Post-Massachusetts Poetry Festival - Action Items!

For the fifth year, I have attended the Massachusetts Poetry Festival and returned home filled with inspiration and joy. This is my favorite poetry event, year after year, and I encourage friends and colleagues to attend! I am never disappointed, always enriched.

This year, I presented a round table discussion with my dear sisters Antoinette Brim and Demetrice A. Worley titled "Story Retold: Women Retelling History." As we talked with the participants of how the literary and academic patriarchy cast heavy shadows on women writers that manifest in countless ways, we chose to create an action item list that would help us all in creating work, breaking our own silences, and generating space and opportunity for our extensive community of women writers. Thanks to those who offered suggestions: Judy, Donna, Sherry, Meg, Caroline, Gail, Susan, Christine, Alisha, and Lois. Here is the list and feel free to help yourself or another move forward and be fully present in our work:

• Subscribe to listserves and social media pages/sites that support women writers, where you can find readings, workshops, and calls for publication/submission, announce achievements, and generally network with the vast community of women who write. Two of the countless examples are the Binders Facebook group (this is a closed group and you must query to be included) and the daily CRWROPPS listserve curated by Allison Joseph (although this is for all writers, it is a priceless resource and a labor of love for the national writing community).
• Host home salons, master classes, readings: much like the house concerts of the folk music community that have been integral in many careers, most of us have a community of writers who would benefit from a poet who may have a new book out, may be touring, etc. The format can be very simple or can be a full retreat day but charging a fee to offer to the guest and selling books may not only share that writer's work but help her pay a bill. I will write on this more soon.
• Add women writers into our teaching practice. Many writers are also teachers. Rely on the work of poets you admire as examples of great poetry.
• Be sure to be inclusive in the circles we create for ourselves; gather like-minded people of all ages and backgrounds in circles to create and be artists together.
• Make time to write as a personal priority or commitment. We readily give our time away and our writing may be the last priority.
• Additionally, if you teach, particularly at the college level, work active writing time into the class schedule and write with them.
• In active writing exercises, encourage students to take turns in supplying the prompt for the day, which frees the teacher to write spontaneously as well, possibly discovering new viable work that would not otherwise be written.
• When teaching, be conscious of how we respond to women students and encourage their voices and for them to recognize themselves. Do not defer to male students;  make it an open classroom in which women may often speak first.
• Be vocal in our gratitude for those who support and instruct us and be supportive of each other in any way we can.
• Make safe, productive space for regular, consistent gatherings, such as monthly workshops or generative meetings to create and critique new work. These spaces can be in homes or public places.
• Plan opportunities to generate new work with colleagues and friends to refocus, motivate, encourage and empower each other.
• Focus on the work and do not make food the focus. Allow people to bring snacks if they like but it is not necessary to provide food if you host a gathering. The power of not sharing food can enhance the focus as participants share without diversion to the menu and conversation that takes away from the work.
• Search for outlets for work that addresses current issues, such as Rattle's weekly Poets Respond.
• Consider local public libraries as spaces to not only gather for workshopping but for readings and other poetry events.
• Study with colleagues and sister writers, sharing insights and the results that manifest as new work.
• Encourage local radio stations to feature poetry. Use opportunities such as National Poetry Month as a likely reason why it will be of value to the listeners.
• Track your progress. One suggestion was simple: for every 15+ minutes that you sit to write, put a sticker on the calendar to tag the effort. It worked when we were kids and it works now as affirmation and encouragement.
• Know yourself and your own motivations and cycles. Be aware of your patterns, habits, and ways that you do or do not prioritize yourself and your need to create. Also, be gentle with yourself but know when it is time to push.
• Dismiss the notion of writer's block. The myth is that we are not writers if we are not actively creating new work, which then gives us plenty of opportunity to judge and denigrate ourselves. Our identity as writer/poet is much  more than the action of writing. When we are in a quiet time, we are still processing and relating to the world in metaphoric, imagistic ways. We are reading, we are meeting deadlines, caring for family and friends, working, vacationing, we are living life. We will come out of the quiet time to produce and we must trust it.
• Own your identity as a poet/writer. There is power in claiming the title first before all other titles and responsibilities. Give yourself the gift.
• Trust yourself and that there is value in your work, no matter what level of "achievement" you may have at the current moment.

On behalf of my dear sisters and colleagues, Demetrice and Antoinette, thank you to all those who chose to attend our session. In our vibrant conversation, which was limited by the hour time frame, we chose to focus on positive actions we can take rather than a session to rant of the injustices and slights that we all encounter. We know the stories that history has provided all too well, and we know the obstacles of being a woman in the literary world, the realm of academia and public education, and of society in general. Proceed and be bold. And remember: the matriarchy is on the rise and we are taking our planet back... 

More on Making Things...

Ask.com answers my query with the following: Poem is from the Greek poema, a noun derived from the verb poie-o, to make or do. Poets are often called makers.Thanks to my dear friend Linda Moore for bringing this derivation to my attention originally. 

It is this making that keeps swirling through my thoughts. Too many poets are too much in their heads. We are a solitary sort in our creative process. But learning to allow the environment of the poem and all it is striving to achieve be a welcoming place for me is the work at hand. In writing a poem, I believe myself as the source of the work, rather than the conduit. In making a poem, I am a creative first responder to the moment of noticing, awareness that opens the window for a breeze that is inspiration. It is the mirror that reflects this moment in time. I, as poet, will commit those images, moments, sounds, thoughts, words to breath and into type. I respond to this life we have been dreamed into with my verse.

It is in this making that we poets must be willing to be most honest. It is with the intention of honest reflection that the best poems are written, those poems that reflect the world to itself through the individual lens of that artist who commits to the act of making the poem, establishing contact. It is through the poet's lens that we can see through windows of the places and times where and when others have lived, are living.

We teach a great deal through poetic verse. We see with the eyes of a fly, so many lenses. The poet must be conscious and speak for, to, and with the greater community. We have done this for thousands of years. We teach language through the sound and meter of poetry, even in pre-reading. It is in the pulse of our blood as a people. Poetry is organic, more than the towers and lecture halls of academia may have allowed us to believe throughout the 20th century. More than the media of the age would accept. Poetry is for everyone. We enjoy it more than many admit or recognize. 

The myth of poetry being too elusive for the average person, too challenging, is failing, is waning. There is a poem for everyone, a poem that speaks to that person's individual experience and understanding. A poem with which that reader feels competent in how they interpret the words and metaphor. We will never all like the same poem. But we will each be able to identify with one poem we rely upon or always remember.

The job of the poet is to catalog by using the wealth and lush capacity of language and image, to reflect everything of the human condition, of history, of nuance, of the marvel that this speck of the universe provides, as well as its pain,  or our outrage. 

My job is to create and to share, to communicate and connect. My job is to promote my creative art in all the ways it serves us and to encourage poetry as a viable aspect of lifelong learning as well as personal and cultural expression. I encourage others to make things as well.

Postscript:

From the Owl Publishing web site I fell upon, the following quote:  Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

The Free Dictionary on line offers this definition:

po·em

n.

1. A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.

2. A composition in verse rather than in prose.

3. A literary composition written with an intensity or beauty of language more characteristic of poetry than of prose.

4. A creation, object, or experience having beauty suggestive of poetry.

---

[French poème, from Old French, from Latin poema, from Greek poiema, from poiein, to create; see k^wei-² in Indo-European roots.]

Complacency Is a Slow Death - Last Part (for now...)

Our workshop met for the last time yesterday, a 6-week cycle of sessions that I hope directed the writers to new ways of thinking about their work and, for a few, created fuel for new poems and directions.

They took the assignment seriously. Each brought a revision of my poem or a complete rewrite as they would envision it, as I had instructed. Several were still reticent to mess with my poem, others were quite comfortable taking it apart and making it something different and new.

I learned a lot about what the poem may be able to accomplish and why. I also recognized how completely buried I had become in the clever language that enamored me in the first place. It has been more than 2 years since the first draft and at least 18 months since the last so now I have a remarkably clear vision to rely upon in bringing the poem to its potential. I appreciate the efforts of each of the participants and I trust that the activity gave them something to consider as writers and editors.

I spoke last Saturday to my dear friend, Phil Alexander. We make a habit of sharing a weekend morning of puttering in our respective homes, his condo apartment in Brooklyn, my Victorian home in Syracuse, our headsets in our ears or phones on speaker, coffee cups probably in hand, and the little chores that need to be met.

We were talking about process and writing. I was discussing the purpose of being a poet and suggested that it is simply to make art, to investigate and experiment with language. Phil added that it was to use language to share a thought, feeling, or inspiration. I countered that I considered that the goal, but that to make a poem is about the discovery of the possibilities of language as a painter discovers the possibilities of paint in the experimentation. To me, in this stage of my life as a writing artist, the goal is secondary to the making; the product is secondary to process. 

Then Phil suggested that the poem communicates to another the essence of the artist and the artist's beliefs and understanding. I suggested that, to me, that is the mission. The process is for the purity of making art. The goal is to make art that another responds to, and the mission is to make art that translates meaning and experience to others in a valuable and conscious way. In speaking with my dear friend, once again, I clarified my own mission statement. Thanks Phil!

Thanks to those members of my poetry workshop too. Not only did they share process and craft with each other while they created new work, they also supported my efforts to continue to be a teaching artist. I am blessed with abundance in this life because I have such people to share it with me, who believe in me, who see me through, and show me the way to all things, including the potential of my own work.

Complacency Is a Slow Death

This summer, as I focus on teaching adults rather than classrooms of school kids, a conversation surfaced in the poetry workshop regarding critique and suggestions from one writer to another.

One of the workshop participants took issue with another participant for the habit of offering rewrite suggestions. He felt that it was against protocol to rewrite another poet's work. This gentleman stated that he was very interested in receiving "harsh criticism" but that no one should rewrite his draft. Meanwhile, another member of the workshop was grappling with receiving comments from the other writers that did not suggest options for revision; he felt that simply stating what a reader felt was or was not successful does not deliver enough to help him make critical decisions for the growth of his work. He wants to be given examples of "how to fix it."

Here we have the age-old debate concerning workshopping. Workshop is the best way for any writer to take the work to a "control group" to ascertain its effectiveness and strengths. It is necessary to maintain an air of mutual regard. It is also supremely important to remember the difference between "critique" and "criticism." The difference also connects directly to ego issues on both sides. There must be an air of safety and respect among all participants for a beneficial exchange. A skilled facilitator will set that tone in the beginning and expect it to be maintained throughout the life of the workshop.

There are those who believe that there is no place for one poet rewriting another's work but I do not concur. In fact, my answer to the first gentleman was "Yes and no." No to the concept that a poem brought to workshop is so sacred that it cannot benefit from the ways that other writers may see the potential for the language and offer suggestions in tangible ways. Yes to the point that if, in the editorial suggestions, the person offering critique changes the context of the poem, that is not appropriate. We must strive to maintain the intention of the poem, but to provide viable options for the poet to consider. Then it is the poet's choice as to which suggestions will help deliver the success of the poem for the greatest readership.

In workshop, a poet has two jobs: to fairly offer critique to peers that will show a writer how much the poem is connecting with readers in a positive manner and to listen to comments about one's own poem in order to weigh the considerations fairly in developing the work. The fundamental difference between the words critique and criticism is that the first is a positive commentary that provides a constructive opportunity for discovery in the work; the second is based in negative response and can be hurtful. There is no place for criticism in workshop but critique is the foundation of the workshop process.

I have often heard poets who participate in ongoing workshops say that they were not planning to attend a session because they did not have any work to share. This misses the first responsibility of a workshop participant, that which each writer brings to the others. This is based on just getting one's own needs met without reciprocity. I believe it is a selfish  indulgence and negates what we all give each other in the workshop process. It also negates the ability to hear something regarding craft that will teach or illustrate something that may be incorporated in one's own work as the commentary flies. As members discuss one poem, all that craft discussion is applicable to the whole. Listen well.

Two other elements of a successful workshop experience are that of nonattachment and the willingness to revise for discovery. Do not bring a piece of writing that you are delighted with and feel is complete. If you are so satisfied, fine. Send the work out to be considered for publication. Mail it to your mom. Don't bring it to workshop for a pat on the back; stretch your arm over your shoulder and give that to yourself.

Do bring a poem that you either believe is very close and could benefit from the last phase of tweaking so every word brings value to the whole or bring a poem that stymies you. Make the workshop experience productive, one that shows you new approaches and opportunities that will benefit your poetry.

You must be able to develop a thick skin, a nonattachment to the work that will give you free reign to discover what the poem wants to be more than what you believe it is. We must be the navigators, holding the map and watching the road, but we benefit by letting the poem be the driver.

This nonattachment features strongly in the profile of a mature writer, one who knows that it is not about the end product as much as it is about the process. The life of the writer is of writing and creating but many seem to think that it is about publishing and there is a crush to meet that goal that results in work that is almost meeting its own potential but falls inches short of the true finish line. Again I ask, "What is the rush?" Honor the poem first! Take the time to fully serve its potential. Be willing to cut and change, to look up words and search for the perfect synonym. Be willing to let the poem fully evolve and take its time in so doing. Be willing to allow others to offer suggestions that they recognize, potentials they witness, in the off chance their vision as a reader will give you a key to another door of possibility for the life of your poem.

And for heaven's sake, never indulge in complacency. If you cannot be open to grow and experiment, you are not a poet, you are someone who writes poems, and that difference is as vast as the two definitions I cited above. There is no place for complacency in making art.