry, by Kevin Clark. Mr. Clark is a winner of the Distinguished Teaching Award, is a university professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and a widely published poet. This book on the teaching of poetry writing is concise, practical, and has been designed specifically for a college-level term. It includes a progression of lessons, example poems, and stimulating exercises. While most advanced poets already know these things, it doesn't hurt to review them. Or to learn them if you are a beginner to the craft of poetry making. I'll try to bring you a Poet's Note Card every so often. While you might not agree with every point Mr. Clark makes, I do hope these note cards serve to help those who are new to poetry by providing some basic foundation of information on which to build. Oh, and I do recommend that you acquire the book. It's an excellent textbook, especially if you would like to attend a college-level poetry writing course, but cannot for whatever reason. The link above (click on the book's title) will take you to the WPF BookShop and the Amazon description of the book. Thanks for reading! Love, M (Administrator) ------------------------------------------------- The Poet's Note Card -- #3 from The Mind's Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry by Kevin Clark How to Make Imagery Register 1. It's a good idea to employ vivid metaphors and similes. 2. Metaphors render immediacy. Similes suggest reflection. 3. Metaphors and similes can be used to chronicle the interior life. 4. Extended metaphors can add imagistic drama to a situation. 5. It's always better to be surprising, even outrageous, and to avoid blandness. 6. Clichés dull the mind; ordinary expression fails to excite the reader. 7. It's often helpful to make your images both specific and economic. 8. Big words usually call too much attention to themselves. 9. List poems can encourage intriguing comparisons. 10. Everyday situations are ripe with potential; imaginative expression can make virtually any subject interesting. . | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4124 Registered: 05-2006 |
Good imagery grabs my attention like a naked stripper in a crowded elevator. Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30443 Registered: 11-1998 |
Which just goes to prove: "5. It's always better to be surprising, even outrageous, and to avoid blandness." Love, M | ||
| brenda morisse
Advanced Member Username: moritric Post Number: 2091 Registered: 04-2007 |
Why is it, that the more I learn, the less i know?  (Message edited by moritric on June 21, 2008) | ||
| Rania S. Watts
Intermediate Member Username: cementcoveredcherries Post Number: 668 Registered: 04-2008 |
Oh Brenda, Do I ever understand what you just posted! Hi M, Thank you so much for posting #3, I really do enjoy reading them. Hi Fred, You are too funny! Best, Rania S. Watts "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean" ~ Walt Whitman Cement Covered Cherries | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30444 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest borrachita -- Because the leopard ate the canary? No? OK. Because a stitch in time saves a dime? No? OK. Because the Rolling Stones gather no moss? No? OK. Then I don't know why. I don't know much. Well, I used to know much. Now I can't remember any of it. love, love, swinka | ||
| brenda morisse
Advanced Member Username: moritric Post Number: 2094 Registered: 04-2007 |
Really dearest swinka, From your wonderful poem, Awake I learned not to argue with lies. I think that is the greatest lesson of all time. Does that mean I should encourage my poems to lie? In the future, if my poems lie, I won't argue with them. I'll just shake my head and say Wait until we gt home. But, really swinka, sometimes I worry about that. The truth isn't always the truth. Sometimes lies conjure up a truth which could never be seen with the facts. . Why is that, hermana? love, love, borrachita conjuring (Message edited by moritric on June 21, 2008) | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4126 Registered: 05-2006 |
Brenda, To answer the implied question behind "the more you learn, the less you know" . . . I suggest the following. We all begin in ignorance and move, in fits and starts, toward a modicum of knowledge. Now ignorance in adulthood practically never acknowledges its own nature. Quite the contrary . . . the most ignorant people I have met tend to be quite certain that their knowledge is special and exhaustive. They simply don't have a clue regarding what they don't know. Those with a modicum of knowledge are like people who have dipped their toes into the ocean. By this very act, they gaze out at the vastness of sand and sea . . . and frequently realize that in a thousand lifetimes they will never visit more than a tiny patch of sand and a minute volume of ocean. Fred (who just stepped on a piece of broken glass buried in the sand) Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1217 Registered: 11-2007 |
sometimes even if it's the perfect word, something that calls attention to itself turns it into the wrong one. years ago I wrote a poem that used the word "spuming' to describe the way waves flow over rocks at the edge of the high tide line, making all those cool little bubbles. It was exactly the right word, there. I posted the poem, and four people took up "spuming' as the important word, and spent a silly amount of time debating whether or not it even WAS a word. The tenor and focus of the poem was lost. So I took the word out, replaced it with 'foaming' and then we managed to get down to business on whether or not the POEM was any good or not. *g* Lesson learned. Sometimes a word--or even a phrase--is the right phrase but too large or weighty for the poem it's in. How's the foot, fred? | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30479 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Judy -- not that I need to tell you this, but I'm mentioning it in case other people are reading this thread. Don't please the people in a crit workshop; please yourself. Even if every person in that workshop tells you they HATE "spuming," and that they're going to tar and feather you if you don't take it out, that doesn't make them right. And it doesn't mean an editor would hate it. It's sounds a little odd to have an admin of a writing forum tell you to ignore the advice of people who frequent these forums if you don't agree with that advice, but places like Wild are only workshops, not the last word. These writing forums are just places to kick ideas around among peers. If after objectively assessing what everyone else has to say, you still believe "spuming" is the correct word for that poem, keep it. Some editor somewhere is going to agree with you. I even tell people to ignore me and I sorta run this joint. Hey, my advice is just my two cents. That doesn't make me right. If you don't like what I have to suggest in my crits, tell me to take a hike. And stay true to your own vision for the poem. Now -- if an editor tells you to take out "spuming," and then he'll print the piece in his journal, that's a whole 'nother story. You'd be wise to listen in that case.  Love, M | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4138 Registered: 05-2006 |
Into the spumitorium with both of you! Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1218 Registered: 11-2007 |
i guess my point was, the word was too much for the poem it was in, sort of like wearing a party dress to play baseball. You may be a damn good first baseman, but no one will notice because they are all focused on your party dress. But, yes, you're right, you have to forge your own way across a poem. Having the opinions of other people helps (and now and then hinders that), if only to show you what THEY see first. |
