Poetry Booktalking

1. Poetry Booktalking Buffy Hamilton ELAN 7312 Spring 2003

2. Fletcher, R. (1999). Poetry matters: Writing a poem from the inside out. New York: Harper Trophy.

3. A “Must-Have” Tool for Student Poets! • This delightful book is written for aspiring young poets! • Although the book is geared toward a younger audience, Fletcher offers many practical tips for adult poets and teachers. • The small paperback text is ideal for budding writers to carry with them around school and home and for cultivating the seeds of great poetry!

4. Aims of The Text • To help your poems sing, shine, and soar! • To help you get practical ideas for making your poems sound the way you hear them. • To help you have wonderful moments writing poetry.

5. Part One: Lighting the Spark

6. “At the most important moments, when everyone else is silent, poetry rises to speak.” ---Ralph Fletcher

7. The Power of Poetry • Poems are filled with words from the heart. • The brevity of poems adds to the power of a poem. • Poetry matters.

8. Tapping Into the Power of Poetry • Focus on writing the poem from the inside out, not from the outside in. • Focus on living a “wide awake” life while writing poetry.

9. The Three Pillars of Poetry • Emotion • Image • Music

10. Chapter One: An Emotional X-Ray “What poetry does at its very best is to make the reader feel. Very deeply and truly.” Jane Yolen

11. Chapter One: An Emotional X-Ray • Poetry can be a container for our emotional lives. • Poetry conveys strong feelings. • Poetry can be good for the soul. • A poem is like an X-ray of what is going on inside you.

12. Chapter One: An Emotional X-Ray • Poems can be utterly honest. • Poems speak the unspeakable. • The honest quality of poetry sometimes makes it difficult to write the poem.

13. How do you make your lines ring true? • Think of the poem as an X-ray—probe your inner being! • Try poem-speak: speak to someone INSIDE the poem. • Convey feelings through images. • Don’t say too much.

14. Chapter Two: Image “Poems are other people’s snapshots in which we see our own lives.” Charles Simic

15. Chapter Two: Image • Mental pictures are at the heart of poetry. • Images can be felt, seen, or heard. • Focus on using words to create effective images.

16. How do you create images? • To create strong images, get in the habit of observing the world. • Be alive to what is going on around and inside you. • Slow down to observe the world.

17. Powerful Tools: Your Senses • Look • Listen • Smell • Touch • Taste • Observations using your senses will feed your poetry by training you to be specific and detailed.

18. Chapter Two: Image • Begin by describing a single image in your head. • Don’t worry about how it looks or sounds. • Just write down the image! • Describe it as though you are seeing it for the first time!

19. Creating Surprising Images • Relate two things that do not seem to be related at first. • The surprising connection makes it effective. • Similes and metaphors are great for making these comparisons.

20. Creating Surprising Images Come see What I found! Chubby commas, Mouths Round, Plump babies, Stubby as toes Polliwogs! Tadpoles! By Kristine O’Connell George

21. Creating Surprising Images • Effective poems do not have to be long or complicated. • Surprising images help us see the world in brand new ways. • Surprising poems are like wake-up calls!

22. Creating Surprising Images “My Shoes” My shoes are a home for my feet. The five toes are brothers sitting by the fire.

23. More Ways of Building Surprises in Your Poems • Try personification (giving nonhuman things human qualities) • Try symbols (a real thing that stands for something else) • Mix different images in the same poem. • The tensions between differing images adds interest.

24. Chapter Three: Fresh Music That spools the wind into merciless frenzies,And drives the rain like cannon fire,And paints the clouds in shades of corpses,And splits the sky with tentacles of fire,And virulent roars that shatter the night… Tom FletcherFrom “Falling Through the Earth”

25. Chapter Three: Fresh Music • Poems have rhythms, cadences, and sounds that burrow deep inside us. • These sounds become part of who we are. • Poetry is closer to music than other kinds of writing.

26. Four Ways to Infuse Music In Your Poetry • Play with the sound of words. • Have fun with alliteration. • Fine tune the rhythm. • Use repetition for emphasis.

27. Playing With the Sound of Words • Think about how you can use (or not use) capitalization or punctuation. • Use poetic license---make up your own rules about language and break traditional rules! • Play with internal rhyme. • Try different rhythms. • Play with word meanings.

28. Playing With the Sound of Words “Wallowing” we walk on our hands and laze in shallow surf like a bunch of sea sloths or slow motion manatees no place to go no hurry to get there wubbling with the bubbles foaming with the froth in the noisy crumble tumble of the ragamuffin waves

29. Have Fun with Alliteration • Alliteration is repeating beginning consonants of words within a line. • “…hiding us under huge hushed skirts.” • Alliteration makes a poem fun to read aloud.

30. Fine Tune the Rhythm • The rhythm is the beat. • Tune your ear to rhythm in poetry. • Some kinds of rhythm are iambic pentameter and spondees. • Rhythm can be in rhymed or unrhymed poems. • Read your poem aloud many times to listen and revise the beat.

31. Use Repetition for Emphasis • Repetition can create rhythm. • Repetition asks readers to linger at certain points in a poem. • Repetition is glue to hold together a poem. • You can repeat words, phrases, or lines.

32. Chapter Four: Interview With a Real Poet, Kristine O’Connell George “I admire the way she can create beautiful images with only a few words.” Ralph Fletcher

33. Thoughts on Writing Poetry: Why write poetry? • I enjoy searching for the perfect word or creating an image on paper. • I enjoy watching my ideas take on a life of their own. • I get ideas from the world around me and from reading. Chapter Four: Interview With a Real Poet, Kristine O’Connell George

34. Thoughts on Writing Poetry: Collecting Ideas • I keep my ideas in a notebook. • Sometimes I scribble ideas on scrap paper. • I do not like discussing my ideas for poetry with others because it saps energy from my enthusiasm for the project. Chapter Four: Interview With a Real Poet, Kristine O’Connell George

35. Thoughts on Writing Poetry • To start writing, I just start and keep going. • I like to write when I am alone or during quiet times. • I sometimes work in the middle of the night or early hours of the morning! Chapter Four: Interview With a Real Poet, Kristine O’Connell George

36. Thoughts on Writing Poetry: Writer’s Block • If I get writer’s block, I go for a walk, read, or just leave the poem for a few days. • Physical activity helps clear my writer’s block! Chapter Four: Interview With a Real Poet, Kristine O’Connell George

37. Thoughts on Writing Poetry: Editing and Revision • I revise extensively. • I record my poems and listen to what I have written to revise. • Sometimes the changes are small, but other times they are major ones. Chapter Four: Interview With a Real Poet, Kristine O’Connell George

38. Thoughts on Writing Poetry: Editing and Revision • I enjoy hearing second opinions. • I try to see the poem through someone else’s eyes. • I do not always use suggestions from others, but I do consider them. Chapter Four: Interview With a Real Poet, Kristine O’Connell George

39. Chapter Five: Poem Sparks---What to Write About “Look for poetry that grows under your feet.” Rainer Marie Rilke

40. Chapter Five: Poem Sparks---What to Write About • Sometimes poems grow quickly. • Other times, poems are cultivated over time. • Always be looking for seeds of poetry to grow and nurture.

41. Chapter Five: Poem Sparks---What to Write About • Write about concerns of the heart. • Write about what you see—it is all around us. • Write about your fierce wonderings and bottomless questions.

42. Chapter Five: Poem Sparks---What to Write About • Write about concerns of the world. • Write about social and political issues. • Consider your audience.

43. Part Two: Nurturing the Flame

44. Chapter Six: Crafting Your Poem “The world is full of poets with languid wrenches who don’t bother to take the last six turns on their bolts.” X. J. Kennedy

45. Chapter Six: Crafting Your Poem • Like crude oil, poems must be refined. • Keep in mind the three pillars of poetry. • Craft your poem from the inside out.

46. Chapter Six: Crafting Your Poem/Strategies • Think fragments: poems are impressionistic. • Fragments add color. • Fragments sharpen sensory details. • Fragments convey energy.

47. Chapter Six: Crafting Your Poem/Strategies • Consider the shape of the poem---shape can convey meaning. • Experiment with line breaks. • Play with stanzas, which means “room” in Italian.

48. Crafting Your Poem: Line Break Strategies • Each stanza has a particular idea. • Read the poem aloud and listen where the natural pauses fall. • Place double slash marks (//) to mark your line breaks. • Reread your poem after creating line breaks.

49. Crafting Your Poem: Line Break Strategies • Think about the sound of lines. • Long lines build momentum and velocity. • Shorter lines tend to be read slowly. • Try variations on line breaks to find the one that is right for your poem.

50. Crafting Your Poem: Use White Spaces • A white space is a blank line in the poem. • White spaces build in pauses and moments of silence. • White space helps you make sure your images don’t get lost or buried.