My Muse and I

Writing from my muse can be a liberating experience, especially when you try to write without stopping, just putting down everything that happened to come to mind. I often find that when I do this I am surprise with what I wrote, seeing a release that I didn't know was needed. As liberating as it can be to write from your muse I also feel some frustrations at time, this mostly happens when I've been given something pacific to think about from an outside source. I find myself trying to "sound poetic" rather then focusing on the pacific item or literature, this becomes very frustrating because besides the feeling of forced poetry the end result is not really a reflection of what was going on inside of my mind. Over all i feel like writing from my muse is a positive thing for me even through when it comes to the pacific assignment's I find myself reluctant to do it, I often write with my muse when I'm not able to organize my emotions internally or after i notice that I've been spacing out.

My Muse

When writing poetry I tend to write really dark stuff and it's hard for me to write about happier things. When trying to tap into my muse for a lot of the things we did such as listening to music or looking at pictures is hard for me. I am a very literal thinker when it comes to things like that. I have to go off how I feel or very easy feeling or even something my mind tends to just make up. I have a very open imagination but only when I am thinking of something and not when others think or tell me.

Learning to no longer Rhyme

The biggest issue I face when working with tapping into my muse is the attempt to tap out of my habit of rhyme. It varies and I work in every rhyme scheme we've talked about (from abab to abcb etc.) At first when I attempted to write in free verse while doing muse work I had to consciously avoid using rhyme. When we would discuss poems in class I began to think I was missing something. It's not that I think the way I write is elementary but the more we all talk about it I have realized I'm missing a certain aspect in poetry writing. I have written outside of using rhyme but before this class I never looked at it as poetry and I am still unsure of what to make of it. Free verse has become something I try to use more often and I am starting to like what comes of it. Another problem I commonly face is using my own emotions. I've always thought that poetry should reflect how you feel but it's weird to try to mix in the aspect of story telling. What I have discovered though is that when I tap into the ability of telling "lies" I am able to come up with more material. All in all this class is a learning experience and I can already tell it's helping me to hone my skills as well as those around me.

Dear Mommy,

Dear mommy,
Im sorry I couldn't keep my heart beating
But my undeveloped flesh couldn't keep the tempo.
I remember around week 7
I taste my first tomato
I absorbed the nutrients but
I couldn't stomach the rest
so u threw it out for me.
Although I live darkly mostly sleeping you provide.
Keeping me warm comfortable and sheltered
what more can I ask for.
My mothers love is nourished
unable to speak but u still carry conversation with me.
And I know daddy's hand when he rubbed me daily.
Mommy I miss u.. I promise you'll see how I grow up to be a good boy.
Daddy's junior fortune boy as he is fortune man.
Mommy I only wish to have held your hand
and see your matching eyes as I know I've inherited from u
but I know daddy would think otherwise because I be his junior.
But i'm my mothers son and my fathers proceedings.
You cried to me one night that I happened to be a rape baby
and I didn't understand why daddy would penetrate mommy in such a way
to make me a mistake.
But never the less I love my parents.
I could tell by week 12 that you would spoil me
you fed me treats that I only desired more of
Then all of a sudden u stopped feeding me.
I wished to ask you if you were okay mommy
but I myself was too sick to say, to sick to move.
My brain had a delay, my lungs decayed.
Killing me and furthermore killing yourself
Mommy what is the matter?
What happened to daddy daily rub making me relax.
What happened to the open conversations we had
Even upon realizing that I couldn't respond back
Mommy you told me you love me.
I'm sorry I couldn't return the affection but I promise
I was going to show u soon..
I guess you anticipated it for far too long. Y
ou were better off aborting me then to let me die..
Daddy was wrong for hurting you
But mommy you must know in the end you hurt me too.
I'll never fix my mouth to say I hate you
Because from heaven I can see its true mommy
Your an angel too and we'll reunite on better terms soon
I'll conclude this with I am my mothers son and my fathers proceedings.
Love your junior fortune boy

I didnt know...

I honestly had no idea how detailed and technical poetry could be. I always assumed poetry is just expressing yourself in a creative way, whether in song or in a story. Being in class, and learning how to write in the different styles of poetry is making me appreciate it even more. Poetry does take a lot of time and thinking and your end result usually comes out good, becasue it is YOUR way of expressing yourself. I realized that the content of what I write is freely up to me, but there is such a variety of ways on how I could do it. For one, I am learning how to write poetry and not always make it rhyme; our muse work helps me do this pretty well. The challenging aspects is when we are given a task like writing in iambic pentameter or things like that. Tasks like that make me realize that wow, poetry is more than just writing how I feel today.

Overall, I like learning the "behind the scenes" concept of poetry; that it takes more to make a good poem a great poem.

Discovering Iambic Pentameter

All throughout high school I was always in honors English and later Advanced Placement literature courses. Over time my arsenal of literary technical terms has expanded to the point where I have an acceptable understanding of the most basic and commonly used techniques. Terms like symbolism, irony, foreshadowing and, the like are ideas I understand well enough that I could explain it to another individual.

However rhythmic concepts in poetry have always thrown me for a loop.

Until that groggy morning in the Campus Center not but a week or so ago…

We can all “hear” our language pretty decently. From a linguistics stand point as a native speaker of your language you hear the nuances that those learning English (or whatever language) as a second language do not. You know the sounds of the words because you have been taught as a child how to say a word (though it is different in every region it is still the same idea).

I have always been able to hear the rhythm in a poem but when it came down to dissecting the stanzas I could never place a title comfortably on it. Rhythm I understand, but the sub-characteristics of rhythm (Iambic pentameter, tetrameter etc) I had no idea how to utilize.

This is why I was shocked when in class I totally got it for the first time. Iambic pentameter and putting it in terms of “da DUM” brought on a new understanding of rhythm in poetry for me.

It also at the same time reminded me of the subjectivity of the entire process (seeing as different students place different rhythms in different places in the same poems). A truth that is slightly upsetting to face; although I had acquired a new weapon in poetry it still did not change the fact that it can “kill” it in a variety of arguable ways.

What Poems Mean To Me

Writing has never been something that I did all of the time, I'm more of reader, but a few years ago I was having trouble in my personal life. I turned to writing and it helped to ease the pain that I felt. I would most write poems and they would help me escape the things that I was going through. the poems that I wrote did not talk about the things that I was going through but they took me on journeys all over the world. I got to be anyone I wanted to be and no one could tell me that was wrong. I love writing poems because they could be as long or short as you want them, you put worlds together that you normally wouldn't. You can make a table talk if you wanted to and that was perfectly fine. In poems no one can judge you and unlike many other forms of writing you don't have have to follow a format if you don't want to. I like to think that poems are as diverse as people are and that is truly alluring. Many people write poems as a release of their emotions, I know I certainly do. It is a safe and healthy way to deal with the things lie throws at you or something you can have fun with.

I have one problem though, I find that I only write when I am in the mood to. When I feel like writing get get some good things down but when i don't feel like writing then it just sounds wired to me. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get some quality things down when I am not in the mood to write? It would be really helpful since all we do in this class is write poems.

Using the Muse

Before entering this poetry class i was told that the introductory portion of the poetry program is mostly reading and analyzing poetry. This was a bit of a disappointment because i wanted to be in a class that encourages creativity rather than just analyzing others creations. After the first day of class it was a pleasant surprise to see what was planned for the course. At first my working with the “muse” was awkward and didn't seem to form much substance. After the first few attempts I seemed to get the hang of it. This was definitely beneficial as I learned to find the “muse” easier. As a result, brain storming for ideas to write about is less frustrating and comes more naturally. This new tool will help me in this class as finding new topics to write about used to be an issue for me. Many of the ideas I used to form were frequently cliches or just not interesting. This new means of creating ideas will allow me to expand my ideas and creativity.

Me & Ginsberg

Since I first read his most famous poem Howl as a young teenager, I have been enamored with Allen Ginsberg. Obviously, as a young teenager I was excited by the freshness and rebelliousness of his subject matter; I was inspired by his frank discussion of issues dear to my heart, like drugs, homosexuality, and the bohemian life. I would combine his poetry with the substances he was writing about for a refreshing and inspiring boost. As I mature, and my knowledge of poetry along with me, I appreciate more and more the vulnerability in his work. He unflinchingly expresses his hero worship of Kerouac and Cassidy, his fear of growing older, and his insecurity about his unwillingness to procreate, among other things. I think it's inspiring to be putting ones' insecurities on the page like that.

Up until recently, I considered my style very close to his. For example, he prefers writing about society and its ills, and his personal relationships, over nature. He likes to be ungrammatical, and give his poetry a sense of urgency by leaving out words.

But as this class and the other poetry class I'm taking force me to look closer at style over content, I'm paying more attention to the way I write myself. Despite the years I spent eagerly copying him, my poetry is really has grown to be quite different. I tend to use short lines, be much more vague, and use more concrete imagery than him too. It's a nice feeling, knowing that even when not trying to be unique, everyone can't help but be themselves in their writing.

Poetry 205 So Far ...

So far, this poetry class has had both it's ups and downs. Previously, I was exposed to poetry in high school, but not a great deal. My poetry class focused centrally on rhyming, basically having a rhyme scheme with poems. When we covered rhyming in class, I was already familiar with it, so that was a plus. One thing I like about the class is that we are learning about the many new components that poetry has to offer. I think by having this knowledge, I am broadening my horizons and will be able to apply this knowledge when necessary. "Making Your Own Days" was a good selection of text. After every poem, there is a clear and concise explanation of aspects in the poem and where the author is going with the poem. I think this is helpful because many of the poems are difficult to understand, so these mini lectures aid in grasping the full content of the poems. Reading this text has also allowed for broader vocabulary in my poems, I am now using "poetic vocabulary", attempting to stray away from the usual rhyming that I am use to. I am not too fond of the Dialectical Entry, I almost always complete my assignments in Movies of Your Mind. I simply find this method better and easier to write my poems to. All in all, I am enjoying myself in this class so far.

Thoughts about the Work and class in general

Whenever I use to write a poem for a class, my poems always rhymed. I find it so much easier to get words out and on to the page when they rhyme. (Plus I have more interest in poems when they rhyme.) When we start class and someone offers to put their poem up on the overhead I feel like their poems are so much more "adult-like" then mine and I try to use descriptive words too, but I just feel like my poems are very "childish." Now that we started to write our poems in iambic pentameter it's even harder. I can barely think of words that make sense together that actually go in a certain rhythm. I like free-verse a lot better or even when we write from listening to music or from looking at a painting. However, when I write from these I tend to just tell a story but I usually can think of something or where I want to go with the poem a lot quicker...good thing i'm not a poetry major because I'm pretty sure I would just skate by. I do like the class though. I always though poetry was very simple and didn't have much to it but I was definitely wrong.

Following your Muse's basic impulse as slavishly as you can . . .

If any of you read the comment I made on (Lena) Gluck's post, I said that I'd post a piece that shows what I'm talking about when I talk about following a given Muse-work's basic impulse.  Here's a piece I wrote last spring in response to the painting below:

In side-view, in the eye

not of whale or blind snake

but the human who looks forward

with bewilderment at what?

We don’t know

the peacock looking on, totem

of efflorescence, and it has put,

in her hair, a token of its beauty

and on her dress, to dress her

in peacock.  And that’s why she’s startled so—

to be as green fanning in the forest,

to shock with eyes on feathers

or blossoms or abysses,

whirlpools down into the bole of the trunk

or branch to find the sap

of green that sparks outer green,’

place we can enter the lower world

with its new laws, its trees that

discuss or cajole, and snakes

that eat pain and extract

the spears stuck in the spirit

lifetimes—in this, Flora

(for who else) who gazes bewildered

each spring—at trees whom she loves,

at grass, and her delicate arts,

her paintings, the wildflowers—

and at us, who desire with new green

desire, iris-desire, tulip, high grass

not yet burnt by summer.

Again, that's what I originally wrote when checking in with my Muse and looking at the painting.  Here's where I've got to with this piece as of now (though it's not done yet):

Bewilder with fabliaux eye, animal-

conjoined-human looking

towards woods . . .

The peacock in grass, totem

of efflorescence for the woman

(here, but last century        ghost)

who has put peacock on her dress, and is    

peacock, a feminine

efflorescence. 

She’s startled

to see in this clearing, in the

grass, this iris-green, violet-green-fanning

before the lost-place-woods [gone woods] [lost woods], the feather-eyes

like abysses or blossoms or gapped

boles open to aesthetic sap—the feather-eyes

looking through her frock

to the interior wood and

the new laws where the trees cajole

and bark and snakes suck

spears out of the spirit . . .

Flora watches bewildered and loses

her spring paints, and fails

the iris and the violet and

the tulip cup—delicacy and desire

die as color is lost

in gray trunks . . .

With fabliaux eye, in the animal-man,

looking towards

the trees . . .

A lot of it still doesn't quite work yet, but you can see, I think (I hope), how I tried to keep even the seemingly unnecessary scaffolding of the first few lines in the original--this idea of looking in a new way, though of course I changed it so that it now addresses the audience as an imperative.  There needs to be more connection with some of the different stanzas, the phrasing needs much more cleaning, and I'm still not sure exactly what I'm getting at with some of the stuff; but the whole excites me and makes me want to keep revising.  

Getting With the Times

Prior to this course, I had only ever written poetry in rhyme, with a distinctive, rhythmic metre (despite not fitting any of the formulas we've learned in class. If someone had ever mentioned to me "Ooh, this looks like a succession of Trochee feet broken periodically with an emotional break and Spondee bases," or whatever, I would have given a deer in the headlights/ blank stare, naturally). I had read some free verse, but had never seen the poignancy in it that I felt could be portrayed by the pulse of metre or singing of rhymes. But then I began this course, and my whole world was thrown upside down!
I am currently trying to get away from my strict metre when writing, but I've found that my free verse more closely resemble short stories than poetry. How can I fix this? I've tried utilising some of the other rhetoric devices, alliteration, asonance, etc. etc., but nothing seems to get my work out of that story-rut.
Has anyone else met with this problem? Should I leave the poems the way they are, short story and all, or modify them into a vague rhythm?
Oi.

My Experience So Far

I find that this class has a good deal to offer a student. Coming into the course I felt I already knew most things there are to know about poetry. This thought has quickly been reversing since the first day of class. Reading “Making Your Own Days” has offered a lot of help in incorporating new methods into my writing. Also, what is reenforced in class. I find that I have started to write differently. I thoughts are becoming more obscure, but beautiful in the same way. I particularly enjoy emphasizing objects talking and feeling. This is a new technique that at times would show up in my writing, but now I can concentrate on making it work to my benefit. Before starting this course, I would use a moderate amount of rhyme. It was how I kept my writing going and it sounds nice when you read it. Though, now I have strayed away from this and I am trying to use less rhyme to pull me through a thought. It sounds much more professional and can make a poem that is serious sound serious. When there is rhyming involved I feel it gives it a bit of a upbeat presentation. Overall, I am enjoying my run in with the “Muse” and this course. I feel I must read more work from other poets to gain even more knowledge in the poetry-language.

Clayton

Old Poetry

Most of the poetry I've written before this class has been what we call "Muse Writing." I'm used to the process of letting my conscious thoughts go and pouring onto the page what's underneath. The idea that this is but the first step in actual poetry writing doesn't surprise me, but it does make me reconsider old poems. I'm starting to wonder whether I should go back through them, and instead of revising the poem as a whole, take "moments of originality" out and use them as means to create new poetry.

It's hard to judge how much to keep. Just the imagery? The whole idea? Keep the poem and simply revise small sections?

The question always arises:

Can you use the same twist of words, the same metaphor, the same string of alliteration in a poem with a different meaning or inspiration later on? (Assuming of course, that they would apply somewhat to the new idea or inspiration that sparked the new poem.)

Or do those words belong with the thoughts that originally created them?

How do you feel about this? Has anyone else been thinking about touching up old poems as well as writing new ones?

Victor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvrnrztzfHI

This is an audio clip of a poem by WH Auden read aloud and set to music by Alex Lifeson (1/3 of the band Rush).  He is, in my humble opinion, a brilliant musician.  The sound quality is not great and he is speaking fast so it's hard to catch all the words but the effect is pretty creepy.  I also recommend looking this poem up if you get a chance.  It is one of my favorite pieces by Auden. I am a big fan of horror movie/books and I find it to be an excellent poetic glimpse into the mind of a psychopath.  I hope you enjoy!

Julie

I Love Puns.

Poetry.

The very word seems to make me shudder and hiss. Poetry class, the very class makes me sign and moan in protest. Needless to say, me and poetry get together as well as a cactus and a cuddle hug-depraved bunny who will hug just about anything. Regardless, I came to class ready to accept the challenge (halfheartedly albeit) and with the hope that poetry can help shape my writing so I can say more with less, as poets tend to do.

So our first class came and went, the main focus on word, "MUSE" and it aMUSEd me. Get it? Ha! And it sort of made me less appalled at poetry. Before, I'd approach it with a negative, angry feeling of, "why do I need to learn this pussy shit?" as I stormed out the room to a more positive feeling of, "oh well, maybe it isn't so bad", flinching as I dipped my toe into the lake that is poetry.

So maybe, thanks to the "MUSE" word, I can appreciate this whole form of writing I've misunderstood the last two decades. It does make poetry easier, I suppose. Only time can tell!

P.S. I love Miso Soup.

Jonny out!

Where is my "Muse?"

Lately I’ve just been so... uninspired when sitting down to do my CRW 205 homework. As we get into the core class work, I’m starting to realize there is a lot more to poetry than I ever expected there to be. Sure anyone can write, but can you write with poetic style is the question! I myself am an avid blogger, but unlike writing poetry, blogging doesn’t necessarily mean you’re writing for an audience. I use my blog as a release for emotions and stress of the everyday. But poetry is so different; The words can still be adventurous and beautiful, but now they have to tell a story and create a vision in someone’s mind other than my own.

After today’s lesson in class, I have decided that when writing poetry I prefer free verse. It is much easier to write in the emotional, unique style I enjoy in blogging while still keeping my language poetic. In my opinion, iambic pentameter and feet required too much planning to keep language fresh and unique. Free verse allows your language to flow naturally and sometimes it turns out to be rhythmic as well. Integrating my personal writing style with poetic design has been difficult, but I definitely enjoy the challenge it has presented.

Eric Paul

Is anyone familiar with Eric Paul? He writes lyrics for his bands Arab on Radar and The Chinese Stars. He has written two poetry books: Pussy Pow-Wow and I Offered Myself as the Sea. When looking at his work, you can obviously tell he is talented, but his choice of style isn't the typical cliche stuff to which you are accustomed, so you may be oblivious to superior work. I was the one who wrote the poem on bed-wetting

Here is a link of some reviews of his latest book. In the link, one of the people reviewing mentions the title poem. Below is his poem, "I Offered Myself as the Sea"

She told me her favorite thing to do as a kid was go to the beach with her mom and pee into the water
I have never been so turned on
I rushed into the bathroom and quickly changed into my bathing suit
I turned on the space heater and asked her to make believe it was the sun
I put a bunch of trash bags across the floor and told her to make believe it was sand
Then, I offered myself as the sea

Here is a scan from his book that shows another poem.



His work makes me smile and is quite inspiring. I wrote a poem on bed-wetting and I was grinning all the way through it.