For this week’s response assignment, I would like you to write your own poem in the style of The New York School. You may choose a specific poem to imitate, or you may create one using the “recipe” Thom Donovan created which I will copy below. After you write your poem, include a brief response as to how your poem reflects key elements of New York School poetry we have looked at. Respond to your own poem by pointing out how you incorporated the “ingredients” listed below or how your poem reflects elements of specific poems from the Monday and Wednesday readings. What makes your poem a “New York School poem”? What did you include or imitate to achieve this? What elements of the New York School poets did you enjoy and want to include in your own poem? Which poets or poems influenced your poem the most and how? How did writing the poem make you feel about this movement and its work? Be sure to include your poem and your analysis/response in the same document. You do not have to answer all of these questions, but they should help guide your response.
INGREDIENTS OF A NY SCHOOL POEM:
Thom Donovan has “the recipe” for writing a New York School poem. This stems from an exercise he uses in a course he teaches at School of Visual Arts.
Here are ten of the twenty-three ingredients:
1. at least one addressee (to which you may or may not wish to dedicate your poem)
2. use of specific place names and dates (time, day, month, year)–especially the names of places in and around New York City *(You may use locations in Houston or other cities if you would like)*
3. prolific use of proper names
4. at least one reminiscence, aside, digression, or anecdote
5. one or more quotations, especially from things people have said in conversation or through the media
6. a moment where you call into question at least one thing you have said or proposed throughout your poem so far
7. something that sounds amazing even if it doesn’t make any sense to you
8. pop cultural references
9. consumer goods/services
10. mention of natural phenomena (in which natural phenomena do not appear ‘natural’)
THE NEW YORK SCHOOL: background:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/147565/an-introduction-to-the-new-york-school-of-poets
https://poets.org/text/artists-poets-new-york-school
THE NEW YORK SCHOOL: poems
https://poets.org/poem/having-coke-you
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42657/the-day-lady-died
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/26810/the-painter
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53131/eating-chocolate-ice-cream-reading-mayakovsky
https://poets.org/poem/instead-losing
https://poets.org/poem/certain-slant-sunlight
https://poets.org/poem/descent-alette-water-river
https://poets.org/poem/noisetone
