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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)
Oops! Sorry! I thought you were someone I know from school. Hoot-toot-riot is one of her nicknames (I don't even remember why). I told her about the CB a while ago and she really likes poetry, so I thought you were her. I'm sorry!
(April 27, 2016 - 1:18 pm)
No need to put an embarassed emogi. It's fine. Actually I was happy someone noticed me and even thought I was somebody they knew.
(April 27, 2016 - 4:31 pm)
Can we talk about the Sufi poet part? (The last 3 verses) Because I don't quite get that.
Those three verses are one big question, literally; it ends in a question mark. I think it's asking if the Sufi poet when he looks out at mountains, is he seeing just the beatiful, solid mountains, what is on the surface, or is he seeing something deeper: the cneter of everything, the "seed, the egg, the idea"?
But what does that even mean? I don't get what the center of everything and everything else in that verse means.
And the last verse, where he is "whirling" in a garden of dust? What does that even mean?
(April 28, 2016 - 12:28 pm)
I did some research, as I am a research manac, that I believe clears up one of your questions, Owlgirl, the one about the "whirling."
I looked up "Sufi." There were a bunch of pictures of these men in robes and hats, whirling around. It's not quite a dance...it's a religious ritual. According to Wikipedia, Sufis are Muslim mystics that "seek to find divine truth and love through direct encounters with God." The practice Oliver is referring to is known as "Whirling Dervishes." This ritual is specifically praacticed by Turkish Sufis. This ritual, wihich, like I said before is not technically a dance, "practices meditation and contemplation of God through spinning."
*sighs* Isn't that cool? I love doing research, and learning about different cultures and religions.
(April 28, 2016 - 8:23 pm)
Wow, Hermi, you really did do a lot of research. I have more ideas, based on what you told me, about Sufism. And I looked up pictures of "Sufi" and indeed I did recognize them. Interesting, I had always thought it was some sort of folk dance.
What if the "garden of dust" is really a dry, desert-y place, since the environment is kind of like that where Sufism is practiced. And the jar...do they ever hold jars, maybe? Anyway, on to the less literal aspects.
So I think in the two verses before the last verse, Oliver is wondering (or is she asking us?) if, when those Sufi poets are doing their whirling if they are just looking at the solid mountains, or if they are seeing more deep than the mountain itself. What if they are looking at the center of of everything, the center of the world, which is an idea. This idea is compared to a seed, because it is small but sprouts many thing. It is also compared to an egg, which I think is a more adequate metaphor for the mountain itself. On the surface, or the shell, it seems only to be a solid mountain. But inside, there is "the center of everything," hidden but significant, just like the baby bird insid an egg.
Sorry if this doesn't make sense.
(April 29, 2016 - 9:02 pm)
Alrighty! Let's get down to business (to defeat...the Huns!)
We've had a really great discussion on this. We made so many great connections.
I am going to go ahead and post the starter for the poem inspired by "Where Does The Dance Begin, Where Does It End?"
*******************
Inspired Poem #1
Option One: Just write a poem inspired by our poem! You might already have gotten a good idea...now you get to share it.
Option Two: Write a poem about something that is a neutral force, like Oliver described the lighting, but don't use lightning.
Option Three: Write a poem about one big metaphor for the world, like Oliver mentioned a stage, or an egg, or a seed. (Don't use any examples she used...come up with your own.
Option Four: Write a poem with a lot of questions, about whatever you want, like about life itself, or the world, or why weather happens the way it does, or something.
You can choose any of these options.....if you want, you can even do two. But make sure to say which Option you are doing.
You can do your poem in any form you like....it can rhyme, it can not rhyme, it can be a haiku....whatever!
*******************
You can still keep discussing and commenting on the poem. I am just opening up this option to move this club around.
By the way, when people post their poems, you can comments on it and critique it.
(April 29, 2016 - 9:23 pm)
(April 30, 2016 - 4:14 pm)
I always read before I write. Today, I picked House of Light by Mary Oliver from my selection of poetry books, so this poem reflects her writing.
ART
All nature is a beautiful image
all beautiful images are art
therefore, all life is art;
all art is life
because the way the pine tree
leans back against the clouded canvas
is art
and the way that the lizard’s broken body
still sags,
its eyes melancholy,
as if it had one last wish
that would never come true,
is art
and because the bluebird looks
uncertain, almost pleading,
its feathers so perfectly stitched together,
its eyes a dream of what’s to come,
all life is art.
But somehow, the trees still fall—
why are the pinecones hitting the ground
so beautiful?
And why does the wisp of cloud that the falling plane
spits out as it tumbles
almost look like brush strokes on a perfect sky?
Why is it so achingly picturesque,
even though the boom of its crash
echoes across
the living canvas?
(May 2, 2016 - 8:25 am)
TOP!
(May 2, 2016 - 3:52 pm)