Haiku

Poets love nature. Nature nature and human nature. Nature, nature, nature. It's one of the four most important themes in literature and usually involves the other themes within its own theme: i.e., nature poetry includes life, death, and the love of nature.

Haiku: a poem of 17 or fewer syllables (usually in 10 or fewer words) that reflects upon the theme of nature. When poets write haiku about HUMAN NATURE (life + nature) often with a sarcastic or satirical tone, these poems are called: Senryu.

Please read some haiku today. You can read a lot of this stuff very quickly as a break from your writing. Look here for some samples. The more you read, the more you'll understand the form. For the craft, take a look at the next part of this blog entry.

• Haiku Website #1
• Haiku Website #2
• Haiku Website #3

Haiku juxtaposes or contrasts ideas. Frequently, contrasts are set up with the first two lines presenting one idea and then switching suddenly to another idea by the closing of the poem. This technique is referred to as cutting or kireji.

Cutting involves the juxtaposition of images. One image balances a second, effectively creating two parts to a haiku. These two sections should enhance and work off each other like a good friend. In English, the contrast is often emphasized with punctuation such as a long dash (em-dash) or ellipsis. One handy way to do this is to read the first two lines (they should make sense), then read the 2nd and last line. If both phrases make sense, you've probably got a good haiku.

Haiku uses a seasonal or key word called kigo. Each season has its own kigo.

Winter imagery, for example, often depicts grief, death, distance, and serenity. Take a look at some winter kigo and see if you can use it as a central image in your own haiku:

Season: Winter

• Freezing rain or freezing drizzle
• Sleigh rides
• Snowfall, Blizzard
• Snow or ice sculptures (snowmen, etc)
• Football Playoffs: "The Super Bowl"
• Ice fishing
• Ice hockey
• Ice skating
• Polar plunges
• Sledding, Tobaggoning
• Snowboarding
• Skiing
• Snow shoeing
• Snow shoveling
• Candles, firewood, fireplaces, etc.
• Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
• Earth Day
• Epiphany (Episcopal, Catholic)
• Groundhog Day
• Hanukkah
• Martin Luther King Jr., Day
• Lincoln's Birthday (12th February)
• President's Day
• Pearl Harbor Day
• St. Valentine's Day
• Washington's Birthday (22nd February)
• Midterms
• Blue jays
• Cardinals
• Chickadees
• Juncos
• Mockingbirds, northern
• Owls
• Sparrows
• Crows (Rochester)
• Titmouse, tufted
• Woodpeckers
• Poinsettia
• Norway pines

Activity: Write a page of haiku.

8th period: Please conduct a poetry workshop and/or work on revising your previous poems to CRAFT them. Write, read, analyze. Edit, fix, re-write. Write, read, analyze. Edit, fix, re-write. This will lead, eventually, to publication: the last step in the writing process.

HOMEWORK: Please read Patrick Phillips' poem collection from "Chattahoochee"--as you read please note such things as imagery (metaphor, similes, personification, etc.), literary or poetic devices (sound devices, etc.), and nature. You will be asked to write a response to his poetry next class on the forum.

Nature Poetry: A Variety of Types

This stuff called poetry...

Is not really that complicated. Poetry is about human existence. Even poems about objects or settings or events involve humans and their relationship with external forces. Of course a poem can ALSO be about a speaker's conflict (if any) of internal forces.

Poems are about us. We can either write about love, death/life, or nature. Writing about the self or ones beliefs or God or an event or locations or objects or animals falls into one of these three categories. 

So poems concern everyday things. To come up with subject matter for a poem is as easy as throwing a stone through the air and hitting the ground.

Speaking of stones, much of poetry involves nature.

What is a nature poem?: A poem in which nature plays an important role, emphasizing terrain and life (including the life of humans) in a natural setting, season, metaphor, symbol, situation or theme.

Types of Nature Poetry

1. Tribute to the season: (Ode/Pastoral) – Praising or welcoming a season.
• Nature-Human Celebration: The poet or speaker celebrates himself or herself as part of nature.
• Essence of Nature: An aspect or element of nature is described (usually to show its beauty or essence)

2. Nature as conflict:
• Nature against human. A man or woman is in a dangerous or difficult situation concerning nature.
• Human against nature: A man or woman overcoming a dangerous situation or destroying some aspect of nature.
• Isolation from Nature: The speaker describes how he or she feels apart from nature or the natural world.

3. Human-nature Relationship: A person who contemplates (thinks about) some aspect of nature. Often the speaker is longing for nature’s qualities.
• Human encountering nature: The speaker witnesses or beholds an element or aspect of nature as if for the first time (the speaker is “in the moment” and acutely aware).
• Nature as Reflection of Mood: The setting is usually out doors and the speaker describes a feeling. Nature or natural images reflect the mood of the speaker.
• Nature as Metaphor for the Human Condition: The poet makes a comparison between human qualities or subject matter and some aspect or element of nature (usually to express how it feels to be mortal or at peace).
• Nature as Symbolic of the Human Condition: Like the Metaphor poem (above), it uses a symbol instead of a metaphor.

4. Nature as a Reflection of God: Another common nature poem type. Some aspect or element of nature shows or reminds the speaker of God’s power or artistry.

Forms:

• Ode: an open poem form that praises its subject (in this case something in nature)
• Elegy: an open poem form that laments or mourns a subject that is gone or passed away (this can also be found in love poetry).
• Pastoral: An open nature poem form in which rural life or objects are romanticized or idealized.

Poems can be about animals, as they are part of nature. Here's a few examples and/or models:

Whales Weep Not by D.H. Lawrence
Baby Tortoise by D.H. Lawrence
The Dusk of Horses by James Dickey; The Heaven of Animals by James Dickey.

A Crocodile by Thomas Lovell Beddoes
Bats by Paisley Rekdal

Poem Draft: After reading a few examples, write about an animal or pet.

If you finish early, or before/after your workshop, please REVISE workshopped poem drafts. Change the # on the draft so you indicate which version the revision counts for.

During period 8, or if all of your group members are ready for it, please conduct another workshop with your workshop group. Remember to turn in response forms to me for participation credit.

HOMEWORK: Please read Patrick Phillips' poem collection from "Chattahoochee"--as you read please note such things as imagery (metaphor, similes, personification, etc.), literary or poetic devices (sound devices, etc.), and nature. You will be asked to write a response to his poetry next class on the forum.

Be My...a Valentine Poem & Workshop

Please read the poem "Be My Sherpa" by Andrew Varnon. Then follow the instructions for the prompt. Write a "Be My..." poem today during 7th period.

If you finish early, please use the time in the lab to REVISE your poetry. Use the advice given to you from your workshop. Remember that you will be graded collectively for the revision work you do on your poems. Please indicate the DRAFT NUMBER on you revisions. This is very important! Keep track of your drafts!

Types of LOVE POEMS:

--Carpe diem (seize the day, and also the beloved...life is short, so let's get together, baby! (The speaker tries to convince the object of love to come on and get wit' it)
--The complaint (speaker addresses another who denies or refuses the speaker's advances at love)
--The Tribute (a celebration of the person or object of love)
--The Proposal (speaker asks for the love or affection or hand in marriage of another)
--Love concept (deals with a phase of love: butterflies, sweaty palms, sleepless nights, divorce, etc.)
--The obstacle (something gets in the way of the relationship...)
--Love moment (the instance in which the speaker falls in love)
--Reconciliation (a poem where a speaker is trying to make-up with the beloved after a spat or fight)
--Love Token (a poem that accompanies a gift)
--Illicit Love (an affair or loving without society's approval)

During period 8, please gather in your workshop groups and continue to workshop your poetry. Please remember to be specific and helpful with your comments/responses. Turn in response sheets to me for credit. I DO NOT NEED TO SEE YOUR POEMS at this time. These should be kept in your own folder/portfolios or the group portfolio for workshopping. Keep all drafts! You will need them later.

HOMEWORK: None. You may feel free to keep writing over the break, but there is no assigned homework. Have a restful and relaxing Feb. break!

Poetry Prompt (Unrequited Love) & Workshop

During period 7, please complete the poetry prompt on the handout. If you finish early, please REVISE any poem you have workshopped in the last two classes.

NOTE: Please remember to change the DRAFT # of your poem. Many of you are forgetting your heading. Remember each poem draft should include:

• Your name
• The name of the assignment (use the blog titles to help you with this)
• The date
• The DRAFT NUMBER

During period 8, please get together and continue your writers workshop. Use your time to read and comment on your partners' poetry drafts. Turn in any critique forms for participation credit. Keep unused drafts in your group folder.

HOMEWORK: None.

Poetry Prompt & Workshop

During period 7, please complete the following poetry prompt. Create a poem. If you finish early, please continue to work on previous drafts of your work and prepare your writing for your workshop during period 8.

PROMPT: Poetry can be found almost anywhere, if you know where to look. The tradition of "finding" poetry in the common objects and unlikely places is often referred to, appropriately, as FOUND POETRY.

A common (and fun) type of found poetry is the blackout poem.

Take a few minutes to look at this site: Blackout Poetry. Read a few as models for your own work. Now let's try it ourselves.

When instructed, please select a passage (handout in the front of the room) and using a black/dark pen, black out any words you wish, leaving certain words that will, when finished, create a poem from the text you selected. After blacking out your poetry, please retype what you have left into a poem draft. Label this exercise: "Blackout poem, draft 1" for example.

Period 8: continue your workshops. Gather in your workshop group and use the time to read, respond, and conduct a workshop with your partners. See previous posts and materials for details on how to conduct a workshop.

HOMEWORK: Please read Cornelius Eady's poetry. On the forum, please respond to the question there for homework. This assignment is due by 11:59 Tuesday, Feb. 12.

Poem Prompt; First Poetry Workshop

Today, please complete the poem prompt and assignment in the first 15-30 minutes of class. With the last 5-10 minutes or so, save/print your work and type/print any poetry you want to share with your workshop groups in period 8.

POETRY PROMPT:

An ANALOGY is a comparison between two things. When we compare two DIFFERENT things we create a metaphor. If we compare using the words "like" or "as" (adverbs) to soften the comparison, we create a simile. If an object stands in for an abstract idea we get a symbol. If a person stands in for an abstract idea we create an allegory.

Task: write a poem that compares two things in a creative or unexpected way. To start, choose a feeling or abstract idea. Then compare this feeling/idea with a concrete and specific noun. See models for an example. If you finish before the time is up, try to write a second or third poem.

"Your Arms are Stronger than the Words" by Katy Montgomery

Your arms are stronger than the words of the Gettysburg Address.
Yet soft and warm as clothes in a dryer.

And your eyes--bluer than Boston in a World Series,
Deeper than the stack of papers on my desk.

Your voice rings like the phone in the middle of dinner,
It bubbles in me like milk blown through a straw.

How much do I love you?
More than a fire loves oxygen.
More than the mailman loves Sundays.
More than the Rabbit loves Trix.

Conducting a Writers Workshop

Workshopping a written piece is an important step in getting feedback about your writing. If a workshop group is knowledgeable and skilled, they can help a writer grow immensely in a short period of time. Our goal is to craft our writing to make it the best that it can possibly be.

Follow these steps to complete your workshop:

1. Get into your workshop group (see below for groups)
2. Each contributing writer should take turns reading their work out loud to the rest of the group.
3. The group should listen and read silently while the writer reads his/her poem
4. As the writer reads his/her poem, the workshop members should highlight or mark specific words or phrases or lines that he/she liked on the poem draft copy.
5. Consider the basic questions and techniques of poetry...(structure/form, persona/speaker, POV, setting, theme, message, tone, mood, voice, meter, line, imagery, diction, characterization, conflict, cadence groups, sound techniques, etc.) Give the writer a WRITTEN critique of their poem based on the questions on the handout under "workshop discussion questions". See the response sheet given to you today. THIS CRITIQUE response will be turned in to me first, and then I'll hand it over to the writer. Write your corrections/comments on the poem draft copy.
6. When everyone is finished writing, open the discussion to the writer’s specific questions. Writers should help this along by jotting down and asking some questions that they want to know about their work. For example: Did you understand the message of my poem? What are some ways in which I can improve or strengthen my poem? Is the persona's voice clear and well defined or developed? Does the setting of my poem distract you as a reader? Do you have some suggestions with this line that I am having trouble with?, Etc.
7. After you have discussed the writer’s work, please return your marked poem draft copies to its writer.
8. After the group has finished helping the writer, please continue around the group to help critique the other writers who submitted material as well.
9. Continue this until the entire group has had a chance to participate in the workshop.
10. When everyone has had a chance, writers may talk to each other about new ideas and share other writing they have written (in their journal, portfolio, or etc.) You may even try writing a group poem.

You will be graded on the following during workshop: 
A. Participation: offering a poem draft to be critiqued; critiquing another author's work.
B. The written critique response.
C. The author's revision. Your group will be graded together on the IMPROVEMENT from draft one to draft two or more.

Workshop groups:

Group 1: Thiery, Jahni, Imani G., Carly
Group 2: Shayozinique, Imani M, Isaiah
Group 3: Grace, Nikki, Gena, Kayli
Group 4: Ben, Frances, Branden, Evan
Group 5: Ethan, Nathan, Damarys
Group 6: Alexis, Diamond, Khamphasong

HOMEWORK: None. Write a poem if you'd like.

For Colored Girls...Conclusion; Poetry

After our conclusion and discussion of "For Colored Girls" we will take a few minutes to discuss a central idea in poetry.

Poetry is written to be read, to be savored like a fine chocolate, to melt on our tongues, to beat with our pulse, to become part of us like memory. Poetry is also meant to be shared. Whether we choreograph our poems into a performance piece like Ntozake Shange, or perform our poems at coffeehouses or in public readings, the poem, like song, was meant to be heard (as well as read on the page). The following poems are examples and models. 

As you listen/watch or read, please note the writers' craft: the use of imagery, the use of metaphor, personification, simile, allusion, figurative language, diction, tone, repetition, rhythm (cadence), meter, rhyme, caesura, enjambment, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, etc. Last semester (last year, years before that) we have introduced and referred to these concepts. Notice them. Start owning them. Use them.

Saul Williams:
Ohm

Jessica Care Moore:
Black Statue of Liberty

Taylor Mali:
The the Impotence of Proofreading
What Teacher's Make

Sarah Kay:
Hands

Derrick Brown
"A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me"

You Are the Opera

Billy Collins:
The Lanyard

Lucille Clifton:
What Haunts Him

Poems can be of any of the following basic themes:

A. Nature, B. Life, C. Love, or D. Death

Being broad themes, we can narrow down some of these to be more specific:

Common poem themes: 

• Politics
• God (extranatural poetry), philosophy, or personal belief
• War
• Gender
• Family
• Revenge
• A certain feeling or emotion: happiness, sadness, anger, etc.
• Beauty
• Coming of Age
• Disillusionment or enlightenment
• Love (Ode) or loss (Elegy)
• Emptiness or fulfillment
• Pain or pleasure
• Justice or injustice
• Hope, innocence, or dreams
• Birth, rebirth, or beginnings
• Vanity or pride (humility or temperance)
• Failure or success
• Wealth
• Learning

And there are others. As always, a theme starts with one of these basic abstractions, then the writer adds his/her MESSAGE. To write an effective poem, you need to have a message. What do you want to say to the world about your theme?

Getting an idea for a poem is relatively easy. Pick a theme, state what you want to say about it, then write.

HOMEWORK: Please read the packet of poems given to you in class.
Write a poem of your own. Not sure where to begin? Try these techniques taught to you previously in class:

• Freewrite/brainstorm
• List
• Create a word web or cluster
• Use a graphic organizer
• Steal a line from one of the poems you've read, then write your own poem
• Select 10-50 words from the poems you read and use some of these words in your own poem
• Doodle (cave drawing)
• Cut and paste

As the saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way." If you want to write a poem, you will. Write a poem for homework. Bring the drafts of all the poems you have written so far with you to our next class. There will be a workshop/sharing session.