END OF MARCH POST

Poem Exercise 1

“I go outside, catch crows on my tongue”

“Can’t you tolerate a balloon?”

“But why can’t you fake like you’re an egg these days”

1. Create five sentences or phrases out of this quiz, and then incorporate them into a twenty line long poem written in couplets, so, of course, ten stanzas. Create your phrases and / or sentences first, and then incorporate them into a poem you will write, quickly, in twelve minutes, now, in class.

2. Also, your title should be made up of a noun that names a food—could be cabbage, milk, venison,

jerky, watermelon, oregano, Big Mac, Grand Slam Breakfast—and an active verb. Scolding Milk; Clubbing Venison, Craving Cantaloupe, Big Mac Exploding . . .

3. In the last couplet use the word “remedy” or “recidivist”

4. First person.

So, five phrases, the title, and a twenty line poem written IN LINES, now, in class, in under twelve minutes, using one of two words in the final couplet, in first person.

Poem exercise 2

Do Anne Waldman’s exercise here, which is to say, incorporate phrases from the strip(s) of paper
you draw from this sleeve, I guess I’d call it, or paper pocket . . .

Again, to be timed, for twelve minutes, and to be written in short (rather than long) lines, in fact twenty-five lines, and five stanzas, each somewhat similar in size (line length, etc.) Let it appear even (symmetrical) and balanced. The title should be collected from your found text. Write wildly, slightly out of control (despite keeping the stanzas balanced). Don’t make too much sense. First person.

Poem exercise 3.

Select a phrase, or sentence, from each of these texts (I’m handing out) and write a prose poem of between 200 and 350 words (no more, no less). Don’t break it into lines. It can be a block or an indented paragraph. In this exercise you have more to choose from. This will be one you can do at home, time yourself or not, as you wish. At some point write the sentence “I feel ________.” Whatever the word is you use to fill in the blank that will be the title of your poem. All of these should be in first person.

Type these up, revise them minimally, but it’s up to you how much. Bring hard copies to class next week

(it’s an assignment) either separately or added to your packet. If you handed in your packet today (Chad, Sam) you can still bring copies of them if you think you might want one or all of them to be added to your book).

all due on April 2

Schomberg on one of his poems.

Books, in the little time left:

for April 2: Schomburg (conclude); read through page
31 in Graham Foust's Necessary Stranger (short short poems) . . .

April 9: Foust (p. 32 thru 65); read selectively in Michael
Burkard's Envelope of Night (I'll post the selection)

April 16: More Burkard, maybe a little Foust . . .

 Read half of Joe Wenderoth's
Letters to Wendy's (through January 3, 1997).

April 23: Read half of Joe Wenderoth's
Letters to Wendy's (through January 3, 1997).

April 30: read rest of Wenderoth's book.

(We will be doing some in class poetry writing tomorrow,
just fyi. I've created a couple of "fun" exercises).

Link to Lulu.

I like the erasures and other poems, titles, descriptions,
I'm seeing on the blogs (well, on some)--including
"Jesus as an explosive device." Keep it up. Good work
there by Elizabeth (I see you italicized the Samyn line),
Justin (I see you managed to tone down the violence
but still keep things interesting), Chad, Carly, Alexis,
and Sam (who just posted an obituary erasure . . .). I also
like the voting for your classmates' poems thing going
on (in some places). I think the poems will mostly
fit in your books . . . Update: I've been reading the blogs
on and off, and just finished reading (at 10:22 a.m.) and
we are getting there. Six of you, basically, have fulfilled
the assignments, and the descriptions and poems that
have resulted, as always, amaze me. Good work . . . I
Xeroxed some of the work yesterday, and perhaps I'll
throw some of this up onto the screen today. I'll hand
some things back as well. See you in about seven hours.


**

Are you well rested from break? Did you have a blast
doing the assignments assigned two weeks ago? I made art,
edited, traveled to Alpena, Michigan (slightly ill), came
home, and proceeded to develop pneumonia, for which
I am presently ingesting copious amounts of Prednisone
(a steroid). So, if you read my last post, you'll see I was
coming down with something two weeks ago. And I'm
still dealing with it (but slowly, and I mean slowly, getting
a little better . . .). I'll be fine for Wednesday--you don't
miss class unless you are catatonic is my thinking--
(and there are some of you who are on a dangerous edge
as far as absences, just fyi).

Anyway, Chad and Samantha have both volunteered to
bring in their next batch of poems (on March 26) to be
workshopped on April 2. Anyone else ready? (Email me
at davdlee@iusb.edu if so). I'll, as mentioned last time,
bring some actual Lulu published chapbooks (again)
since we are getting close to publication date. Bring
a cover idea to class. Begin to compose your bio. What
will be the title of your book? You know now right?
Does it feel, with this winter and the fact we've all been
attending school since September basically, like we are all
adrift on a massive iceberg floating out to the St Lawrence
Seaway?

As for Schomburg, why, indeed, is "The Monster Hour"
such a funny poem? What particular phrases make it so?
What is working in these poems as far as tone is concerned?
How about repetition? Some artists you might want to
compare to Schomburg: M. C. Escher, Magritte (more so
than, say, Salvador Dali), poet Charles Simic, fiction writer
Donald Barthelme, Joe Wenderoth (his list poems especially),
the Tim Burton of Mars Attacks.

Note. Schomburg's book of poems has an index in the back
of the book. Why?

I'll be checking the blogs. Remember, the assignments
are due by noon on Wednesday. I may be cutting and
pasting some to hard copy and bringing them in, so don't
put off posting . . .

Off to use my new inhaler. But first:

Ok, here are the assignments, reposted, for clarity's sake,
again, right here (*designates, required):

"So, these assignments, for over spring break, will help
you with your book, and, well, will be a lot of fun. They
are all to be posted on your blog by NOON on March 26.

Do a couple in the next few days. Then casually work
on a couple more etc. This will help you generate work
for the book, so in a way, other than # 5, it's all part of
assignment #8.

When we return we'll really turn attention to the
assembling / perfecting of the chapbook.

1. Post the TITLE of your chapbook, followed by
your table of contents (as it presently stands--it will
change, obviously, as we move forward).*

2. Write, and post, a 13 line erasure poem of a
newspaper article. Give it a title. Write it IN LINES
(not as a prose poem). Reference the article at the bottom
of the poem, in a note (where it appeared, title).*

3. Write a poem in which you steal a line from
Samyn (more exactly, from a poem of hers from
My Life in Heaven). The poem (yours) should
have a one word title and for the last two lines
rhyme the end words. Your poem should be between
fifteen and nineteen lines long. Include Samyn's
line AS IS, entire, anywhere in the poem. At the
bottom of your blog post, give the title of the Samyn
poem you used.*

4. Write a 150 word paragraph describing what you think
the qualities that define your book are (so far)--everything
from themes, to stylistic ideas. If you had to write a short
150 word description to stick on Amazon, describing your
book, what would it say (look at books on Amazon. Look
at the description for Orphan, Indiana, for example (one
of my books)? Post the paragraph on your blog.*

5. Pick two of your classmates' poems from the blogs
simply as poems you totally dig. Say why in fifteen words.
Post the poems on your blog.*

6. Read the entire Schomberg book.* Imitate a Schomberg
poem, if you want, for your book (the assignment here is
just to do the reading--but feel free to imitate the a poem for
your chapbook . . .).

7. Peruse Lulu's website, checking out how you will make your
chapbook. We'll talk generally about this in class, though you
will need to do the work and figure this out. It cost a few dollars
(perhaps not if you decide to sell it).

8. Keep working, on your own, on poems for your chapbook
because on April 2 you will bring in 16 to 24 pages of poems
for the last go-through in class for your chapbook. If you want
to, and I hope someone will do this, you can bring your poems
for this in and hand them out on March 26, which will give
us a bit more time to do them all. As usual, we're fighting
for time. Any volunteers? You don't have to stick to what you
bring in, btw. You can keep working until the point where
you send the ms off to be printed (electronically).*"