Last
month at the Gifts of a Wordsmith poetry workshop, Emily Dickinson was the
focus. It was part of the “The
Big Read Birmingham” project in which the Birmingham Public Library
teamed up with Birmingham-Southern College to “to enhance understanding of the
work of poet Emily Dickinson.”
Each
participant at the poetry workshop was given a copy of The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson. We read some poems by Dickinson and then took
part in writing a poem patterned after her style.
One
of the things about Dickinson is that she would often give concrete
descriptions to abstract concepts by making a simple comparison to a physical
object. “Hope is the thing with feathers” is one such example.
For
our poetry assignment, we were asked to first list three abstract terms. I
wrote down:
Joy
Relief
Respite
Once
we had our list of abstract concepts, we spent some time thinking of solid
objects that can be easily described in concrete terms. I jotted down a few:
Tree
Flower Man
Rock
Mountain Woman
Chair
River
The
next step was to pick one of our abstract terms and compare it to something
solid and objective. Here is what I came up with in my Dickinson-inspired
piece:
Respite
Respite is a tree
That grows down in the meadow
Casting shade in summer
And shadow in the fall.
Respite is a steady woman
Who sees through pomp and pretense.
She pulls the chair up close;
She shakes her head and smiles.
Respite is a rock
Emerging from the hillside.
Some will sit,
Some will trip.
Everyone will stop.
Once
we had all read our poems, we were instructed to replace our abstract term with
another abstract term. For this
exercise, each of us was handed an 3 x 5 card with a word to substitute the one
we used in composing our poem. The word I was handed was “desire,” and you can
see below how that one word changes the poem:
Desire
Desire is a tree
That grows in the meadow
Casting shade in summer
And shadow in the fall
Desire is a steady woman
Who sees through pomp and pretense.
She pulls the chair up close;
She shakes her head and smiles.
Desire is a rock
Emerging from the hillside.
Some will sit,
Some will trip.
Everyone will stop.
“Desire” seemed to work well in the poem. What do you think?
* * *
Poetry Event Happening May 10
The
Gifts of a Wordsmith group meets on the first Tuesday of each month at the
Central Library in downtown Birmingham, Ala. This coming Tuesday (May 10),
Gifts of a Wordsmith will present a poetry reading in which each will share something
of what we have written. All are welcome to come hear our selections.
The
festivities will take place from 6:00 to 7:45 pm in the Boardroom on the 4th
floor of the downtown Birmingham Public Library. The event is free and open to
the public. Light refreshments will be served.
For
information, e-mail hm@bham.lib.al.us or
call 226-3670.
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