It sits in the middle and knows

On Saturday, we Dead Good Poets met for our monthly workshop.  After a fun word game which involved coming up with the most inventive similes (I failed but not miserably as I now have lots of stolen similes - mwah ha ha), David Riley read an excerpt from Seamus Heaney's Seeing Things (XVIII).  The excerpt was written in tercets with a little internal rhyme and, if memory serves, contained ten syllables per line.  The aspect of the poetry which we all observed was the way Heaney managed to allude to magic throughout his narrative of a visiting rope seller without ever overtly naming it.  The devil was very much in the details. 

For our main writing exercise, we set about trying to write short poems in a similar style to Heaney's, i.e. we would have a list of things to include but we should never name them, rather use the details to allude to their existence.  To this end we started by making lists.  I asked everyone to give me one fictional character, location, object and type of magic.  Here are the results:

Fictional characters

• Mr Pickwick
• Batman
• James Bond
• Raffles (the gentleman thief)
• Willy Wonka
• Mr Rochester
• Madame Bovary
• Heathcliffe
• Miss Marple

Locations

• Blackpool
• Hogwarts
• Hawaii
• Andromeda
• Canada
• Glasgow
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
• Coney Island
• London

Object

• Chainsaw
• Blue John Stone
• Paintbrush
• Dagger
• Football
• Cigarette Lighter
• Fish Tank
• Book
• Quill

Type of Magic

• Witchcraft
• Black Magic
• Close Up Magic
• Numerology
• Necromancy
• Conjuring
• Wizardry
• Kaballah
• Tarot

As I then distributed these in order this meant that someone had to write a poem about a gentleman thief with a dagger on Andromeda using numerology.  Someone else was forced to write a poem about James Bond in Hawaii with a paint brush and close up magic.  Everyone rose to the challenge magnificently, weaving the details in with humour (references to the insertion of a three inch Harris had us in stitches) and beauty (the blood red maple leaves in the Willy Wonka necromancy poem were especially vivid).

There was some talk that I had rigged this challenge as I ended up writing about Miss Marple in London with a quill and tarot.  It does seem a particularly favourable set when compared to Batman at Hogwarts with a piece of Blue John and black magic but the poem which that latter set instigated was so creative that I think I might have preferred something more challenging. 

As I'm not going to be at the open mic event on Friday, I thought I'd share my effort from the workshop.  If you would like to use this exercise to create some poetry, please do.  We'd love to read your work in the comments box.


Divine Mystery

In Whitechapel, hell clings to brick and stone
Grim residue like smog that never lifts
Blue populace wades, ankle deep in death

Behind a window's bubble-spotted eyes
Bone-handled orphans rest in caskets lined
With velvet.  Feathered pens and vessels, cracked.

A desk, marked deep and faded as the day
Is strewn with cups and wands, lovers and wheels
A form, ancient and present, points to change.

Her fingers at the deck, old woman smiles
Reeking of gin and smoke, wrapped tight in tweed
A body's surfaced and she knows the hand.

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il était une fois

Following on from the fantastic workshop on Saturday (at Blackpool Library), I thought I would share one of the exercises from the session.  The aim is that by following the instructions step by step you will have, in a short time, a cracking fairytale poem of which you can be proud.  This worked really well this weekend and I was incredibly impressed with the results.  I'm excited to hear the poets performing them tomorrow.

Fairytale Poem in Seven Simple Steps

Poppy: Red Riding Hood

Scissors: Rapunzel

Bone: Hansel and Gretel

Key: Bluebeard

Sock: Emperor’s New Clothes

Beans: Jack and the Beanstalk

Pile of ash: Cinderella

Gold thread: Rumpelstiltskin

Wooden needle: Sleeping Beauty

1) Choose an object from the list above.  The corresponding character/story is the subject of your poem.  Take 5 minutes to come up with as many likenesses for that object as you can, e.g. poppy = flame, scissors = bird, bone = flute etc.

2) Write two lines of poetry, with eight syllables in each, to describe your main character in relation to the object.  Rhyming is optional.  Eg. you might have Red picking the flowers or the witch sharpening the scissors.

3) Take a scene from the story and write three examples of sensations you might encounter there, e.g. If your scene involves Sleeping Beauty encountering the wicked fairy at the spinning wheel:

A smell – e.g. fresh linen, damp forest, boiled sweets

A sound – e.g. creaking wood, birds outside, her heartbeat

A texture – e.g. coarse wool, polished wood, stone walls

A taste – e.g. metallic air, honey, blood

A sight – e.g. skeins of thread, open window, stone floor

4) Write two lines of poetry, with eight syllables in each, using the same scene from your story, and including some of the elements you’ve imagined above.

5) Stories and poems which include strong visual imagery are more likely to be retained by the reader.  Use visualisation to put yourself in the scene and make it vivid for yourself.  If you can see what you’re describing you’re more likely to be able to make it clear for the readers.

• Imagining the scene from your story, what is the strongest emotion?
• Think of an animal/element to represent that emotion
• Place that animal/element in a scene of its own
• Think of an action for that animal/element to carry out

6) Write four lines of poetry with eight syllables in each line following the pattern:

Line 1: Character and emotion

Line 2: Animal/element

Line 3: Scene/background

Line 4: Action

7) Return to the object.  Write two lines with eight syllables to describe the object again but reflecting on what’s happened in the scene, e.g. the flower might have fallen to the ground or the key be stained with blood.

You should be left with a ten line poem.  This exercise can take between 15 minutes and several hours depending on how much time you want to spend on the imaginative exercises and re-writing.  Have fun with it, play with it.  Share it.

The Dead Good Poets are meeting at 6pm at the No5 Cafe, Cedar Square, Blackpool.  It's a family friendly evening on the theme of children's poetry.  As usual, it's open mic and all are welcome to read.  We'd be delighted if you would join us.

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