You will write an imitation of two of the four poems you find here: poems for poetics exercises 1-4-1.docx Download poems for poetics exercises 1-4-1.docx.
Take your time with this. Read each poem carefully. And then read it again aloud. Think about what we are learning about each first-person speaker in each poem. Think about the method by which each is conveying its meaning; this is what we call poetics. How does each poet use language in a specific way to create more than the sum of the parts, more than just words on a page–the sense of a real person with a full life communicating to us from the other side of the page?
For each you will borrow a bit of the form and purpose of the original, but make your imitations completely your own by adding your experience, details, and philosophy.
Additional notes for each poem:
Jorge Luis Borges, “Borges & I”:
Your title will be “___(your last name)___ & I”.
You should explore the difference between the “divided self” in some way.
This may be the mind/body, or the personal self/public self, person/writer.
Locate us in your hometown, or here in RVA.
Share what you notice in the landscape you inhabit.
Share your thoughts about life and mortality.
Gregory Burnham, “subtotals”:
Do not use Burnham’s categories; create your own.
You must have at least 36 entries.
The statistics should create a larger narrative (story) when taken all together.
Think about how Burnham pairs sets of stats for particular effect.
Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B”:
“Go home and write a page tonight
and let that page come out of you
and then it will be true.”
Describe your journey ‘home’ from ‘class’.
Describe how you fit into your local landscape.
Create a dialogue between yourself and Cates regarding what you think might be our differences and similarities.
Tim Seibles, “Meditations from a Small Plane in Bad Weather”:
The poem is built from sensory details from the poet’s life;
things he will ‘take away’ from this mortal life.
He also pairs each little scene with two strophes that use second-person
rhetorical questions to describe his philosophy/attitude about mortality
and, more importantly, what constitutes a (good, well-lived) life.
Use a similar form to express the sensory details of your life
And your attitude about ‘living life to the fullest’.
Make this assignment reflective of you and your lived experience. Be creative. Be inventive. Be yourself
