Poetry’s Gravity

In the fourteenth annual look at debut poets called “Wilder Forms” in the Jan/Feb 2019 Poets&Writers Magazine I read, “For all the gravity of the poets’ concerns, though, there is also a sense of play and invention throughout their work.” The idea of a poem—a poet’s concerns—having gravity, holding things to it, creating orbits stuck with me.

Though the author of the introduction to the special section, Dana Isokawa, was using gravity in reference to subject matter being solemn, serious, and/or critical, I’m now thinking of the force of attraction by which terrestrial bodies tend to fall toward the center of the earth; heaviness or weight; the acceleration of gravity. And there’s another definition: lowness in pitch, as of sounds.

This makes me think that using the contrast of high pitched sounds (birdsong, a flute, water pouring, a baby’s cry) in contrast with low pitched sounds (a cow lowing, a hand drum, thunder, a bass voice) can help express conflicting emotions.

Different speech sounds also have pitches: o-o-o and m-m-m have low pitch; e-e-e is a medium pitch; and s-s-s and f-f-f have a high pitch. Another thing to keep in mind while exploring the gravity of a poem.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo : “write a poem that centers around an encounter or relationship between two people (or things) that shouldn’t really have ever met – whether due to time, space, age, the differences in their nature, or for any other reason.”

PAD Challenge : Write a major event poem

Poetry Non-stop : pick an item at random from the Argos catalogue and write a poem about it, whatever it is.

April Blogging from A to Z Challenge: The G word on the main site today is Gathering. I thought that would make a good poetry prompt today: What am I gathering?

The Argos catalogues from the 1980s turned out to be an inspiring resource that worked well with the NaPoWriMo prompt and the PAD prompt to find things that shouldn’t meet, but when they do, create a major event.

Today’s Poem

Proof of the Paranormal

The world all covered in gray
makes for an ideal day
to stay home and play.
If you’re six or over,
we have Ghost Castle
where you’ll enter the gloom
at  peril of doom, while avoiding
the creepy traps that loom
in the shadowy rooms,
and lay the ghost to rest
when you win by closing
the lid of the coffin in the tomb.

But if you’re still five
and you’re in the mood,
you can play Shark Alert
with a randomly programmed shark
that swims around the surface
attempting to catch the players
who are racing for the lifeboats,
and with each chomping bite
blood will bloom in the churning water
and the players will perish soon
and move to the castle I assume.

I’ll grab my Polaroid
to capture all the souls.
What a momentous day.
Automatic electric eye exposure control.
Ultra-sonic beam adjusted focus
to achieve pin-sharp pictures.
Each auto-focused instant picture
proof of the paranormal.
Dry prints delivered,
developed in my hand.
Proof of  the loss of innocence.
Evidence that birth is the first step to death.
The poisonous knowledge,
killing wonder and mystery.
Soon scoffed and forgotten.
No batteries needed.

Portable MFA Week Two:

This week’s opening instructions says “commitment is the best antidote to fear. Commit to another week of hard work and delight in language. Make yourself accountable.” So this is me, telling you that I’m committed to all eight weeks of this program, and asking you to hold me to it.

Writing: This week I’ll continue to write at least forty-five minutes a day. However, the goal is to find the best time and place for my creativity and then write in one forty-five minute session of extended focus. I will try to build up to that for the end of the week since I still want to try writing at night, and want to explore more options to find my optimal writing space and time.

The goal for this week is to generate a poem from something I wrote in my free-writes last week. The instructions say to slow down, and work on one poem all week. Begin by reading my free-writing from last week; start with something I find there that contains energy and deserves further exploration, and each successive day expand on the poem I begin today, and continue even when I think the poem is done.

Reading: For my second Ada Limόn poem to study, I chose another from her collection, The Hurting Kind_{(assoc. link)}. I was excited to see her poem “The Magnificent Frigatebird” because while I was in Puerto Vallarta I kept asking everyone what the large bird flying overhead was called and no one could tell me. My first online search I couldn’t find it. It became an obsession to find out what that bird was called. Finally, near the end of the trip I found it online, and I will now never forget the Magnificent Frigatebird.

The instructions recommend that if I find any sections of the poem frustrating or daunting I should copy two lines and keep them in my pocket and read them every chance I get for two days, and then read the entire poem again.

See you tomorrow!