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NEW POETRY CLUB
Chatterbox: Inkwell
NEW POETRY CLUB
NEW POETRY CLUB 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, so this is the second poetry club I've created. The last poetry club got through three poems before it died...but it had an AMAZING discussion, especially on the poem "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allen Poe. If you want to join the poetry club, first please find time to read the discussion for that poem, found on pages four through six. It really was an amazing, deep discussion. Here is the link: http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/176516?page=3
NOTE: It is never too late to join. Anyone can drop in at any time.
Anyway, let's get started! Here is how it will work, for now.
In a nutshell: we choose a poet and one of their poems, discuss it, then at some point, once we've had a good discussion, a prompt will be given and we will write our own poems based on the prompt, which will relate to the poem. Or it may simply say, "Write a poem inspired by this one." Then, once we've done all that, we move on to a new poem.
First, we vote on a poet. You can start listing ideas for nominations. At some point, I'll lsit all the nominees, we vote, majority wins.
Whichever poet we choose, we will start out with one of their poems. if you don't mind, I would like to post the first poem. After that, whoever wants to post the poem can do so.
Once the poem is posted, a schedule will be made, resembling something like this:
1. Share the poem. (READ)
2. Vocab Person, define words. (DEFINE)
3. Discuss the poem, its meaning, its feeling, how we would have changed it, whatever you want to discuss about it! (DISCUSS)
4. Prompts are given, we discuss it and write our own poems. (WRITE)
5. Discuss each other's poems, compare it, etc. (WRITE)
If you're wondering what Vocab Person is, that's if one of you would like to volunteer for listing any possibly unknown words (not necessarily words you don't know, but words somebody else might not know) and their definition. That would help to understand the poem.
So, please join! Even if you won't be able to be extremely devoted to it...the more people the better!
-Owlgirl
submitted by Owlgirl
(April 14, 2016 - 7:39 pm)
(April 14, 2016 - 7:39 pm)
crap sorry for not voting. my computer crashed the other day and I havent been able to get on. sorry guys
(April 20, 2016 - 12:07 pm)
@Smolbean: That's okay, if it makes you feel any better, Mary Oliver would have won anyway.
Here is the poem we will be discussing:
Where Does the Dance Begin, Where Does It End?
Don't call this world adorable, or useful, that's not it.
It's frisky, and a theater for more than fair winds.
The eyelash of lightning is neither good nor evil.
The struck tree burns like a pillar of gold.
But the blue rain sinks, straight to the white
feet of the trees
whose mouths open.
Doesn't the wind, turning in circles, invent the dance?
Haven't the flowers moved, slowly, across Asia, then Europe,
until at last, now, they shine
in your own yard?
Don't call this world an explanation, or even an education.
When the Sufi poet whirled, was he looking
outward, to the mountains so solidly there
in a white-capped ring, or was he looking
to the center of everything: the seed, the egg, the idea
that was also there,
beautiful as a thumb
curved and touching the finger, tenderly,
little love-ring,
as he whirled,
oh jug of breath,
in the garden of dust?
(April 20, 2016 - 4:32 pm)
Very interesting poem. I shall submit my thoughts tomorrow.
Vocabulary for "Where Does the Dance Begin, Where Does It End?"
Adorable- very attractive
Frisky- very playful or lively
Pillar- a large post that helps to hold up something
Sufi- a member of a Muslim group of people who try to experience God directly especially by praying and meditating
(April 20, 2016 - 5:58 pm)
I am joining. Great poem choice Owlgirl. It's okay if you want someone who has done this before but I volunteer to be Vocab Person. I won't define any words yet in case someone else already volunteered and I missed their comment.
(April 20, 2016 - 6:19 pm)
I did volunteer, and I posted the vocabulary words just now, but I only took the job cause nobody else would. So you can be Vocab Person from now on!
(April 20, 2016 - 8:24 pm)
Welcome to the Poetry Club, Willow! Glad you could join. Also glad you like the poem selection.
(April 20, 2016 - 8:25 pm)
Butterfly's song
By BumbleBuddy
The butterfly flits through the air,
Without a worry, without a care.
Like a song carried by the breeze,
It dodges ferns, brambles and trees.
In a successful search for flowers,
The butterfly will look for hours.
I sometimes wonder, I sometimes dream,
What it would be like if I were him.
(April 21, 2016 - 4:51 pm)
Thoughts on Mary Oliver's poem:
The whole poem is a question. When you end with a question mark, you make your poem a question. Doesn't the wind invent the dance? Haven't the flowers moved...? Was he looking outward?
Notice the question words. I think Mary Oliver is asking the reader's interpretitation of the world while giving hers at the same time. Questions are a great way to keep a reader involved.
(April 22, 2016 - 9:56 am)
I love the first line. I think it really sets the tone for this poem. I feel that this poem is sort of challenging the readers views on the world and pushing the reader to look farther. Already in the first stanza she tells you not to say one thing and offers a different perspective. She addresses in that first stanza the way things are neither good nor evil. I feel that the rest of the poem follows that neutrality, taking neither a positive stance nor a negative one. I'm curious as to what you guys think of the imagery and her wording. There is constant motion in this poem that really fits with this "dance" she speaks of.
(April 22, 2016 - 1:22 pm)
This is Owlgirl.
Pardon me for speaking outright, but I am not sure why you are posting these random poems. (On a side note, they are pretty good.) This is primarily a poem discussion club, although once we've discussed the poem of choice we do write poems inspired by the poem. I'm not all that sure that this thread is the place for posting those poems. Perhaps there is another thread? But feel free to discuss the poems and write the inspired poems when notice is given to do so. Thanks. Once again, I hope you do not take this offensively. :)
(April 22, 2016 - 5:40 pm)
Here's our schedule.
1. Share the poem. (READ) Check!
2. Vocab Person, define words. (DEFINE) Check!
3. Discuss the poem, its meaning, its feeling, how we would have changed it, whatever you want to discuss about it! (DISCUSS)
4. Prompts are given, we discuss it and write our own poems. (WRITE)
5. Discuss each other's poems, compare it, etc. (WRITE)
As for questions, at some point, share what this poem means to YOU, not necessarily how the author may have intended for it to be, but how you view and analyze it.
(April 22, 2016 - 5:42 pm)
I agree with Rose bud that there is a lot of questioning in this poem. Questioning the world. I love the way the author leaves this poem so open. I like how Oliver doesn't really seem to exactly TELL what she thinks, it's more like she PRESENTS us with a new view on life, and invites us to consider it and dig further.
And so we will. I will take what I can from this poem. Maybe Oliver didn't think along the same train thought as I am right now, but I will share what I feel, what first comes to mind. Warning: broadcasting thoughts live.
Oliver says that the world should not be considered adorable, useful, an explanation, or an education.
By world, I think she means the Earth itself, the wind, the Sun, and Nature. (Can I just start capitalizing things like Earth and Nature and Love and World? I feel the need to, for some reason.)She doesn't seem to be including us humans as a component of the world, rather, we are merely inhabitants of this world, constantly trying to figure it out, understand its innerworkings, dissect it, try to find our place in it. This brings a sort of humbleness to this poem; we are merely humans, mortals, in comparasion to the great, big universe. We will never truly understand the World.
This brings me, I guess, to when she says Don't call this world adorable, or useful, that's not it. To me, this means that since we humans are not truly part of the World, that the World does not exist to serve us, to help us, to sustain us. We merely make a living from it, take what we can from it. It's not to be considered "useful", the World does not exist to be of use to us. It is too mighty for that. It does not even exist for our pleasure, for us to adore it, although it has many beauties and gifts that we do indeed adore.
Suddenly that makes me think of Earth Day. Today is Earth Day. The World may not exist for us, may not mean to care for us. Yet it is all we have, so we must care for it. It can't fight against us (except maybe with natural disasters) and if we really wanted to, we could ruin it. But we shouldnt. We must work to protect it, not just use it up.
I probably have many more thoughts, but that is all I will post for now.
By the way, I felt the need to listen to something as I wrote this, but I didn't want anything with words, because that distracts me. Yet I yearned for the calming sound of a singing female voice. So I did a quick search, found something that looked promising, and for twenty minutes, I was listening to "Beautiful New Age Female Vocal Relaxing Music for Meditation | Fantasy Art Landscapes in Background" on YouTube. I swear, of all the music I've listened to while trying to be inspired or concentrate, this was the most relaxing/effective/inspiring.
(April 22, 2016 - 6:12 pm)
Owlgirl, goodness, your fourth and fifth paragraphs were rather thoughtful- no, very thoughtful. I had never thought of the world is not adorable part that way- although, I think it makes pretty good sense. What I first thought Oliver was saying was that we shouldn't think of the world as adorable, useful, nice, and perfect, because it isn't. (It almost reminds me of a poor or middle class person telling some spoiled rich socialite that they know nothing of the world, but I definitely don't relate that to this poem. I merely felt like mentioning it.) It is "frisky, and a theater for more than fair wind" meaning it is wild and natural, with a mind of its own, and that it doesn't just have fair, calm winds. There are also powerful gusts and storms. Yet I don't think Oliver is arguing that the world is worse than we think. Like Smolbean said, it's neutral. "The eyelash of lightning is neither good nor evil" says as much.
(April 22, 2016 - 8:50 pm)
I am just going to start going line by line, because I always end up doing that with poems, so I might as well start now with this now.
1. Don't call this world adorable, or useful, that's not it.
Already said what I thought about this.
2. It's frisky, and a theater for more than fair winds.
What Hermi said. Also, may I just say that, as a theater kid I love this line because it basically comparing the world to a theater. In fact, for some reason, that makes me automaticallyy think about Shakespeare, like it should be in one of his plays or something. Hey, by the way, it's Celebrate William Shakespeare Day, on the anniversary of his death (as opposed to his birthday, because we're still not quite sure when that was). Anyway, *sudden brainstorm* Oh, oh, oh, I KNOW why I was thinking about Shakespeare! This line reminded me of Shakespeare's "All the World's A Stage" thing. Wasn't that in Cricket at some point? Yes, it was, now I remember...Oh, fourth grade teacher, I am making Text-to-Text Connections in outside of school reading. What have you done to me. :)
3. The eyelash of lightning is neither good nor evil.
What SmolBean said about neutrality. I also like Oliver's metaphor when she says an "eyelash of lightning."
4. The struck tree burns like a pillar of gold.
Whaaaaaat? What does this mean? *takes moment to think* Okay, this connects to the thing about lightning being a neutral force. It's justifying that claim. It's saying that even when lightning strikes something, like a tree, which seems like a destructive/negative force, but Oliver argues that, "Look, even when lightning strikes a tree, look, there is a beauty. The tree is all lit up, like a pillar of gold." I think it was important that she addded this, because when I read the line before, I was kind of like, "Okaaaaay, I'm not sure how lightning is a neutral force." And again, I think she is again playing into the fact the the World, that Nature does not exist for the purpose of benefitting or harming us; it is a neutral force, existing for itself.
5. But the blue rain sinks, straight to the white/feet of the trees/whose mouths open.
Okay, I don't really get this line. I mean, it's basically saying that rain sinks into the roots of the trees. But what about the mouths open part...okay, i guess that refers to the tree hollow.
But I still don't get how this line fits in with the rest of the poem. Any ideas on this?
(April 23, 2016 - 4:00 pm)
I love your interpretation of this poem. For that fifth part I am not sure what the mouths refer to exactly but I think the point is to use the rain as a contrast to the lightning and the burning tree. It is like the tree is hungry for water (which explains the mouth). This contrast seems to once again fit with the theme of neutrality because it says while the burning tree is beautiful, nature also makes sure to put out the fire with rain. I'm not explaining this well but who knows this is just my interpretation.
(April 24, 2016 - 4:33 pm)