Prompt #374 – Someone Who Changed Your Life for the Better

(Me, Charlie's Wife Leni Fuhrman, Charles DeFanti)

For our last prompt, I wrote about my seventh grade English teacher and the autumn poem to which she introduced me. I invited you to write poems about October and/or autumn. This time, I'm writing about another teacher, this time a college professor, who has had a powerful impact on my life. 

 

I started my undergraduate work as a physical education major when I was 17 years old and quickly realized that it wasn't right for me. I decided on phys ed because I was involved in dance and gymnastics, and I thought it would be a good fit. Sadly, it wasn't. One afternoon, I was hit in the mouth with a field hockey stick during a game (oh, how I hated team sports). With a bloody lower lip and all the rage I could muster, I walked off the field to the sound of our instructor yelling, "Kenny, where the hell do you think you're going?" 

 

In those days, we were assigned counselors. Mine happened to be my freshman composition professor, Charles DeFanti. I marched myself, bleeding lip and all, into his office and asked him to get me out of that "blankety-blank" major. He very calmly handed me a handkerchief and asked if I needed medical help. I said, "no" (the cut was small and didn't go through my lip, it just bled a lot). 

 

So ... I sat there fuming and mopping my lip with his handkerchief. When I calmed down and the bleeding let up, DeFanti (as the students referred to him) asked me if I was serious about changing majors. I definitely was! He asked what major appealed to me, but I didn't have a clue. He then asked me what I liked to do. I replied that writing poetry and reading were the things I enjoyed most, to which he replied,"Okay, good, you can be an English major." I had no idea what was involved in transferring from one major to another, nor did I have a clue as to what was expected of English majors in terms of courses, but DeFanti took care of it all. In record time, I was happily and deeply immersed in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and the intricacies of American English grammar. I never looked back.

In the years after college, I taught English, creative writing, and gifted ed. After twenty years in the public school system, five years at the College of New Rochelle, and ten years at a local Police Academy, I retired from teaching and have been writing poems and nonfiction since. If it hadn't been for Charles DeFanti (his caring, intelligence, and good judgment), my life would have taken a very different course. 

 

Most importantly, Charlie's influence on my life wasn't momentary. He and I have stayed in touch for 55 years, and he has remained a dear friend, a trusted mentor, and a major source of encouragement in all areas of my life. Without his indelible support and the role model he has provided, it's doubtful that I would have been able to accomplish much in the field of writing at all. My gratitude to him has been, and will always remain, a profoundly relevant part of who I am.

In talking to friends, I learned that a number of them have had experiences with important people in their lives who, as Charles DeFanti did for me, made their lives better just by being there for them. Perhaps you've had a similar person (parent, spouse, friend, child, teacher, mentor) to support, guide, and direct you.

For this prompt, I invite you to think about your life and to pick one person who has helped to empower you, who has directed your course in some special way, and who has led you to actualize your potential.

 

 

Suggestions:

 

1. Begin by thinking about the people who have impacted your life in special ways.

 

2. Choose one person to write about.

 

3. Create a list of the ways in which this person has contributed positively to your life.

 

4. Make a word or phrase bank of your person's special attributes and qualities of character.

 

5.  Keep in mind that most poems have strong emotional centers that don't smother meaning with sentiment. (There's a big difference between sentimentality and poetic sentiment.)

6. Work on a sense of immediacy (even when you write in the past tense). Stay away from the passive voice, and be wary of "ing" endings.

 

7. Avoid over-use of adjectives and too many details (bulk without substance can be deadly).

8. Remember that imagery is key, and write about things, not ideas. Show, don't simply tell.

 

9. You poem may be ode-like in content and form, it may be a thank-you poem or a narrative, it may be presented in the form of a letter, and it may be composed in lineated or prose poem format.

 

10. The idea is to honor someone special who has encouraged you to be your best "you."

 

Poetry Prompt #46 – Condense & Compress

(Photo Courtesy of Charles DeFanti)

Have you ever noticed how great poems communicate much more than the sum of their words? This is precisely what makes them great. Poems, however, easily become flabby (more bulk than bone) when they're cluttered with too many words and too many details.

In poetry, condensing and compression are about making poems more compact, less wordy. They are skills that enable poets to use the fewest possible words and to extend beyond literal understanding into nuances and associations that offer deeper meanings. In poetry, less really is more. As Dylan Thomas wrote, "The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps ... so that something not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in." Those holes and gaps can't happen in an overwritten poem.

In planning this week's prompt, I came across an interesting article and an idea to boost awareness of condensing and compression in our poems. From the article (Click Here to Read It): "Allen Ginsberg was a full believer in condense, condense, condense – which is a Pound dictum..." 

The article continues (and this is what caught my attention), "Check Allen's poetry for articles (remember "a," "an," "the"?) and you'll see where he starts – these bitty words all but disappear in his work, which not only condenses but gives a rushing sense of immediacy to his work." The article goes on to discuss Ginsberg's reaction to haiku, a genre that I credit with teaching me much about condensing and compression. Ginsberg's answer to haiku first appeared in his book Cosmopolitan Greetings in the form he called "American Sentences." According to Ginsberg, an American Sentence is simply one sentence that contains seventeen syllables (the writing of which is a great way to focus on condensing and compression). 

So here goes – our prompt this week is to create American Sentences in the manner of Allen Ginsberg, and then to look at our already-written poems with an eye toward condensing and compressing them.

Before you begin, be sure to read some American Sentences

http://www.americansentences.org/american-sentences.html.

Part I

1. Pick 3-5 topics.

2. Write an American Sentence on each topic you chose (have fun with this and be aware of how you condense  and compress).

Part II

1. After you've written a few American Sentences, take a look at some of your already-written poems. Think about how you might condense and compress to improve them.

2. Are there unnecessary prepositions that you can lose?

3. Are there articles (a, an, the) that you don't need?

4. Are there conjunctions (and, but, although, when, while, yet, because, for, until, etc.) that your poems can live without?

5. Do you include more details than necessary? Do you "tell" with words rather than "show" with effective imagery?

6. How can you condense and compress to create greater immediacy, energy, and power?