Portrait
Warning: The posting comes right after OPE weekend. There may be some slight craziness associated with it. ENJOY!
For those following at home I'm in a poetry class this semester. It has taught me a lot about my writing and probably one of the cooler things I've realized about poetry is that it's like a painting (save for epic poetry which is more like the Sistine Chapel). The goal, to me, of poetry is to utilize language in such a way that paints a single image, a small series of images. It may tell a story, it may hint at a larger story for you to fill in. The manipulation of language (just like in painting the manipulation of colors) aids in illustrating the image(s).
Our most resent assignment in poetry is to take one type of subject and one type of structure and create a poem. Kinda like a menu. One of the types is a perspective piece, placing yourself in the position of someone else. Aka Persona poem. The 'rules' is that it most be a person. But, rules are meant to be broken. Add a little sleepy-afternoon-viewing of Crocodile Dundee 2, and you've got:
CD2 Persona Personification Poetics
Bait
The New York Harbor reeks
of garbage, sewage, and the old adage:
one man's trash is another man's treasure.
BOOM!
A sudden rush of imploded H20
white buggles bouncing together
like Mr. Wizard's ping pong balls
sparks my unblinking eye.
BOOM!
Another sonic vibration gliding
against my gills, cause my fins
furious flapping, pushing me closer
to a quickly evaporating nexus
of gun powder and redwrapping.
BOOM!
Almost there, my cartilage
crackles with excitement,
my body swims in warm
anticipation toward a mysterious
mire of light, quick to show
quicker to disappear...
what's this red stick?
BOOM!
That poem was written in the personification of a fish getting blown up by Mick Dundee at the beginning of the film. Well more next week, now it's time to go to bed.
pb
For those following at home I'm in a poetry class this semester. It has taught me a lot about my writing and probably one of the cooler things I've realized about poetry is that it's like a painting (save for epic poetry which is more like the Sistine Chapel). The goal, to me, of poetry is to utilize language in such a way that paints a single image, a small series of images. It may tell a story, it may hint at a larger story for you to fill in. The manipulation of language (just like in painting the manipulation of colors) aids in illustrating the image(s).
Our most resent assignment in poetry is to take one type of subject and one type of structure and create a poem. Kinda like a menu. One of the types is a perspective piece, placing yourself in the position of someone else. Aka Persona poem. The 'rules' is that it most be a person. But, rules are meant to be broken. Add a little sleepy-afternoon-viewing of Crocodile Dundee 2, and you've got:
CD2 Persona Personification Poetics
Bait
The New York Harbor reeks
of garbage, sewage, and the old adage:
one man's trash is another man's treasure.
BOOM!
A sudden rush of imploded H20
white buggles bouncing together
like Mr. Wizard's ping pong balls
sparks my unblinking eye.
BOOM!
Another sonic vibration gliding
against my gills, cause my fins
furious flapping, pushing me closer
to a quickly evaporating nexus
of gun powder and redwrapping.
BOOM!
Almost there, my cartilage
crackles with excitement,
my body swims in warm
anticipation toward a mysterious
mire of light, quick to show
quicker to disappear...
what's this red stick?
BOOM!
That poem was written in the personification of a fish getting blown up by Mick Dundee at the beginning of the film. Well more next week, now it's time to go to bed.
pb
posted by Peter Brooks at 6:53 PM
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