In the Special Section “Inspiration” in the Jan/Feb 2020 Poets&Writers Magazine, several of the poets used the word “survival” when talking about how their collection began.
Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes who wrote The Inheritance of Haunting (assoc link) said, “This book emerged as a result of poetry as a mode of survival and healing at the intersections of my own autoimmune illness and excavations into historical memory, generational trauma, and collective responsibility.” Sara Borjas who wrote Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff (assoc link) said, “Much of our lives, ideas, values, and traditions are survival tactics. And Camonghne Felix who wrote Build Yourself a Boat (assoc link) asked, “what goes beyond survival? What comes after it? What does it look like to depart from a journey of survival and enter a journey of thriving?”
I really love that last question. Something to think about while writing our poems.
The Prompts
NaPoWriMo : write a poem in which two things have a fight. Two very unlikely things, if you can manage it. Like, maybe a comb and a spatula. Or a daffodil and a bag of potato chips. Or perhaps your two things could be linked somehow – like a rock and a hard place – and be utterly sick of being so joined.
PAD Challenge : write an earth poem
Poetry Non-stop : take a closer look at an everyday object so familiar you don’t usually notice it
Today’s Poem
Many Ways to Love the Earth
The kaleidoscope slips along the lens.
—Why can’t you stay still. I’m trying to focus.
~Movement is my nature, changes the shapes and colors.
—But I want to capture them clearly. You’re a blur.
~Sounds like a problem with you. You’re so old. I’m brand new.
—And she already dropped you. I think you’re cracked.
~I’m in the best shape. It’s you that’s all dusty inside.
—If you would just stay still. I want that view of the flowers.
~That’s right you like the way I see the world.
—That’s the whole reason I’m putting up with you.
~I fill the earth with fun shapes and colors.
—So can I, but today I want to share yours.
~Fine. I mean I can see why, but you could be nicer about it.
The kaleidoscope slides around the lens.
—Could you please stay still.
~I told you that’s not in my nature.
Portable MFA Week Four: Shape
This week’s focus is writing poems in traditional forms.
Writing: The instructions say that this week you will write a sonnet, a sestina, a pantoum, and lyrics for a rap song. It says to look at June Jordan’s work to see how she uses rap for the structure of her poems.
Reading: This week there are two reading tasks. One is to pick my last poem to study by Ada Limón (for now) and focus on its form. I found that there’s a “Sharks in the Rivers II” in her collection Sharks in the Rivers (assoc link), and the collection ends with “Fin.” I’ll be taking a close look at both of those. The instructions are to write down everything I notice about the poems forms.
The second reading assignment is to read about the forms I need to write. I’ll be looking at The Discovery of Poetry by Frances Mayes (assoc link) and The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland (assoc link).
Experience Writing 
2 thoughts on “Poetry as Survival”