Start the Year Off Write
Activity #2 of Ten Write Days
Photo by Sebastian Kanczok on Unsplash
Telling students “write a poem on any subject you want” can be freedom to some and an existential threat to others. The wide open invitation of any poem, any subject, any form, any voice, any persona can shut down some students who see poetry as a dizzying matrix of forms and meters and rhythms and functions designed to make them feel stupid.
So I like starting the year by exploring the creative power of limits.
Introducing students to former Poet Laureate Kay Ryan is a good way to do that. When she writes, Ryan says her poems do not start with imagery or sound, but rather develop “the way an oyster does, with an aggravation.” There’s something about the compression of line, thought, and sound in Ryan’s style which serves as a model for most reluctant of students to see how powerful that precision is. They immediately grasp her humor, her philosophy, her canny way of looking at the world.
Assignment:
Open your writing notebook and analyze Ryan’s style. Notice how her short lines, tight diction, and exacting images work in the poetry. Count the syllables in each line. What do you notice about the beats? How does her style compliment or detract from her subjects and/or her purpose? What do you notice about her images? Her rhyme and her rhythms? Write a half page of analysis, exploring the poems from your perspective.
After you’ve analyzed her poetry, give her style a whirl. Choose a subject or an idea you’d like to explore, something you’d like to say, or a moment you’d like to render. Choose some kind of limit on your lines. Two word lines? Four syllable lines? No more than three words per line? Write a poem on any subject using a limit you’ve set for yourself.