Once again, I’m happy to offer a guest prompt sent to us by Diane Lockward (click here for Diane's picture and bio) from her excellent resource The
Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop. If you haven’t gotten a copy of Crafty Poet yet, I strongly recommend it
as a terrific text designed to jump start your writing process and to provide
you with many sources of creative inspiration. Click on the book cover image to order.
From Diane
One of the qualities that distinguishes an outstanding poem from a
merely competent one is language that sizzles, sings, and surprises. And yet
too many of us settle for ordinary language when extraordinary language is
available and free to everyone.
Never settle for the first words that come
to you; go in search of the best words. If you don’t begin with the best words,
as is most often the case, be sure that you end with them. In your revision
process, go through your poem and interrogate each line, asking again and
again, Is this the best word here? Choose
words for their meaning and their music.
Here’s a poem and prompt from The
Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop. Read the poem by Rod Jellema and
luxuriate in his language. Be sure to say the poem aloud. Put the words in your
mouth and savor them. Then try the prompt that follows the poem. Enjoy!
Because I
Never Learned the Names of Flowers
It is moonlight
and white where
I slink away from
my cat-quiet blue rubber truck
and motion myself
to back it up to your ear.
I peel back the
doors of the van and begin
to hushload into
your sleep
the whole damn
botanical cargo of Spring.
Sleeper, I whisk
you
Trivia and
Illium, Sweet Peristalsis, Flowering Delirium.
Sprigs of Purple
Persiflage and Lovers’ Leap, slips
of Hysteria stick
in my hair. I gather clumps of Timex,
handfuls of
Buttertongues, Belly buttons and Bluelets.
I come with
Trailing Nebula, I come with Late-Blooming
Paradox, with
Creeping Pyromania, Pink Apoplex,
and Climbing
Solar Plexus,
whispering:
Needlenose,
Juice Cup,
Godstem, Nexus, Sex-us, Condominium.
—Rod Jellema
I admire the wordplay in this poem, the
sexiness of it. The language is romantic, fanciful, and musical. Notice the
made-up words like cat-quiet and hushload. And the beauty of the
flower names. Real names, made-up ones, or silly ones, they are fun to say, to
roll around in the mouth.
Notice the sound devices, e.g., the
alliteration in Buttertongues, Belly buttons and Bluelets.
And the rhyming of Paradox, Apoplex, Plexus, Nexus, Sex-us. Wouldn’t it
be lovely to be that Sleeper and have someone whispering all this into your ear
as you nod off?
Choose a category, perhaps fruits,
vegetables, birds, or fish. Or choose something within the category, e.g.,
apples, beans, or lettuces—something that has variety. Then create a bank of
words with great sounds, some rhyming words, some near rhyming words. Let some
of those words be nouns, some verbs, a few adjectives. Make up some of the
words. Make your word choices delicious.
Imagine
an auditor. (This is a key ingredient in creating a strong voice.)
Then
begin your draft with Because I never learned the names of __________.
Drawing
from your word hoard, write a poem delivered very privately to your auditor.
In
revision change your poem to make it uniquely yours.
You might want to check out these contemporary poems, all of which do wonderful things with language.
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