POETRY FOR ALL

     

Summer has left us behind. Leaves are changing colors, falling.  The sky is gray and foggy.  The air is cool and growing colder.  It's the season for poetry.  Let's write some.  Here are a handful of ideas:

1. The hallmark of great poetry is imagery. A truly compelling poem paints a picture and invites the reader into a vivid scene. Choose an image or scene from one of your favorite poems and write a poem of your own based on that image.

2. You’re feeling under the weather, so you put the teapot on. Soon it starts to scream. Write a poem about the sound of a whistling teapot.

3. Write a poem about an inanimate object. You can write a silly poem about how much you admire your toaster or you can write a serious piece declaring the magnificence of a book.

4. The beach, the mountains, the vast sea, and deep space are all great for tributary poems about places. Write about the city you love, the town you call home, or your favorite vacation destination.

Send me your poems.  I'd like to read them.  And if you want feedback, let me know or take the workshop listed below:

POETRY FOR ALL: A WORKSHOP

AT CULTURA IN PILSEN

1900 S. CARPENTER, CHICAGO

FOUR TUESDAYS IN OCTOBER - 7 TO 9 PM

TO REGISTER GO TO: 

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-latino-writers-4-week-poetry-workshop-tickets-13290838255?aff=eac2

A POEM FOR THE DAY

ODE TO A YARD SALE

By Gary Soto

A toaster,

A plate

Of pennies,

A plastic rose

Staring up

To the sky.

It's Saturday

And two friends,

Merchants of

The salvageable heart,

Are throwing

Things onto

The front lawn –

A couch, a beanbag,

A table to clip

Poodles on,

Drawers of

Potato mashers,

Spoons, knives

That signaled

To the moon

For help.

Rent is due

It's somewhere

On the lawn,

Somewhere among

The shirts we've

Looked good in,

Taken off before

We snuggled up

To breasts

That almost made

Us gods.

It'll be a good

Day, because

There's much

To sell,

And the pitcher

Of water

Blue in the shade,

Clear in the

Light, with

The much-handled

Scotch the color

Of leaves

Falling at our

Shoes, will

Get us through

The afternoon

Rush of old

Ladies, young women

On their way

To becoming nurses,

Bachelors of

The twice-dipped

Tea bag. It's an eager day:

Wind in the trees,

Laughter of

Children behind

Fences. Surely

People will arrive

With handbags

And wallets,

To open up coffee

Pots and look

In, weigh pans

In each hand,

And prop hats

On their heads

And ask, "How do

I look?" (foolish

To most,

Beautiful to us).

And so they

Come, poking

At the clothes,

Lifting salt

And pepper shakers

For their tiny music,

Thumbing through

Old magazines

For someone

They know,

As we sit with

Our drinks

And grow sad

That the ashtray

Has been sold,

A lamp, a pillow,

The fry pans

That were action

Packed when

We cooked, those things

We threw so much

Love on, day

After day,

Sure they would mean something

When it came

To this.

POETRY FOR ALL: a poetry workshop

FOUR TUESDAYS IN OCTOBER

7 to 9 pm at CULTURA IN PILSEN

1900 S. Carpenter St. , Chicago

REGISTER TODAY:  

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-latino-writers-4-week-poetry-workshop-tickets-13290838255

TEN RULES OF WRITING

TEN RULES OF WRITING (with thanks to Elmore Leonard)

1. Never open a book with weather.

If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people.

2. Avoid prologues.

They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” …

…he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”

This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use “suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

One or two details are enough to give the reader the image of the character.  Focus on other senses, rather than the visual: voice, smell, sound, and so on.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

Even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

10. And finally:

Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.  Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he’s writing, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character’s head, and the reader either knows what the guy’s thinking or doesn't care. I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.

And the most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.

WRITING COACH - $50.00/hour - ALL GENRES

Write for a 1-hour free private consultation

THE SOURCE OF STORIES: Writing from your experience and imagination

Today I want to share with you an exercise to find out what you might want to write about:

1.  Draw a big circle.  In the middle write WHAT FASCINATES ME?

2.  From the circle draw lines with all possible answers of what fascinates you.  Are you curious about the monarch butterfly?  Are you fascinated by the names of winds or hurricanes?  Do you want to learn more about the seven wonders of the world?  Write down all your interests.

3.  When you're done with that, choose one of those and freewrite for a while.  Every day spend a few minutes writing about it and then put it away.  After a week or two, read what you have and begin to draft a piece.

4.  Draw another big circle and write WHAT'S THE POINT OF TELLING THE STORY? in the middle.  Again, draw lines out of the circle and write the possibilities to that question.

5.  List characters that might be used with that story.

6.  Draw a third big circle and write WHICH POINT OF VIEW?

7.  Draw lines out of the circle and plot the characters you have listed.

8.  Choose one character and answer the following questions:

- upper class, lower class?

- hot button topic?

- what's the thesis?

- what's the weather?

- what's the opening sentence? 

- what's the conclusion?

9. Once you've done a good amount of writing with those questions, start to read and revise and edit.

10.  If you get stuck, go back to the circles and try other possibilities.

THE SOURCE OF STORIES: Writing from your experience and imagination

The Newberry Library, 60 West Walton, Chicago

Saturdays, 10-12 noon, starting September 20

To register go to www.newberry.org