It’s autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, my favorite
time of year, which always reminds me of the very first poem I ever memorized,
“A Vagabond Song” by Bliss Carmen. At age 7 or 8, the poem appealed to my young
sense of wonder—I decided that what I wanted most was to be a vagabond poet. I
loved the way the lines looked and the way the words sounded. I still do and
share the poem with you below.
A VAGABOND SONG by
Bliss Carman
There is something in the autumn that is native to
my blood —
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson
keeping time.
The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the
hills.
There is something in October sets the gypsy blood
astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.
October also means Halloween! This year I plan to offer two
season-appropriate prompts, starting this week with one that deals with Halloween
but, more importantly with nouns and verbs in poetry.
The great poet Marianne Moore once said, “Poetry is all
nouns and verbs.” Writing a memorable poem can be a matter of strong nouns and verbs. To use some
Halloween language: nouns and verbs are the skeleton of a poem. Adjectives and
adverbs are the costumes—if you use too many, they hide the deeper meanings of
the skeleton.
Guidelines:
1. Choose one word from the nouns list for your subject (of
course, if you have another Halloween-related noun, feel free to use it).
Nouns
autumn (fall)
October
moon
moonlight
mask
wind
footsteps
cauldron
visions
haunted house
bats
graveyard
night
pumpkin
Jack o’lantern
darkness
crows
shadows
otherworldly
trees
Verbs
haunt
hide
howl
knock
drag
hear
whisper
creak
scare
frighten
scream
run
disappear
glow
horrify
terrify
shock
disguise
dread
rustle
2. Free write about the word you’ve chosen for your subject.
3. After free writing for a while, go back and read what
you’ve written. Is there an emerging theme or idea?
4. Using your free write material, begin writing your poem,
making sure that you use a few words from the verbs list.
Tips:
1. Think Halloween.
2. Be creepy if you like.
3. Avoid overuse of adjectives and adverbs.
4. Create a tone or mood that appropriate to your subject.
Remember that the verbs you choose will give your poem momentum and a sense of
trajectory.
5. As you develop your poem, move away from the obvious and
work toward deeper meanings.
Examples:
“Haunted Houses” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Mr. Macklin’s Jack O’Lantern” by David McCord
“Theme in Yellow” by Carl Sandburg
And … by way of sharing, here’s a
Halloween prose poem from my forthcoming book, A Lightness, a Thirst, Or
Nothing at All
Halloween
Trick-or-treaters
come to the door repeatedly—little ones early, older kids into the night until
she runs out of candy and turns off the outside lights. The wall between worlds
is thin (aura over aura—stars flicker and flinch). The woman buttons her coat,
checks her reflection in the mirror, and stands cheek to glass (eye on her own
eye, its abstract edge). She leaves the house (empty house that we all
become)—shadows shaped to the trees, crows in the high branches.
(Acknowledgment: US 1 Worksheets, Volume 59, p. 51)
