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 . . .