In Chapter 6 "Your Genius, Your Demons" of Ordinary Genius, Kim Addonizio makes clear that the biggest part of your genius is your desire to write, and, in some ways, this desire itself can be your "demon": that obsession that you can't get past and that won't leave you alone. But there are other demons in your life as well, and one of the ways you find your genius is by plumbing those demons and using them to create poetry. Your first poetry assignment in this class calls for you to write a poem in free verse (no rhyme scheme, end rhyme, or specific meter) that examines either a personal demon or a secret. Use the chapter from Ordinary Genius as a guide.
As before, try for more showing than telling. Show the particulars of a specific situation rather than writing on the broad theme itself. I recommend looking at writing exercises either in Ordinary Genius as a springboard to your poem. Also, many of the poems in Ordinary Genius and, particularly, the selections below can help to guide you along the way. Like the poems we read from published poets in our books, be as specific as possible; try to illuminate the ordinary, describe it in a new and original way, try using metaphor and/or personification of inanimate objects in your description. As you're revising, use alliteration and judge which words you want to emphasize the most to determine where your line breaks should be (Don't always end the line where the punctuation is). Finally, look at your poem as a whole. Is there some universal, philosophical message you can get from this poem? Try to find a way of conveying that in the poem without stating it directly. The best way to do this is by letting an image or images represent the idea rather than stating the idea.
Things to include in every poem you write:
Things to avoid in every poem you write:
Before you write, read back through the first poems in your reading. Pick the poems you like the best and try to pattern your poem after them but using the subject of your personal demons or secrets and your own details.
Format:
Workshops and Written Critiques:
Workshops and Written Critiques:
Though they are not without their issues at times, in-person workshops are usually the most gratifying and instructive part of creative writing classes. As a class, we don't have time for every student to workshop every other student's poem, and being an online class makes these things more difficult as well, so I put students in small critique groups, and they are only responsible for critiquing the works of the students in their group. The lists of critique groups will be in your online peer workshops on D2L.
Writing can be a lonely enterprise, but you are all in this class because you are interested in it, and you have a group of people with you who share your interest. Take advantage of that. It can be hard and intimidating to find critique partners and beta readers with strangers online; it's much easier with a classroom of peers from your school working on the same assignment.
Feedback from Me (and Office Visits):
I will read through the poem drafts for each poetry assignment, but I will not write individual critiques of each poem. Instead, I will post an announcement that gives general feedback on the poems as a whole, outlining what I felt students needed to work on most in Poem 1. I will post this feedback in the Announcements during the week you are revising your poems to turn in. If you want specific feedback from me on your poem, you should bring your poem to my office hours in SOAL 237 on Macon campus (inside the English Department), or I can meet with you virtually on Microsoft Teams. Just email me to request a Microsoft Teams meeting, but while I take walk-ins for meetings in my office during my office hours, you will need to email me at least 24 hours in advance for Teams meetings (business days).
Examples of Poems
"Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump," David Bottoms
"Wrestling Angels," David Bottoms
"Dangerous for Girls," Connie Voisine
"Deer Hit," Jon Loomis
"The Fist," Derek Walcott
"Her Kind," Anne Sexton
"Wanting to Die," Anne Sexton
As before, try for more showing than telling. Show the particulars of a specific situation rather than writing on the broad theme itself. I recommend looking at writing exercises either in Ordinary Genius as a springboard to your poem. Also, many of the poems in Ordinary Genius and, particularly, the selections below can help to guide you along the way. Like the poems we read from published poets in our books, be as specific as possible; try to illuminate the ordinary, describe it in a new and original way, try using metaphor and/or personification of inanimate objects in your description. As you're revising, use alliteration and judge which words you want to emphasize the most to determine where your line breaks should be (Don't always end the line where the punctuation is). Finally, look at your poem as a whole. Is there some universal, philosophical message you can get from this poem? Try to find a way of conveying that in the poem without stating it directly. The best way to do this is by letting an image or images represent the idea rather than stating the idea.
Things to include in every poem you write:
- showing more than telling
- conflict
- originality
- energy (of sound and sense)
- complete sentences (MOST of the time)
Things to avoid in every poem you write:
- cliches and word packages
- most adverbs, especially ones that end in "ly"
- abstractions like "joy," "happiness," "fear," "excitement," "anguish," etc.
- heavy-handed or melodramatic words like "heart," "eternal," "desire," "dearest," "yearn," "bliss," "embrace,"etc.,
- archaic words like "alas," "amiss," "upon," "farewell," "thee," "thou," "thy," "beloved," "thine," etc.
- perspective adjectives like "beautiful," "lovely," "ugly," "terrible," "fantastic," "surreal," "enchanting," etc.
- clunky words (basically, words with too many syllables)
Before you write, read back through the first poems in your reading. Pick the poems you like the best and try to pattern your poem after them but using the subject of your personal demons or secrets and your own details.
Format:
- The poem should be typed using 12 or 11 pt. font size and Times New Roman or Arial font style.
- Your name and e-mail address should be in the top, right corner of the page(s)
- By the left margin, you should type the title of your poem, double space, and begin typing the text of your poem (which should be single spaced except for the breaks in stanzas).
- Unless you feel the poem needs to be double-spaced (e.g. you like the lighter feel on the page, it's a poem about isolation and having isolated lines seems appropriate, etc.) single space the poem. This is just to say that either is acceptable, but there should be a reason why you choose one over the other; you should do what is right for that particular work rather than just go along with the formatting that is already in your word processing program.
- Do not center the poem in the middle of the page or center each line of the poem. Again, the poem should begin at the left margin. If you would like to play with the spacing before and between lines and words, do so as suits the subject of your poem. Most serious contemporary poetry uses these devices very subtly, though, so keep that in mind. Look at the published poetry in your books as examples.
- Do not capitalize the first letter of every line. This is an antiquated convention to which most contemporary poetry does not adhere. Only capitalize the first letter of every sentence in the poem. If your word processing program automatically capitalizes the first letter of every line, turn auto-correct off or edit every line manually.
Workshops and Written Critiques:
Workshops and Written Critiques:
Though they are not without their issues at times, in-person workshops are usually the most gratifying and instructive part of creative writing classes. As a class, we don't have time for every student to workshop every other student's poem, and being an online class makes these things more difficult as well, so I put students in small critique groups, and they are only responsible for critiquing the works of the students in their group. The lists of critique groups will be in your online peer workshops on D2L.
Writing can be a lonely enterprise, but you are all in this class because you are interested in it, and you have a group of people with you who share your interest. Take advantage of that. It can be hard and intimidating to find critique partners and beta readers with strangers online; it's much easier with a classroom of peers from your school working on the same assignment.
Feedback from Me (and Office Visits):
I will read through the poem drafts for each poetry assignment, but I will not write individual critiques of each poem. Instead, I will post an announcement that gives general feedback on the poems as a whole, outlining what I felt students needed to work on most in Poem 1. I will post this feedback in the Announcements during the week you are revising your poems to turn in. If you want specific feedback from me on your poem, you should bring your poem to my office hours in SOAL 237 on Macon campus (inside the English Department), or I can meet with you virtually on Microsoft Teams. Just email me to request a Microsoft Teams meeting, but while I take walk-ins for meetings in my office during my office hours, you will need to email me at least 24 hours in advance for Teams meetings (business days).
Examples of Poems
"Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump," David Bottoms
"Wrestling Angels," David Bottoms
"Dangerous for Girls," Connie Voisine
"Deer Hit," Jon Loomis
"The Fist," Derek Walcott
"Her Kind," Anne Sexton
"Wanting to Die," Anne Sexton