Mixing it up for National Poetry Month

A Loaf of Poetry by Koriyama Naoshi
you mix
the dough
of experience
with
the yeast
of inspiration
and knead it well
with love
and pound it
with all your might
and then
leave it
until
it puffs out big
with its own inner force
and then
knead it again
and
shape it
into a round form
and bake it
in the oven
of your heart.

Today is the first day of National Poetry Month in the U.S. and U.K. And what better way to celebrate than by continuing to post a poem a month for the next thirty days! 

Today is also April Fool's Day. 

April Fool's. 

After six weeks of posting every day*-- sometimes barely before the day had ended but still every day-- I need a break.  Most of my writing time and energy has gone into this blog since mid-March and there are some pieces of writing I had been working on that are crying out for my attention.  Plus, reading the forty-odd poems I've posted for Lent, in addition to the hundreds (thousands?) of others I read and considered but didn't end up posting, was a great reminder of how much I need to really hone my craft.  So instead of posting a poem a day during April, my intention is to write a poem a day. 

And no, that's not an April Fool's bit of folly.  I am going to roll up my sleeves each day and start mixing it up.  It will be a challenge for me because my practice of writing poems has always been linked to moments of divine inspiration-- so really not as much a practice as a whim.

Realizing this, I'm arming myself with resources to get me started-- forms to play with, books with writing exercises, an idea for a series of biographic poems, writing prompts from theNaPoWriMo website (National Poetry Writing Month) and of course my old stand by, Lectio Divina.  All these will all serve as the leavening when the natural yeast of inspiration isn't making the writing rise. 

So that's how I'll be marking the month.  If you want to join in the official celebration, check out the list of events sponsored by The Poetry Foundation here or the information on the website of the Academy of American Poets, who inaugurated the celebration in 1996.  Unofficially, you can celebrate by making a commitment to read more poetry this month.  Check out an anthology from your local library or browse poetry websites such as The Poetry Foundation or Poetry Chaikhana to discover a new-to-you poet.  Re-read your favorite poets.  Try to commit a poem to heart or share a copy with a friend . . . even better, share a poem with a stranger.  (Try this on April 18, National Poem in Your Pocket Day.) 

And maybe, just maybe, you could try writing a poem or two or thirty this month as well . . .


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* If you're a regular reader, you may have noticed I didn't post on Friday and Saturday.  That was a deliberate decision after agonizing for hours trying to find a Good Friday poem that spoke to my feelings about the season.  I finally decided that no poetry, no words, no images, just silence was the best way for me to mark the journey from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. 

Poetry for Mid-Summer

Tonight I'll be leading a "Poetry for Mid-Summer" program as part of Washington National Cathedral's Crossroads program.  From 7:30 - 8:30 I'll be in Bethlehem Chapel, hopefully with other people, reading some summer poetry and reflecting on how the poetry of the season can be companions for us on the journey.
Of course, we'll be reading Mary Oliver's The Summer Day to kick things off.  It may be ubiquitous but is a good intro for talking about the connection between prayer and paying attention (as is When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention, which I've commented on before).  A few more poems will follow:  Mark Doty's The Green Crab's Shell, a couple by Billy Collins, and a gorgeous, timely poem from the luscious poet Li-Young Lee, just to name a few.  If time permits, we'll try our hand at writing poetry and that's where this blog comes in.

 

But first, I'll let you in on a little secret.  In the poetry programs I lead my intention is always to get people writing poetry as well as reading it.  I daresay if people knew this was part of what they were getting in to, about half of them wouldn't show up.  The idea of writing a poem terrifies many people.
While most, if not all of us, have probably tried our hand at writing poetry at one point in our lives-- do childhood attempts at a riff on the classic "Roses are red . . . " and the angst filled,  really bad poetry of teen age years sound familiar to anyone other than me?-- as adults who have been taught (hopefully) to think before we act or speak, and who have learned to read and therefore write with a critical eye, the idea of creating a poem of our own, facing that blank page, is often intimidating. 

And that's exactly why I give people only five or ten minutes . . . it's enough time to put together a coherent thought without stopping to think about what they're doing   Which brings me to my second secret:  I always provide a structure, which people are more than welcome to ignore if they are poetry pros.

 

I've written before about using other poets as inspiration for writing but more often, when we only have five or ten minutes, I like to give people a tighter container like a cinquain or haiku.  This evening I will invite people to write a pantoum,while we're together or after they've gone home. 
A pantoum is easy enough to write, a repetitive poem of twelve lines that repeats ten central lines in a specific order.  It's derived from a Malay form and poets from Baudelaire to Linda Pastan have tried their hand at the format at one time or another.
For those who won't be there this evening and want to give it a go, here's how.

• Number a piece of paper from 1-10 leaving enough room to write a full sentence on each line.
• Decide what you want to write about.  Mary Oliver writes that each morning the world says to us, "Here you are, alive.  Would you like to make a comment?"  Your poem is your comment.  You can use as a starting point an object, place, memory, experience, anything you'd like to write about.  (Our overall theme for tonight will be summer if you want to write along.)
• Sit with your subject for a few minutes.  think about the sensations it brings to mind, the colors, the textures, the scent, the taste, the sounds, the emotions, the images, the metaphors, any wisdom or insights that come to mind.   
• When you feel ready to write, record ten words, phrases or sentences on your paper. 
• Then rearrange your ten lines into the following format of four stanzas to finish your poem:

     1
     2
     3
     4

 

     2
     5
     4
     6

 

     5
     7
     6
     8

 

     7
     9
     8
    10

As Baudelaire would have said, "Et voila!"  You've written a poem. (Although it's not yet noon as I write this so chances are Baudelaire wouldn't have tumbled out of bed from his laudanum induced slumber yet.)

When I've led workshops and programs such as this, people often say they wish there was a forum for sharing what people have written so later tonight or tomorrow I'll edit this entry to post my pantoum here.  I'll also invite others to either post their pantoums in the comment section or e-mail them to me if they'd like me to post them.  So check back for some summer pantoums in the next day or two or post/send me your pantoums to have them added to the collection . . .