Woof! A Work in Progress

My students and I were writing how-to poetry and prose last week: How to Be a Carrot, How to Let Things Go, How to Be a Bumblebee.

Here's one I'm working on:

How to Live with a New Puppy

Prepare to be unprepared

to forget to do the basics (shower, stretch, breathe)

prepare to forget the pleasure of ironing a shirt and reading beneath a tree

prepare for dainty nails to rake your shins and seventh-octave barks to shatter the champagne flutes of your inner ear

prepare to be hung upside down and shaken like dice in a cup so that keys and coins fly out of your pockets, so that the beads of your girlhood necklace finally break free from their 50-year-old string and tumble to the unswept floor to mingle with bits of dried grass and kibbledust

prepare for everything to come loose, for words like lunch and sleep to become as abstract as infinity or world peace

prepare for even your teeth to unmoor and rattle to the fir floor, leaving you to gum the puppy’s silky ears like a newborn infant seeking love as much as sustenance with its warm, blind mouth.

Improv

Something nice happened a few weeks ago.

A stranger who likes our poetry post slipped a book of their own poems through our mail slot. Inside the book was a handwritten note from the author, Taylor L. Ciambra:

"Hello! Thank you for sharing poems with the neighborhood! It always makes my day when I see a new poem up during a walk or jog. I want to share my poems with you as a way to show gratitude. I hope you enjoy them!"

Bowled over by this gift, I wanted to show my gratitude in turn. I took words from their poems (breadcrumbs, beard, motorcycle, heels, flannel) as well as the title of the book, Away with Words, and wove them into a freewrite/poem. Then I posted it for Ciambra alongside one of their poems to see the next time they jog by. I titled my writing "Improv" because Ciambra's bio says they're a "theatre maker and writer." The ending refers to a popular improv game that asks participants to work together, accepting each other's ideas and keeping a conversation alive. No script required.

Once again I'm reminded that writing is as much about conversation and connection as anything. May we all be joyful participants in organic exchanges with friends and strangers alike.

Improv

           for Taylor L. Ciambra

Away with words

      A way with words

with sentences

and similes

      dressed in hiking boots,

      not heels and stockings

A way

     to weigh

moments

     to follow breadcrumbs

               to bandaids,

                   sleeping bags,

                        and beards

Your words

       the salt breeze on (y)our

              bare neck, whiff

                     of sugar and of smoke --

one shoulder cocked

    inside a leather coat,

              one shoulder nestled

                      in a flannel robe.

                 Away with words

A way with words

                A word:

                     Yes

                or two:

                     Yes, and...

In Their Shoes

Many thanks to the Oregon Poetry Association for awarding my poem "From the Journals of Rumpelstiltskin" first place in their spring Members Only category.

You can read the poem here, as well as wonderfully evocative works by Melody Wilson and Suzy Harris.

I've written a few fictional journal poems, including "From the Imaginary Journals of Venetia Burney," which was published in The Wild Word, as well as a series about a kidnapped heiress, which is part of my forthcoming collection from Finishing Line Press. 

As a fiction writer, I find persona poems let me have my cake and eat it too. You get to imagine what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes, while using the juicy, concentrated language of poetry. If you're stuck for a new writing idea, you might give this a whirl. Simply pick a character (real or fictional) and let your imagination run wild.