Chant poems include
-"I am" poems
-"I remember" poems
-Poems with any repetitive word, pattern, or "anchor phrase"
Please see the PDF handout attached to this page.
I learned the "chant" genre from the Beats, especially Anne Waldman, Diane diPrima, & Allen Ginsberg.
Here are some examples
Anne Waldman
(excerpt from "Fast Speaking Woman")
I'm a rock woman
I'm a horse woman
I'm a monkey woman
I'm a chipmunk woman I'm a mountain woman I'm a blue mountain woman I'm a marsh woman
I'm a jungle woman
I'm a tundra woman
I'm the lady in the lake I'm the lady in the sand
water that cleans
flowers that clean
water that cleans as I go
I'm a bird woman
I'm a book woman
I'm a devilish clown woman I'm a holy-clown woman I'm a whirling-dervish woman I'm a whirling-foam woman I'm a playful-light woman I'm a tidal-pool woman I'm a fast speaking woman
Diane DiPrima
LIFE CHANT
cacophony of small birds at dawn may it continue
sticky monkey flowers on bare brown hills
may it continue
bitter taste of early miner's lettuce may it continue
music on city streets in the summer nights
may it continue
kids laughing on roofs on stoops on the beach in the snow
may it continue
triumphal shout of the newborn may it continue
deep silence of great rainforests may it continue
fine austerity of jungle peoples may it continue
rolling fuck of great whales in turquoise ocean
may it continue
clumsy splash of pelican in smooth bays
may it continue
astonished human eyeball squinting thru aeons at astonished nebulae who squint back
may it continue
clean snow on the mountain
may it continue
fierce eyes, clear of light of the aged may it continue
rite of birth and of naming
may it continue
rite of instruction
may it continue
rite of passage
may it continue
love in the morning, love in the noon sun
love in the evening among crickets may it continue
long tales by fire, by window, in fog, in dusk on the mesa
may it continue
the night music
may it continue
grunt of mating hippo, giraffe, foreplay for snow leopard
screeching of cats on the backyard fence
may it continue
without police
may it continue
without prisons
may it continue
without hospitals, death medicine: flu and flu vaccine
may it continue
without madhouses, marriage, highschools that are prisons
may it continue
without empire
may it continue
in sisterhood
may it continue
thru the wars to come
may it continue
in brotherhood
may it continue
tho the earth seem lost
may it continue
thru exile and silence
may it continue
with cunning and love
may it continue
as woman continues
may it continue
as breath continues
may it continue
as stars continue
may it continue
may the wind deal kindly with us may the fire remember our names may springs flow, rian fall again may the land grow green, may it swallow our mistakes
we begin the work
may it continue
the great transmutation
may it continue
a new heaven and a new earth may it continue
may it continue
--
Andrew Smith's "I am clarity & confusion":
http://www.teacherontheradio.com/2012/10/i-am-clarity-confusion-poem-recited-on.html