In the book I Am Writing a Poem About . . . A Game of Poetry, Myra Cohn Livingston writes about three of the assignments she gave to students in her master class in poetry at UCLA. The third assignment Livingston gave was to write a poem that included six assigned words. Here is a description from the book's introduction.
About the last assignment--a six-word-based poem--there was some debate. Everyone agreed that hole, friend, candle, ocean, bucket, and snake presented possibilities, but a few preferred the word scarecrow to bucket, so a choice was given. Hole, friend, candle, ocean, and snake were mandatory, but one could choose either bucket or scarecrow as the sixth word.
Now, that is a challenge! Let's follow Livingston's directions and write a poem that contains the five words hole, friend, candle, ocean, and snake, as well as either bucket or scarecrow as the sixth word. I hope you'll join me in writing this week. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
ReplyDeleteFears
I am never asked by men
on dating sites what I fear,
so I will tell you outright:
heights, snakes, a sink hole
opening at my feet, the ocean
at night, a scarecrow dancing
down the path towards me,
a lion and tin man walking
arm in arm.
I would not do well
in Oz or in Wonderland.
Happily they lie quiet
on the page.
But give me a friend--
even an old man
hiding behind the curtain
of his own fears--
who can hold up
a candle in the wind
and I will dance
along the cornrows
until I fall into
a happy sleep covered
by red petals,
or manage my flamingo
on the queen's Old Course.
©2016 Jane Yoleb all rights reserved
"but give me a friend--
Deleteeven an old man...(holding)..a candle in the wind"
it really *is* all you need!
j
All you need...
ReplyDeleteWhen she discovered you had slithered
like a snake into an ocean full of empty,
being a true friend, at once she lit a candle
to seek a water bucket with no hole.
I used both bucket and scarecrow. Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteOcean and Snake
An ocean and a snake were friends.
They used to hiss and undulate
together. But one day the snake
came no more. Snakes do not live
as long as oceans. Nothing does.
Then the ocean had a hole in her heart
like a place scooped out by a bucket
the size of an island. She tried
making friends with a scarecrow,
but he was lost in her waves, floating
like a drowned man. She tried
befriending a candle, but the flame
only hissed once, when she touched it
with a wet finger. After that
the ocean was friend to no one,
and cared not who hissed or drowned.
—Kate Coombs, 2016
all rights reserved
THE HOLE IN MY SPIRIT
ReplyDeleteThe hole in my spirit cannot be replenished again.
No more healing whispers from my best friend
or trips to the ocean trying to baptize myself
to rejuvenation. I’m a candle wick flickering away.
This bucket of pain I endure feels too heavy to carry.
I feel like a scarecrow being pecked away by vultures.
I wish there were an 11th Commandment that states:
No parent should have to outlive their children.
(c) Charles Waters 2017 all rights reserved.
...and no parent should. j
Delete