ENGLISH FALL Denise Rosselli Office: 1030-U (1000 building, Faculty Offices) Phone: (707)

Transcription

1 ENGLISH FALL 2014 Denise Rosselli Office: 1030-U (1000 building, Faculty Offices) Phone: (707) drosselli@napavalley.edu

2 Week 2 27 August Homework due tonight Formal Poem 1: Earliest Memory Readings: Burroway, Journal entries: Lists Dream Journals (7) 2-3 additional journals

3 What You Should Be Reading (and Hearing ) Poetry Links Penn Sound - Poem Talk - Academy of American Poets (and sign up for poem-a-day) - Poetry Foundation - Poetry Podcasts (recommended Poetry Off the Shelf ) - Fiction Links The New Yorker Podcasts - Selected Shorts - Creative Nonfiction Links Radio Lab: This American Life:

4 Journals 2 (suggested) sections: In-class writing exercises and journals Out-of-Class Daily journals

5 Week 2 Journal Entry #1 (out-of-class) Ten Minute Spill Write a ten-line poem about the earthquake. The poem must include: 1. A proverb, adage, or familiar phrase that you have changed in some way e.g. she s a brick house, the devil is in the details, one foot in the grave, a stitch in time saves nine, don t count your chickens before they hatch, someday my prince will come, the whole nine yards, better safe than sorry, etc.) Example: Where there s a will, there s a way; revised version: Where there s a will, there s an angle. 2. And five of the following words: boom salt needle light voice mother whir water mammal

6 Poem #1: Earliest Memory Share your poem with your group by reading it aloud What form did you choose for your poem? How did you make decisions about line breaks, length, shape, etc? What concerns, insights, desires drove your choices for this poem? What is a poem? What are the main elements or traits that characterize poetry?

7 What is a poem? Poetry is a fireplace in summer or a fan in winter

8 The Function of Poetry Once it seemed the function of poetry was to redeem our lives. But it was not. It was to become indistinguishable from them. -Brenda Hillman

9 Poetry is characterized by, among other things, Image Metaphor (and simile) Line breaks Meter, rhyme, and form

10 Image Images haunt. There is a whole mythology built on this fact: Cezanne painting till his eyes bled, Wordsworth wandering the Lake Country hills in an impassioned daze. Blake describes it very well, and so did a colleague of Tu Fu who said to him, It is like being alive twice Images are not always metaphors; they do not say this is that, they say this is. -Robert Hass Twentieth Century Pleasures

11 Using Images in Creative Writing Sensory infused images help readers enter the world of your writing activate your limbic system creating physical responses Abstractions do not convey the specificity of the situation Passive verbs, linking verbs, all forms of the verb to be do little to illuminate language

12 Journal Entry 2 Week 2 Choose an abstract word, a generalization and a judgment. Without saying the words, describe a specific image (using all five senses) that conveys your understanding of the meanings of each word.

13 Show, Don t Tell Concrete Sensory image Detail specific and focused Significant has greater meaning

14 Getting Specific Animal Four-legged Animal Domestic animal Dog Mixed-breed Shepard Old Sammy asleep on the rug Specificity builds power in writing. Now it s your turn Begin with a person, place or thing. Then, narrow the category step by step as seen above until you are describing something so specific that it could only be represented by one thing. Try to convey how you feel about this thing without saying it.

15 Metaphor/ Simile Power in the tension of differences Metaphor Assumes states of comparison between two things, without acknowledging the comparison My electric muscles shook crowd. (Adjective) Her hair is seaweed and she is the sea. They have a piggy and a fishy air The bees shouldering the grass. (Verb) Simile Makes a comparison between two things using like or as His teeth rattled like dice in a box. My head is light as a balloon. I will fall like an ocean on that court!

16 All the World is a Stage What does this metaphor say about the world? World Stage

17 Week 2 - Journal #3: Object Exercise Use your five senses to examine and describe one object. What does the object look like? Sound like? Smell like? Feel like? What does the object remind you of? Where could the object take you? If the object could teach you a lesson what would it be? Be as specific as possible as you write. Try to veer toward the abstract!

18 Object poems Neruda Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market poem to my uterus Clifton (handout) Stevens - 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

19 Formal Poem #2: 25 pts Ode to a Common Thing Choose a common object to write about. As in the exercise, contemplate the object with all of your senses. What does the object look like? Sound like? Smell like? Feel like? What does the object remind you of? Where could the object take you? If the object could teach you a lesson what would it be? Be as specific as possible as you write and try to veer toward the abstract. Write a poem of at least 40 lines. No rhymes.

20 How to Think Like a Creative Writer Date/Genre Due: 3 September Poetry What s Due Read Burroway Chapter 1, 15-27; Poems, Journals: Write at least 1 journal entry every day Formal Poem 2 Due Object Poem