Cow Tipping Press Day 3

Today Shelagh was sick so she couldn't join us, although she was planning on trying to do writing prompts from home. We had Mary, Danny, Mike, and Nathan join us today.

Today's Creative Writing Genre was Poetry. The group discussed how poetry is a way of expressing your thoughts and that it can use language in unusual ways. They also said that poetry can be used to tell things that are from your soul and that sometimes it rhymes and sometimes it doesn't.  Poetry uses imagery, word association. Poetry doesn't have to have correct grammar or full sentences. 

The first poem we read was Prayer for Dropouts by John Colburn. Our group said they liked the imagery in this poem, the pictures it made in their minds, the possibilities it opened up. Nathan liked the magic, the birds, flowers, the beautiful pictures the poem made in his head. Our teacher talked with us about how there are no good or bad poems, maybe that there is just the right poem for the right person. 

The group had a choice of two writing prompts: 1) Underline 10 unusual words and write a poem using these words, 2) Write a poem starting each line like Colburn does "may the..." "may you"..

Mary wrote a poem reminiscent of a spoken word poem about gibbons and their love for fruit, Nathan wrote about a golden magical garden trying to capture some of the same beautiful imagery he admired in the Colburn poem. Danny wrote a very hopeful poem called "May You". Mike wrote a very gentle poem about his fiance with soft imagery of rain and snow. 

We then read "No Hell" by Cloud Cult. Our group remarked how they felt the poem was about learning from pain and finding beauty through hard times. They noticed the importance of beauty and nature in the poem. One of our participants commented on the imagery of the soul without the skin attached, making the readers see what the poet has been through. We discussed what our souls would look like. Some said a beam of light, a star, What would our soul look like when we are feeling different emotions, would it look like a thunderstorm if we were mad or sad, if we were happy like a rainbow. We also talked about line breaks in poems and how they are used to create meaning. In prose, full sentences are used. 

The writing prompt was 1) to write about how your soul would look without the skin attached or 2) to write about the best things you've learned and where you learned them from.

Mary wrote a poem in the form of a prayer. Nathan wrote a love poem to a cat in a garden. Dan wrote about the soul and the many ways you can see it depending on how you feel, the many sides we all have. 

I shared a poem called Hours Days Years Unmoor Their Orbits by Rachel Zucker . The group commented that they liked that the poem was loving and vulnerable. I commented that the poem spoke to me as a parent because it talked about the changing relationship between a son and mom as the son is growing and trying to become independent and that it is also about remembering people when they are younger and seeing who they become. It is also about the journeys that our loved ones take us on.

Our writing prompts were 1) to write about a memory from childhood, 2) to write about remembering a family member.

Nathan wrote about imagining an adventure with his cat. Mike wrote about a memory of melted chocolate that was mistaken for a bathroom accident. Mary wrote about walking in shadows and hiding and Dan wrote about memories of his dad and him, their favorite times.

Last we listened to Sarah Kay recite "Hands" and the writing prompt was to 1) think about different things you've done many times or 2) to write about a body part. The group will share their works next time. Next week's genre will be revealed this Thursday.