This is a page containing recaps and materials from past classes. Did you miss a class? No problem. Do you want to go over something again? No problem.
Thursday October 17th 2019
2 hours
Welcome
Ensure everyone is connected and can hear and see my video and shared screen.
We will try keeping mics on or off depending upon your own preference.
Using your web cam is preferred but not required.
About me and the course.
Everything about the course is on the web site www.poemsforpoliticians.com.
About Goddard College.
About the course.
This is a safe environment. You can say and feel whatever you want. You can use bad words. You can scream. You can point things out to me that I am saying that’s wrong or you disagree with. The one thing I can’t let you do is disseminate hate. We are not going to be the thing we want to destroy.
You are not required to share your work. You are not even required to write. You can simply listen in if you want. I am required to turn in sample work from students in my final report, so hopefully some of you will pass me writing, but I am never going to require that you give me anything. And I’m not going to secretly put your writing in my report. There are no grades or tests and the only homework is I’ll suggest you read something online and I will ask you to write.
A the end of the course, I will ask that you fill out a course evaluation. It will be a simple survey letting my advisors know that I did something worthwhile or not.
It is okay if you miss a night. Everything we cover will be on the web site. Even this script that I’m using now.
You can take everything I am doing and use it yourself in your own classes. Take everything. Copy it. Set up your own classes. All I ask is that you give this site credit and Goddard College so I can show people how this has made a difference in the world.
PLEASE at any point – even toward the end, you can invite others to join.
Our objectives in this course are simple –
The reason for sending our poems to politicians is NOT because I think they will sit down and
read them slowly and it will sway their opinion. I hope that happens, but I’m not going to let their actions or inactions determine whether this was a success. Success is that we did something. WE took an action.
Send out the poem is our measure of completion.
If you love a poem you create in this course you can still send it to a magazine or add it to your manuscript.
Tonight we are going to start by looking at some poems. We will begin with very clear poems. What I want to do is set a definition of what a political poem is. Is it angry? It could be. Is it flag waving and patriotism? Is it all about taking a stance? Picking a side? Is it confrontational?
Examples of poems:
“Johannesburg Mines” by Langston Hughes
“Statistical Haiku” by Evie Shockley
“kitchenette building” by Gwendolyn Brooks
The previous poems are concrete, obtainable, they reveal facts, show us things, do not tell us what to think, very controlled emotionally.
The next few poems are more emotional, more imaginary, still showing, still controlled emotions:
“In Two Seconds” by Mark Doty
“what’s not to liken” by Evie Shockley
“Riot” by Gwendolyn Brooks
All six poems are political in that they are revealing a human condition that needs to be fixed.
All six masterfully shows rather than tells.
All six control emotion by controlling language.
The objective of session 1 was to establish what a political poem could be by looking at some examples. You can find the session 1 examples by going to the "Examples/Resources" page located within www.poemsforpoliticians.com.
Thuesday October 22nd 2019
2 hours
Welcome
Ensure everyone is connected and can hear and see my video and shared screen.
We will continue keeping mics on or off depending upon your own preference.
Review of Session 1
Everything about the course is on the web site www.poemsforpoliticians.com.
Tonight we are going to start by looking at some poems that we wrote!
“Next Stop, Humanity” by Thomas Hartigan
Thomas’ poem was not workshopped, but rather used as an example of how you can take your finished work and look at it differently. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Make a copy of your poem, name the file something else and play with it just to see what happens: cut it up and switch things around, consider eliminating anything weak (every poem has strong and weak spots), try starting the poem in the middle. What I did as an example is “erasure.” I deleted anything that I felt didn’t strengthen the poem: unnecessary words & phrases. What was left over looked interesting on the page and still possessed the spirit of the poem.
If you don’t like what happened, throw it out and try something else. This is a very fun and often rewarding task that you can do, especially if you don’t feel like a new poem will emerge. Instead of not writing at all, re-work an old poem in a drastic way.
“alarm fatigue” by Jennifer Skura
As a group we workshopped Jenifer’s poem. We began by having Jennifer read it, then, I hid the poem from everyone’s view and we talked about words and phrases that stood out in our mind. This is an effective technique to identify the strongest, most memorable aspects of the poem. There were many memorable moments.
Although emotionally moving, it was difficult to really nail down the “intent” of the poem. This was important for Jennifer to hear, since, as a political poem, it needs to bring attention to something. If the reader isn’t sure what that something is, then being moved by a poem will not result in change.
“Story Time” by Matthew Taylor
We workshopped Matthew’s poem in the same manner as Jennifer’s. Matthew’s poem did a great job of pulling the readers in with references to traditional fairy tales. The poem was especially effective because of how we were all on the journey of discovery, with the poet. This is an effective way to persuade a reader to listen throughout the poem and have little argument about what is being said.
Matthew’s poem needed some tightening up with phrasing and there were some suggestions of substituting words and phrases in order to strengthen it and smooth out the reading of it.
Going over these student poems took us all the way up to 8:40.
I shared a poem of mine for the purpose of illustrating how a poem can be developed from “found text.” I used the 9/11 Executive Summary Report, which I have made available on the Example/Resources page. We also talked about how Layli Long Soldier used a congressional apology to Native Americans as inspiration for her book, Whereas.
To wrap up the night, I played a recording of a poem by Quique Aviles. (Also available on the Example/Resources page) It is a good example of writing about the self (identity) to make a powerful political point. In his poem, he examines all of the things “Latino” means to him and his community. It is a world of various identities. By doing this, he has shown how restrictive a label can be. People want the word “Latino” to mean one stereotypical image, but it actually contains a thousand images.
Thursday October 24th, 2019
2 hours
Welcome
Ensure everyone is connected and can hear and see my video and shared screen.
We will continue keeping mics on or off depending upon your own preference.
Review of Session 1 & 2
Recaps of session 1 & 2 are on the web site www.poemsforpoliticians.com under “Recaps”
Tonight we are going to start by looking at some poems that we wrote!
"This" by Thomas Hartigan
“Gathering Poem Seeds”
A slideshow with the following information is under construction and will be available on Examples/Resources page under "Session 3".
Observational list
This is the product of simple, basic observation. Throughout the day, students should look around and write down a list of what they see. They should not try to make a sentence. They should not describe what they see. This may seem contrary to their desire. They may want to write “a red tea kettle,” but I am suggesting they write down “kettle.” This brevity serves a purpose. Firstly, it simplifies the task. Students will be more inclined to make lists if it is as mindless as possible. Secondly, it will be the remembering of the kettle that reveals the important adjectives. The minds memory of the kettle is more valuable than the description at the moment it is being observed. For the purpose of this course, observing environments which could have a political nature is encouraged. As we have seen with Gwendolyn Books’ “kitchenette apartment,” your own home can posses a political message.
Simile list
I find that creating similes is an enjoyable use of time. With this exercise a student can observe something that has the potential to be described in a meaningful way. For me, right now, I am looking at birdseed that has fallen from the feeder onto the back porch floor.
The birdseed is scattered on the porch floor… (this is where you begin your simile list),
I am not sure if any of these will be used in a poem, but they are fun to create and strengthens the mind for future similes. When students read “what’s not to liken” by Evie Shockley, as we do in Session one, they will see how similes can be deadly sharp in a political poem
Keyword list
With a focus on political poetry, being attentive to key words in the news can be a wealth of inspiration. The student can create two lists: one with keywords, and alongside that list, the student can create a list of emotions.
If the student is looking at a newspaper, she can circle words and use one color for a positive words and another color for negative words.
Keeping as much as you can on one page.
This allows relationships between different scenes to be built.
Digging through your lists
After some time has passed – a couple of days or even a few months - it is fun to rummage through the collected materials such as the lists or marked up newspapers and see if any poems begin to surface. Often with political poetry, the subject is a newsworthy event. It will oftentimes seem important to create a poem immediately in order for the poem to have relevance. We will discuss the issue of immediacy and relevance in class.
Anaphora – noun
1. the use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition, such as do in I like it and so do they.
2. the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
"I Am Waiting" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Review of a student poem:
"What the F* is wrong with Us" by Thomas Hartigan
Clustering
Begin with a topic that you want to write about. Circle it. That is your primary topic. From that circle, draw a line to another topic that the first topic reminds you of. Keep branching out from each idea/topic, creating what many call a mind map. The goal is that you find a cluster that inspires a poem in a way that doesn't hit the primary target head on. This will hopefully result in an effective metaphor.
The example I used in class:
The primary topic was a crime. ---------------That made me think of a pack of dogs. -------------------That made me think of a scary childhood experience where I was afraid of a pack of dogs.
Now I can write about my childhood experience as a metaphor about the crime.
I also shared a poem I created using this method:
"Your Own Spaghetti"
If you are attempting a poem that involves a high degree of emotion, using the clustering method can assist place that emotion into a metaphor. This can be helpful when writing political poetry.
I placed an essay called "Writing a Political Poem" on the Examples/Resources page under Session 3. The essay gives a simple example of how emotion can sometimes paralyze the creative process.
Found Text
In session 2 we took a brief look at Layli Long Soldier's "Whereas" using an government document as a source for an entire collection of poems. There is a wealth of government documents (public domain) that can be a tremendous resource for your political poetry. Anything issued/shared by the government belongs to all US citizens. Feel free to use it.
Homework – Course Feedback – Since we are halfway through the course (already) I need to know if I need to be super agile and alter our direction before it's too late. I was going to ask students to email me 2 or 3 sentences to clarify what they want out of the class that we have not covered.
That way I can either address them, or provide information on the web site to help.
Thursday October 29th, 2019
2 hours
Welcome
Ensure everyone is connected and can hear and see my video and shared screen.
Review of Session 1 & 2 & 3
Tonight we will be discussing effectiveness through
When the students were asked about any "poetry news" since our last class, one student wanted to read the 13th stanza from "In Memoriam: Gillian Rose" BY GEOFFREY HILL.
We discussed Chapter 4 - Political Poetry in Carl Dennis' book Poetry as Persuasion.
We talked about the importance of a political poem to be as personal as possible and to avoid “party talk”.
We read Tony Hoagland’s poem, “My Country” as an example of (as Carl Dennis says) turning “what might have been a simple confession of personal failure into an analogue for the failure of American society as a whole.”
We listened to a segment of an interview with Laura Orem. Orem does a beautiful job placing personal value on political poetry. The segment we listed to can be found in the session 4 resources on the Examples/Resources page. The full interview can be found at "The Poet and the Poem" a service developed by the Library of Congress.
A student shared a poem
Thursday October 31th 2019
Welcome
Ensure everyone is connected and can hear and see my video and shared screen.
Recaps of session 1 through 4 are on the web site www.poemsforpoliticians.com under “Recaps”
In the last session I talked about the importance of a political poem to be as personal as possible and to avoid “party talk”.
We read Tony Hoagland’s poem, “My Country” as an example of (as Carl Dennis says) turning “what might have been a simple confession of personal failure into an analogue for the failure of American society as a whole.”
We uses a segment (chapter 4) of the book Poetry as Persuasion by Carl Dennis.
Effectiveness of political poetry through understanding.
Personal poems are effective.
Understanding:
When we are writing our political poems we are probably picturing the extreme:
If you are a liberal poet, you may picture a crowd of obnoxious racists wearing MAGA hats
If you are a conservative poet (if there is such a thing) you may imagine naked people chained to trees chanting magic spells.
We have to be honest with ourselves and recognize that you are not going to covert extreme people with a poem.
So what can your poem do?
Do we want our poems to promote divisiveness and polarization?
Should it be the intent of the poet/poem to heal and bring together?
We listened to an NPR segment about Amari Baraka. He was sometimes accused of being extreme and divisive.
I told about my situation, working at a Catholic college:
I am surrounded by a strange mix of liberals (because of it being in a college environment) and conservatives (because it is a religious college). The liberals restrain themselves to fit in to the Catholic environment and the conservatives struggle to be more open minded since the student population tends to lean more liberal.
I work with a person who personifies a republican. He is older, white, upper middle class. And.. I like him. I have to ask myself – why do I like him? 1) he’s dependable 2) he values integrity 3) he is easy to talk to.
Although I consider myself liberal and lean heavily left on almost everything, my liberal friends can be exhausting to be around. At a party one of my liberal friends asked if the eggs in a cake came from one of our chickens. They did. He then asked if our chickens ever ate GMO corn. Ugh. Probably. This would be a moment where I would find it easier to talk to my conservative friend rather than my liberal friend.
For my conservative friend, the world is changing too quickly. It’s too complicated and scary and the liberals keep pushing for more radical change every day and he just wants it to slow down (or stop).
We all have someone in our lives that we disagree with politically, but we like them anyway. Keep those people in mind when writing political poetry. This is a way you can keep your political poetry personal and less divisive, and therefor, more effective.
Self-Critiquing Your Poem
Most poets don't have a circle of poet friends who can critique your work on a regular basis. You need to develop some skills and tricks to looking at your poems from an outsider's perspective. This is difficult. There is a good chance that the poem you write makes perfect sense to you because of something you know that is not in the poem. Or, maybe there is something you consider common knowledge that is unknown to the reader. For example, if you are between 50 and 60 and make a reference to Watergate, I assure you that very few people under the age of 30 will catch the reference. That DOES NOT mean that you drop the reference or restrict your poetry to an incredibly narrow range of common knowledge. All it means is you should be aware and use that awareness to fine tune your poem.
Here are some questions I developed to try to think outside myself:
1 – how does this poem make me feel?
2 – who would I give this poem to if I could only give it to one person – EVER?
(If you say someone you don’t know personally, then second guess whether the poem is personal enough)
3 – How do you want that person to feel?
4 – Why?
One of the common phrases you hear with any form of artistic writing is to "Write for yourself and edit for a reader." The purists may tell you to never worry about the reader. That level of confidence (which has to be backed up with an equal amount of unique talent) is something that a poet may achieve after years of hard work, but if you are trying to get off the ground, I would suggest you edit for the reader.
Homework
Write a letter that would accompany your poem, if you were to send a poem to a politician.
Sending a poem without a letter still has value, but with a letter you will be framing the poem. Without a letter it's like getting a $10 bill in the mail from grandma without the birthday card. You can guess it's for your birthday, and you appreciate the $10, but you do wonder if grandma has finally lost her mind.
In the letter:
Student evaluations
Please fill out the course evaluation!
Click Here to fill out the course evaluation. It is something I am required to do.
Tuesday November 5th 2019
Welcome
Ensure everyone is connected and can hear and see my video and shared screen.
Recaps of session 1 through 4 are on the web site www.poemsforpoliticians.com under “Recaps”
PfP Online Session 6 Script
In the last session We talked about
Effectiveness of political poetry through
· Understanding
· Being personal
Any poem stories?
Any poems to share?
Homework – Look over any letters written
Write a letter that would accompany your poem, if you were to send a poem to a politician.
Sending a poem without a letter still has value, but with a letter you will be framing the poem. Without a letter it's like getting a $10 bill in the mail from grandma without the birthday card. You can guess it's for your birthday, and you appreciate the $10, but you do wonder if grandma has finally lost her mind.
In the letter:
· Be Kind
· Say who you are
· Do not explain or apologize for your poem
· Say why you sent
· Say how you would like to see change
Look at student Letters - we had 3 submissions and all 3 were extremely appropriate and well done.
Look at the sample online - I posted my own letter as an example (template). It is available on the Examples/Resources page.
Resources for finding a politician - We talked about how it is easy to find representatives and senators. Links are available on the Examples/Resources page.
Student evaluations
Please fill out the course evaluation! Emails were sent but can also be found on the Contact/Assessment page.
Political Poetry from other authors:
We looked at “The Poets are Going Home Now” by Carolyn Kizer
We listened to the video about “The Salt Stronger” by Fred Marchant
GREAT POETRY:
A couple of people mentioned in their mid-course feedback that they wanted to be introduced to new poets. Through my MFA program, I too was excited to learn about new poetry. Tonight I shared my top 10 (11) favorite books I read within my program. Although not labeled as political poetry, all have great political messages in their poetry: