For your third najor assignment, you will write a poem in free verse (no rhyme scheme, end rhyme, or specific meter). For this poem, you will focus on gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Use Kim Addonizio's Chapter 11 in Ordinary Genius as your guide. Doing any of the exercises in this chapter listed under "indoctrination," "what do women want?," and "self-loathing, self-love," and turning it into a poem can lead to a great submission for this assignment. You do not have to use these exercises, however, or you can use part of an exercise or even just an idea that the exercise gives you.
As always, 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 the writing exercises in Ordinary Genius as a springboard to your poem. 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 and the rhythm of the poem 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 your own subject and your own details.
Format:
Examples of Poems that focus on gender:
"What Do Women Want?" Kim Addonizio
"Homosexuality," Henri Cole
"Her Kind," Anne Sexton
"Single Kings of the Valley," Cait Weiss Orcutt
"If You're Staying, I'll Stay Too," Meg Day
"Gretel," Andrea Hollander
Adolescence II, Rita Dove
"Superglue," Dorianne Laux
As always, 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 the writing exercises in Ordinary Genius as a springboard to your poem. 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 and the rhythm of the poem 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:" "sincerely," "gently," "sympathetically," etc.
- abstractions like "joy," "happiness," "fear," "excitement," "anguish," "truth," "concern," 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 (adjectives that don't create a specific image in the reader's mind but depend on the perspective of the reader) like "beautiful," "lovely," "ugly," "terrible," "fantastic," "surreal," "enchanting," etc.
- clunky words (basically, words with four or more syllables)
- passive voice (When you don't have a person (or animal) doing the action. The action is "done to" an object or a person.) Example: XX Passive: The sun was seen rising above the hill. **Active: I saw the sun rising above the hill. Also, as a corollary to this rule, any time you can avoid using helping verbs (as in "was seen" here), avoid them. They lead to number 9 on this list "wordiness" and just clutter up the sentence.
- wordiness. Any words that are not necessary to the meaning of the poem, scene, or image, leave out. The more extra words you have, the "flatter" and "prosier" your sound. What works in essay writing does not work in poetry. You want each word you use to be crisp and have as much energy and purpose as you can muster. This will also create a more lyrical sound overall.
- explaining. Once again, explanation is for essay writing. Though you want your images to be clear, what they mean beyond surface level is something the reader should come to on his or her own. Even the feelings of the speaker should, more often than not, be shown to the reader through his or her actions rather than stated directly.
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 your own subject 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.
- Lastly, you should bring at least five copies to class on peer workshop day if you are in the small group and at least twelve if you are in the large group.
Examples of Poems that focus on gender:
"What Do Women Want?" Kim Addonizio
"Homosexuality," Henri Cole
"Her Kind," Anne Sexton
"Single Kings of the Valley," Cait Weiss Orcutt
"If You're Staying, I'll Stay Too," Meg Day
"Gretel," Andrea Hollander
Adolescence II, Rita Dove
"Superglue," Dorianne Laux