Saturday, February 25, 2006

Notes from Jayne Warren's Poetry Writing Workshop

Last Wednesday's Poetry Writing Workshop was a huge success! Here are some notes from Jayne about Fun Forms.

Haiku: A haiku is one of the shortest forms you can write in. It only has three lines: the first has 5 syllables, the second has 7 and the third has 5 (try clapping to count the syllables in a word.) Traditional haikus have some words that relate to a season (snow for winter, rain for spring, etc.)

Example:
Temple bells die out.
The fragrant blossoms remain.
A perfect evening!

Cento: A cento is a form of poetry in which you put together different lines from a poet. Pick your favorite poet and cut and paste lines until you have something that you like and that makes sense! For more of a challenge, some people use lines from all different poets. Remember though to credit your sources!

Pantoum: A pantoum is a very difficult form to follow, but it is far from the most difficult you can try. I'm putting this here just for those of you who want to try something different and harder - kind of like a puzzle. A pantoum has 4 lines in each stanza (in case you don't know, a stanza is just like a paragraph.) The last and first line of the poem must be the same. Here's where it gets to be harder: the second and fourth lines of the first stanza then become the first and third lines of the second stanza. The second and fourth lines of the second stanza become the first and third of the third stanza and so on. Here's an easier way to look at it: pretend the letters are the lines in the stanza, a, b, c, d. That's the first stanza. Now look at the second and notice what repeats: b, e, d, f. The e and the f lines are your own invention.) In the last stanza you repeat the second and fourth lines of the previous stanza BUT instead of making up your own first and third lines, you take the first and third lines of your first stanza. Confusing, I know. Try looking for an example online are at the library.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Chairlift at Nashoba Valley by Jayne Warren

How still it is; the snow
begins to drop, each flake shifting
like silk. It looks so easy.
The chair, steel and struggling, as bells
struggle to ring. It is meant to last.
Glass rivers under snow, the steel
glints, frayed ends disappearing, dissolve
into cables. Out of sweetness,
out of the core of despair, fear
licks the rim, earth sleeps inside
the mountain. The sky peers
from hiding. In the one house where we are
welcome, sweetness, waiting to become
the unknown. Come as death or pity,
wings beating air against my cheek.

Poetry Writing Workshop

The Westwood Public Library will be offering a poetry writing workshop for 4th, 5th and 6th graders on Wednesday, February 22 from 3 - 4:30. Visiting poet, Jayne Warren, will talk about how she got started writing poetry, her work with poet Barbara Helfgott Hyett and the Workshop for Publishing Poets, and her experiences as a writing student at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, MA. Participants will do exercises to help them get ideas for writing poems and to express themselves through poetry, and learn how to edit their own work. Jayne has published poems in numerous periodicals, and her poem "Chairlift at Nashoba Valley" is included in the recently released anthology Rough Places Plain, Poems of the Mountains. The participants can submit their poems to the library for inclusion in the 2006 Poetry Anthologies published by the library. Call 781-320-1042 to register.