| Author | Message | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30867 Registered: 11-1998 |
. Dearest Membership -- Here is the eighth 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 -- #8 from The Mind's Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry by Kevin Clark Breaking Poems into Wholes 1. Enumerated sequences can facilitate shifts in time and space. 2. In sequential poems overt transitions are often unnecessary. 3. Poems benefit from surprise, and sequencing generates surprise. 4. The sequence provides an excellent opportunity for flashbacks. 5. Sequences are often good for telling more than one story at a time. 6. In order to maintain the reader’s interest, longer works especially benefit from three things: a captivating narrative, intriguing language, and a compelling theme. 7. Sequences can help to unbottle associative themes and multiple narratives. . | ||
| Rania S. Watts
Advanced Member Username: cementcoveredcherries Post Number: 1203 Registered: 04-2008 |
Thank you M!  Rania S. Watts "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean" ~ Walt Whitman Cement Covered Cherries | ||
| Lazarus
Senior Member Username: lazarus Post Number: 3689 Registered: 10-2005 |
Ah yes, that's why the sequence works so well. You can make emotional leaps, go back and forth in time, offer more than one story. This form makes sense to me now. It might help with my Chuck E Cheese poem (if I ever get back to it). Thanks M! -Laz | ||
| Teresa White
Advanced Member Username: teresa_white Post Number: 1315 Registered: 01-2005 |
M, These note cards are great! Thank you so much for posting them! ~T. Be satisfied that ye have enough light to secure another foothold. Anon. | ||
| brenda morisse
Advanced Member Username: moritric Post Number: 2271 Registered: 04-2007 |
Dear M, mi hermana, i don't understand. Maybe i understand but, really, i don't know what the hell a sequential poem is or do I know? Maybe I've even written some but I'm not sure. Please explain it to me. Or show me one. Or tell me to have another cup of coffee. Breaking poems into wholes. It's very intriguing. The idea of breaking something into wholeness, or breaking it whole, is confusing, too. Don't get wrong, swinka, I like confusing, you know that. But this breaking into wholes gives me a hole in my head. Oh, maybe the dentist made the hole. So, writing this kind poem is like going to the dentist? I don't know if I'll like this writing dental hole poems. Maybe if I'm unconscious, i might like it. Nah! Conscious or unconscious, the holes in my head don't make me whole. However if I put all the holes together I might fall in all at once and then I'd be wholly in the hole. Wait a minute. What hole? You know what? I've been in a hole before, but I was usually broke. love, love borrachita not quite whole | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30878 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest borrachita -- simply put, a sequential poem is divided into distinct sections. It's the poetic version of a collage or a montage. Most poets choose numbers to indicate the breaks, but you may choose simple visual signifiers such as asterisks or even lines. There are no absolute rules about the type of break you choose. If you want to force the reader into a reasonably long stop, Arabic numbers work well. Poets also use capitalized roman numerals to make the divide beween each segment even stauncher. You can use the form to enhance the tension in a narrative, or you can maneuver the form to demonstrate the myriad ways a single circumstance or idea can be perceived. The poem used as a model for one of the recent Pic-a-Number Challenge was a sequential poem: Sequential Poem Other examples include T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" and Gwendolyn Brooks' "The Blackstone Rangers." The one I have currently on display at the Rose & Thorn is a sequential poem. There are probably hundreds of thousands of examples out there. It's a popular form and can facilitate shifts in time and space. Try not to take the titles Mr. Clark uses for his Note Cards too literally, mi hermana. He is just playing around with words. I don't think he is a dentist, so what would he know about holes? love, love, swinka | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4239 Registered: 05-2006 |
.. (Message edited by sandiegopoet on July 26, 2008) | ||
| brenda morisse
Advanced Member Username: moritric Post Number: 2272 Registered: 04-2007 |
Dearest swinka, thank-you. love, love borrachita sequentialing} | ||
| Christopher T George
Senior Member Username: chrisgeorge Post Number: 6696 Registered: 12-2004 |
Hi M Many thanks for making available to us these very helpful notecards to educate the Wild community on craft. They are excellent.  Chris Editor, Desert Moon Review http://www.desertmoonreview.com Co-Editor, Loch Raven Review http://www.lochravenreview.net http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/ |
