Saturday 5 October 2019

Ways into Poetry at City Lit

I'm booked in for a 3 Sunday class at City on poetry.  Last Sunday we started - class tutor Sarah Westcott. The class is diverse - 4 men, 7 women, various ethnicities and working roles, mostly 30s-50s.  We had a great time working with memory (I made the class laugh!), and simile and metaphor.

We debated words that we liked because of the sound or meaning - mine were fun, kind, crackle, sparkle, cartridge paper (for its meaning - the grade of paper used to make cartridges to hold shot for a gun!).  Different people's words were categorised into visual, descriptive, beautiful, simple, memories, frequency.  We were advised to take time to look - then the descriptive words come.

We looked at Joe Brainard's poem I Remember.  It uses a lot of anaphora (repetition of a word or phrase), uses lists and repeats.  Class had to write a poem of their own inspired by repeated phrases.  I focussed the 'I remember'.


Teenage Angst

I remember the green and white tweed trousers my Mother bought me.
I remember I wanted to be like my mates.
I wanted tight blue jeans.

She’d spent my clothing allowance -
in the Sale -
on these hideous, bottle green and white, tweed, baggy trousers.

I remember the angst of wearing those hated trousers.
I wanted to be trendy.
But I wore frumpy, scratchy, baggy, hideous trousers.
I wanted to be trendy.
I remember the embarrassment.

I remember my Mother’s pride.
“They were such a bargain”.
“You’ll look ever so nice!"

I hated those trousers.
Who chose bottle green and white?
I remember her puzzlement at me not wanting to wear them.
“But you look ever so nice in them”.

Then we passed round a bag containing objects, and chose one blind.  I got a necklace - wooden spiral motif.  We had to write a poem using simile or metaphor. (Ironing by Vicky Feaver, and You're by Sylvia Plath)

Necklace

Worn around the neck 
as a sign of significance

Multiple laces like black liquorice
but inedible as electrical wiring

A coil of carved wood
as solid as a rock
Twisted, spiralled like an ammonite

Simple fastening - wooden button,
fixed with a string tangle, 
as secure as a glover's knot.

Great class.  Throughly enjoyed it.  Roll on next Sunday.

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