Question:

Here's a new poem? And a really fun writing exercise. What do you think? Comments?

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I built this poem from a very fun writing exercise. Here's the poem. The exercise is below it.

Nuance

What is important

is often imperceptible--

a glacial shift pushing toward

inevitable purpose.

A tight smile twisting

a wedding ring.

A hesitation

unfolds

and that’s all there is.

Easy to miss.

Halting words,

inconsolable.

Exercise: If anyone wants to try it.

Pick a poem of 8-to-20 lines by another poet. This is your "scaffold" poem.

Write a copy of the scaffold poem with enough space between each line for you to write another line there, a line that you will create to fit with the sense of the scaffold lines.

Beneath each line of the scaffold poem, write a line of your own that "fits," making sense in the context of the "scaffold" line above and the line below. Do this for each line of the scaffold poem.

When this is complete, you delete the lines of the scaffold poem. This leaves only your own lines. You now have the first draft of your poem.

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13 ANSWERS


  1. excellent idea but need little more imagination


  2. Yes, it's quite a challenge and fun to do, but none of mine have ever turned out as good as yours.  Probably because I always tended to try to make them rhyme.

  3. As I am in a barren patch, poetically speaking, at the moment this may be just the thing to rekindle my fire.

    It looks interesting and exciting - and choosing the ideal poem is going to be fun too.  

    Thank you.

    ps - Brilliant poem, too.  I just wonder if this is the secret of producing enigmatic poems previously unknown to all but the cognescenti of the poetry world!

  4. that's awesom! thanks for sharing!

  5. Interesting, I shall put this on my to do list, thanks for sharing.

  6. This sure isn't nuanced!  Well said.  I was thinking about taking the fourth word of each and mutiplying it by 3 and bridging it to the last line......well anyway, I think I am game to try your plan.

  7. I like it......It's a good exercise ,,,Me not being a poet ...Omly a reader ...I'll try this & see what happens.......Well Done

  8. Fascinating idea, but I talked to my Muse and she didn't think I should try it.

    Which is just another way of saying that it sounds like a lot of work and I'm too lazy.

  9. Sounds like fun...I'll have to give this a try.  You will be my muse since mine has abandoned me once again.  

    Great job, BTW :)

  10. Mom embarked on a similar idea years ago. Sorry, but youth does not always appreciate or remember. Yours, I will try. Thanks for the good poetry and for stirring forgotten memories. Edit: I've been thinking about this and it tires me. Even though your idea is good, I still favor reading poetry, and if perchance it stirs my imagination, then I will write my thoughts. Sorry, it doesn't seem that age has increased my appreciation. lol.

  11. Great poem, great exercise. This is an arithmetical equation for art-product assemble. Very cool...just like last July...

  12. I love it! How interesting, and that is really a clever writing exercise. I might try it.

  13. Astrophysical!  I'll try it (I think).

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