The excitement and joy of dedicating time to poetry was palpable at the Sept 1 "Vitamin P for Poetry" series.
Excerpts from Sherman Alexie's poem, "Crazy Horse Speaks" and Amina Baraka's poem, "The Last Word", both published in Unsettling America: an Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (Gillan & Gillan, editors, Penguin Books, 1994) challenged and engaged us on multiple levels.
Visceral responses to Alexie's poem elicited a spectrum of intense emotions: grief, sorrow, guilt, anger, and admitted confusion as we each shared from our respective frames of reference and pieced together our nevertheless still incomplete knowledge of Native American cultures. If anything, this persona poem with chronological shifts, powerful verbs, and sparse use of adjectives, fueled the need for each of us to learn more about painful historical moments, such as Custer's Last Stand, before returning to dwell with the poem.
If Sherman Alexie's poem compelled us to contemplate multiple losses - of culture, of ancestors, and of language, then Amina Baraka's poem, which sounds like a feisty ars poetica, propelled us to embrace unapologetically our individual poetic styles. Baraka's intentional use of the lower-case poetic "i" automatically created a tension between the written diminutive letter and the growlingly loud, vocalized "I". When read aloud, the "i" becomes "i'd rather" be in your face exactly the way I am and not the way you want me to be.
Both poems served as potential writing prompts for "socs" (or streams-of-consciousness), which we took the time to write quietly and then shared aloud.
A few of the many other things we discussed?
● My wish for a group of Greater Springfield poets to go to the next (2014) Split This Rock Poetry Festival and to work on fundraising together for it. This year, I had the privilege of facilitating "The Power of Code-Switching" poetry workshop there and having renown poets such as Francisco X. Alarcón and Odilia Galván Rodríguez participate in it.
● Examples of the importance of networking and information-sharing at poetry readings and workshops. Thanks to an open mic performance as part of the Esselon Poet's Series, I was invited to become the keynote speaker for The WriteAngles Conference on October 20, 2012.
● Sharing resources: Lori Desrosier's weekly poetry calendar (www.poetrycalendar).The yearly Freshwater Poetry Festival in Enfield, CT and the call for poetry submissions for the Freshwater Poetry Journal. The AWP conference in Boston.
● And, finally, "homework": e-mail me ([email protected]) a draft of a 75-word biography for next workshop, scheduled only for this Saturday, October 6th, 12:30pm - 2:30 pm at Forest Park Branch Library, 380 Belmont Ave.
Excerpts from Sherman Alexie's poem, "Crazy Horse Speaks" and Amina Baraka's poem, "The Last Word", both published in Unsettling America: an Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (Gillan & Gillan, editors, Penguin Books, 1994) challenged and engaged us on multiple levels.
Visceral responses to Alexie's poem elicited a spectrum of intense emotions: grief, sorrow, guilt, anger, and admitted confusion as we each shared from our respective frames of reference and pieced together our nevertheless still incomplete knowledge of Native American cultures. If anything, this persona poem with chronological shifts, powerful verbs, and sparse use of adjectives, fueled the need for each of us to learn more about painful historical moments, such as Custer's Last Stand, before returning to dwell with the poem.
If Sherman Alexie's poem compelled us to contemplate multiple losses - of culture, of ancestors, and of language, then Amina Baraka's poem, which sounds like a feisty ars poetica, propelled us to embrace unapologetically our individual poetic styles. Baraka's intentional use of the lower-case poetic "i" automatically created a tension between the written diminutive letter and the growlingly loud, vocalized "I". When read aloud, the "i" becomes "i'd rather" be in your face exactly the way I am and not the way you want me to be.
Both poems served as potential writing prompts for "socs" (or streams-of-consciousness), which we took the time to write quietly and then shared aloud.
A few of the many other things we discussed?
● My wish for a group of Greater Springfield poets to go to the next (2014) Split This Rock Poetry Festival and to work on fundraising together for it. This year, I had the privilege of facilitating "The Power of Code-Switching" poetry workshop there and having renown poets such as Francisco X. Alarcón and Odilia Galván Rodríguez participate in it.
● Examples of the importance of networking and information-sharing at poetry readings and workshops. Thanks to an open mic performance as part of the Esselon Poet's Series, I was invited to become the keynote speaker for The WriteAngles Conference on October 20, 2012.
● Sharing resources: Lori Desrosier's weekly poetry calendar (www.poetrycalendar).The yearly Freshwater Poetry Festival in Enfield, CT and the call for poetry submissions for the Freshwater Poetry Journal. The AWP conference in Boston.
● And, finally, "homework": e-mail me ([email protected]) a draft of a 75-word biography for next workshop, scheduled only for this Saturday, October 6th, 12:30pm - 2:30 pm at Forest Park Branch Library, 380 Belmont Ave.