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| (click to see the found poem in all its found glory) |
(a found poem)
by
Greg Pincus
Perhaps you like a puzzle even if it is a puzzle
that does not have an answer.
The mystery
is this, "How did
the answer
have such history?"
Perhaps you will come up with an answer.
One of the unexpected highlights of the Poetry Camp (for Adults) was the craft/found poem even run by poet/artist/inspire-er Robyn Hood Black the night before the conference at Bellingham's Village Books. If you know me, you know that while I'm a huge fan of arts and crafts and such as a concept... actually doing them isn't always tops on my list. But there I was, sitting at a table along with Bob Raczka, Peg Cheng, and Brenda Olson chatting, glue-ing, picking words, laughing, and having a blast.
I felt lucky: my source materiel included that rather amazing sentence that beings my poem. It also had a mystery/history rhyme I liked AND included the word "conchologists" which I was not able to fit into the poem (and had never heard before). You can see a bunch of the poems and read more about the conference at Peg Cheng's wonderful post about the whole event. Did I mention the whole thing was a blast? Good.
Today is Poetry Friday here in the blogosphere, and you can see the roundup of this week's posts over at fellow-Poetry-Camper Irene Latham's blog. Check it out!
Plus, if you want to get all my poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!
Great job turning the passage into a poem, Mary Lee! I love the last "stanza" in particular. Beautiful.
Yep - I love that last "stanza" too! Thanks for sharing, and for the two links. Hmmmm.... lots of food for thought in those. I'll be forever grateful that reading was an unquestioned, pleasurable part of life in my family. And I still remember the thrill of listening to elementary teachers read the LITTLE HOUSE books and KON TIKI in class. Our culture doesn't encourage sustained attention or quiet reflection - one reason it's so important to make poetry available to children.
Well done, Mary Lee! I'd say that passage is truly poetry.
I think reading aloud to young children is of the greatest import. When I was teaching, read-aloud time was my favorite part of the school day. I think it was my students' favorite time too. I think the "powers that be" don't understand the educational significance of reading aloud to children. I think it's especially important for children who are struggling readers. Many of them are excellent listeners. Children learn so much from hearing and reading quality literature.
Have a great school year!
These are the lines that spoke to me:
"we should gloat over a book,
be rapt
clean out of ourselves
and rise from the perusal,
our mind
filled
with the busiest,
kaleidoscopic dance of images,
incapable of sleep
or of continuous thought."
- total absorption over a piece of literature = bliss.
My nine year old daughter has just memorized The Land of Nod by Robert Louis Stevenson this week (as assigned by their teacher who has great taste) - so it's really nice to read another Stevenson poem this week.
Very cool idea to turn the passage into a poem! What beautiful, lyrical words. Last stanza is my favorite too :).
Don't you love the thought that a book makes you incapable of sleep? I can remember many nights when I read beneath the covers or got up to find out what would happen next.
Thanks for sharing this.
Reading as "absorbing and voluptuous"...I love that! This is exactly how I want my students to think of reading...
This week I sank into a beautiful bath in a bathroom alight with candles...reading Annie Dillard's PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK. This found poem illustrates exactly how I felt. Lovely! A.