What's Working for You?
Poem Diagrams and Poem Recipes, Mandy and the Weaving Closet, Cupcakes and Quick Bread
In the last week, my students in ENGL 343: American Poetry have been reading some truly great poems. These are old favorites for many of us — even so (or thus?), re-reading them never disappoints. I’m thinking of “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden (here he is reading the poem, which is even better in his voice), “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke (read here), so many poems by Bishop but this time around I was especially struck by the ending of “Filling Station.” Her reading of it, linked from that page, is so good, too. We also read Lorine’s Niedecker’s “Poet’s Work” and William Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark” (read here) and Gwendolyn Brooks’ “song in the front yard” (read here).
These poems are a master class in line and music, in tone, in image and metaphor, in how poets tell stories.
One of my go-to assignments in poetry workshop is the Poem Diagram, and its slightly easier companion, the Poem Recipe. To diagram a poem means to empty out its subject matter so that you can focus on the moves it makes: number and length of lines, rhythmic patterns, syntactical structures; when and how images and metaphors appear; narrative and/or argument structure. Not what is said but HOW the saying happens — and this is crucial for the diagram — in exactly what order. Now, write your own poem, following that structure. It would be like diagramming a sentence and saying: “this is a compound sentence that begins with a prepositional phrase…” You could easily-ish write your own sentence, about any subject, using that same structure. So too with the poem diagram. Empty out the original subject matter and pour yours in. Try it.
The poem recipe takes note of all the same craft elements but does not require that an imitation proceed in the same order as the original poem.
Poems by Hayden, Roethke, Bishop, Niedecker, Stafford, Brooks — all of these would be strong models for poem diagrams and recipes — because the original work is so good and has so much integrity; the words have not just been slapped on the page.
So, there are some assignments to keep you busy!
I was able to do a lot of weaving during Spring Break, including the little one (8”) pictured above, which is named “Easter Bonnet,” because that’s just what it looks like.
I also got my “weaving closet” in some kind of order with all my fiber stash, well, stashed into boxes for each forthcoming project (and of course boxes of all the leftover and to-be-used-again bits).
And there’s Mandy! You may remember her from a long ago Instagram post. Having spent years in basements, she’s pretty happy, obviously, to live upstairs now in a place of honor in a closet.
Many of these gorgeous fibers came from Aja Smart at Strand Texture. So happy to have found her as my source for the best color combos and materials.
The original of this fiber pack was sold out, but she kindly made a version for me to which I added a few bits. . .
The result, “Splendor of a Bygone Era,” is maybe my favorite piece so far, but I often say that, don’t I?
I’d like to climb inside this one and live there! Like an actress in the 1930s in a New York hotel, which has always been a dream of mine.
What’s working for you?
Or, better yet: what are you doing that’s working for you?
In terms of art-making and beyond.
Those are questions I’ll be asking my grad poets this week. A big part of teaching, I think, is sending people on their way. Our semester is winding down. I’ve begun thinking about how I’ll spend my summer, and I want my poets to think about this too. Not the burden of having to write a certain number of poems or whatever, but the opportunity, despite work or other obligations, to design more of their days in ways that work for them.
Weaving has become a big part of what’s working for me, and I’m so grateful for this new creative practice. I haven't been writing in the sense of pen-to-paper (fingertips-to-keyboard / dictation to phone), but I’m pretty sure the weaving has been preparing me to return to the page.
It’s ok, though, if things aren't working or you don’t quite know. The first pic in this post is a close-up of a weaving called “I Might Change My Mind” because that’s how I feel about that weaving and, sometimes, about life in general. When students tell me they don’t know what to write about or how to write about a particular thing, I always: just write that! I don’t know how... I might change my mind — that’s as good a beginning as any.
Spring break was a good time for cooking too.
I used my preferred soda bread recipe to make these minis, ideal for sharing.
Another favorite: cannoli loaf. So good.
Last but not least, my cupcake game remains strong. This recipe from Sugar Geek is a keeper. With bespoke sprinkles, of course!
The weather has been predictably unpredictable. That’s Spring, isn’t it, doing its work, for us.
Thank you, as always, for reading. More to come.