Poetry Booktalking

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Poetry Booktalking

• Buffy Hamilton
• ELAN 7312
• Spring 2003

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Fletcher, R. (1999). Poetry matters Writing a
poem from the inside out. New York Harper
Trophy.
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A Must-Have Tool for Student Poets!

• This delightful book is written for aspiring
  young poets!
• Although the book is geared toward a younger
  audience, Fletcher offers many practical tips for
  adult poets and teachers.
• The small paperback text is ideal for budding
  writers to carry with them around school and home
  and for cultivating the seeds of great poetry!

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Aims of The Text

• To help your poems sing, shine, and soar!
• To help you get practical ideas for making your
  poems sound the way you hear them.
• To help you have wonderful moments writing poetry.

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Part One Lighting the Spark
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At the most important moments, when everyone
else is silent, poetry rises to speak.
---Ralph Fletcher
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The Power of Poetry

• Poems are filled with words from the heart.
• The brevity of poems adds to the power of a poem.
• Poetry matters.

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Tapping Into the Power of Poetry

• Focus on writing the poem from the inside out,
  not from the outside in.
• Focus on living a wide awake life while writing
  poetry.

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The Three Pillars of Poetry

• Emotion
• Image
• Music

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Chapter One An Emotional X-Ray

• What poetry does at its very best is to make the
  reader feel. Very deeply and truly.
• Jane Yolen

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Chapter One An Emotional X-Ray

• Poetry can be a container for our emotional
  lives.
• Poetry conveys strong feelings.
• Poetry can be good for the soul.
• A poem is like an X-ray of what is going on
  inside you.

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Chapter One An Emotional X-Ray

• Poems can be utterly honest.
• Poems speak the unspeakable.
• The honest quality of poetry sometimes makes it
  difficult to write the poem.

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How do you make your lines ring true?

• Think of the poem as an X-rayprobe your inner
  being!
• Try poem-speak speak to someone INSIDE the
  poem.
• Convey feelings through images.
• Dont say too much.

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Chapter Two Image

• Poems are other peoples snapshots in which we
  see our own lives.
• Charles Simic

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Chapter Two Image

• Mental pictures are at the heart of poetry.
• Images can be felt, seen, or heard.
• Focus on using words to create effective images.

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How do you create images?

• To create strong images, get in the habit of
  observing the world.
• Be alive to what is going on around and inside
  you.
• Slow down to observe the world.

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Powerful Tools Your Senses

• Look
• Listen
• Smell
• Touch
• Taste
• Observations using your senses will feed your
  poetry by training you to be specific and
  detailed.

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Chapter Two Image

• Begin by describing a single image in your head.
• Dont worry about how it looks or sounds.
• Just write down the image!
• Describe it as though you are seeing it for the
  first time!

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Creating Surprising Images

• Relate two things that do not seem to be related
  at first.
• The surprising connection makes it effective.
• Similes and metaphors are great for making these
  comparisons.

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Creating Surprising Images

• Come see
• What I found!
• Chubby commas,
• Mouths Round,
• Plump babies,
• Stubby as toes
• Polliwogs!
• Tadpoles!
• By Kristine OConnell George

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Creating Surprising Images

• Effective poems do not have to be long or
  complicated.
• Surprising images help us see the world in brand
  new ways.
• Surprising poems are like wake-up calls!

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Creating Surprising Images

• My Shoes
• My shoes are a home
• for my feet.
• The five toes are brothers
• sitting by the fire.

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More Ways of Building Surprises in Your Poems

• Try personification (giving nonhuman things human
  qualities)
• Try symbols (a real thing that stands for
  something else)
• Mix different images in the same poem.
• The tensions between differing images adds
  interest.

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Chapter Three Fresh Music
That spools the wind into merciless frenzies,And
drives the rain like cannon fire,And paints the
clouds in shades of corpses,And splits the sky
with tentacles of fire,And virulent roars that
shatter the night Tom FletcherFrom Falling
Through the Earth
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Chapter Three Fresh Music

• Poems have rhythms, cadences, and sounds that
  burrow deep inside us.
• These sounds become part of who we are.
• Poetry is closer to music than other kinds of
  writing.

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Four Ways to Infuse Music In Your Poetry

• Play with the sound of words.
• Have fun with alliteration.
• Fine tune the rhythm.
• Use repetition for emphasis.

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Playing With the Sound of Words

• Think about how you can use (or not use)
  capitalization or punctuation.
• Use poetic license---make up your own rules about
  language and break traditional rules!
• Play with internal rhyme.
• Try different rhythms.
• Play with word meanings.

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Playing With the Sound of Words

• Wallowing
• we walk on our hands
• and laze in shallow surf
• like a bunch of sea sloths
• or slow motion manatees
• no place to go
• no hurry to get there
• wubbling with the bubbles
• foaming with the froth
• in the noisy crumble tumble
• of the ragamuffin waves

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Have Fun with Alliteration

• Alliteration is repeating beginning consonants of
  words within a line.
• hiding us under huge hushed skirts.
• Alliteration makes a poem fun to read aloud.

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Fine Tune the Rhythm

• The rhythm is the beat.
• Tune your ear to rhythm in poetry.
• Some kinds of rhythm are iambic pentameter and
  spondees.
• Rhythm can be in rhymed or unrhymed poems.
• Read your poem aloud many times to listen and
  revise the beat.

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Use Repetition for Emphasis

• Repetition can create rhythm.
• Repetition asks readers to linger at certain
  points in a poem.
• Repetition is glue to hold together a poem.
• You can repeat words, phrases, or lines.

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Chapter Four Interview With a Real Poet,
Kristine OConnell George
I admire the way she can create beautiful images
with only a few words. Ralph Fletcher
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Thoughts on Writing Poetry Why write poetry?

• I enjoy searching for the perfect word or
  creating an image on paper.
• I enjoy watching my ideas take on a life of their
  own.
• I get ideas from the world around me and from
  reading.

Chapter Four Interview With a Real Poet,
Kristine OConnell George
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Thoughts on Writing Poetry Collecting Ideas

• I keep my ideas in a notebook.
• Sometimes I scribble ideas on scrap paper.
• I do not like discussing my ideas for poetry with
  others because it saps energy from my enthusiasm
  for the project.

Chapter Four Interview With a Real Poet,
Kristine OConnell George
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Thoughts on Writing Poetry

• To start writing, I just start and keep going.
• I like to write when I am alone or during quiet
  times.
• I sometimes work in the middle of the night or
  early hours of the morning!

Chapter Four Interview With a Real Poet,
Kristine OConnell George
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Thoughts on Writing Poetry Writers Block

• If I get writers block, I go for a walk, read,
  or just leave the poem for a few days.
• Physical activity helps clear my writers block!

Chapter Four Interview With a Real Poet,
Kristine OConnell George
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Thoughts on Writing Poetry Editing and Revision

• I revise extensively.
• I record my poems and listen to what I have
  written to revise.
• Sometimes the changes are small, but other times
  they are major ones.

Chapter Four Interview With a Real Poet,
Kristine OConnell George
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Thoughts on Writing Poetry Editing and Revision

• I enjoy hearing second opinions.
• I try to see the poem through someone elses
  eyes.
• I do not always use suggestions from others, but
  I do consider them.

Chapter Four Interview With a Real Poet,
Kristine OConnell George
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Chapter Five Poem Sparks---What to Write About

• Look for poetry that grows under your feet.
• Rainer Marie Rilke

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Chapter Five Poem Sparks---What to Write About

• Sometimes poems grow quickly.
• Other times, poems are cultivated over time.
• Always be looking for seeds of poetry to grow and
  nurture.

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Chapter Five Poem Sparks---What to Write About

• Write about concerns of the heart.
• Write about what you seeit is all around us.
• Write about your fierce wonderings and bottomless
  questions.

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Chapter Five Poem Sparks---What to Write About

• Write about concerns of the world.
• Write about social and political issues.
• Consider your audience.

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Part Two Nurturing the Flame
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Chapter Six Crafting Your Poem

• The world is full of poets with languid wrenches
  who dont bother to take the last six turns on
  their bolts.
• X. J. Kennedy

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Chapter Six Crafting Your Poem

• Like crude oil, poems must be refined.
• Keep in mind the three pillars of poetry.
• Craft your poem from the inside out.

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Chapter Six Crafting Your Poem/Strategies

• Think fragments poems are impressionistic.
• Fragments add color.
• Fragments sharpen sensory details.
• Fragments convey energy.

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Chapter Six Crafting Your Poem/Strategies

• Consider the shape of the poem---shape can convey
  meaning.
• Experiment with line breaks.
• Play with stanzas, which means room in Italian.

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Crafting Your Poem Line Break Strategies

• Each stanza has a particular idea.
• Read the poem aloud and listen where the natural
  pauses fall.
• Place double slash marks (//) to mark your line
  breaks.
• Reread your poem after creating line breaks.

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Crafting Your Poem Line Break Strategies

• Think about the sound of lines.
• Long lines build momentum and velocity.
• Shorter lines tend to be read slowly.
• Try variations on line breaks to find the one
  that is right for your poem.

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Crafting Your Poem Use White Spaces

• A white space is a blank line in the poem.
• White spaces build in pauses and moments of
  silence.
• White space helps you make sure your images dont
  get lost or buried.

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Crafting Your Poem End With a Bang!

• Endings do matter.
• The final image, line, or idea is what is
  freshest in the readers mind.
• What do you want to leave readers with?

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Crafting Your Poem End With a Bang!

• Write the rough draft.
• Reread the poem and star your best line.
• Revise the poem to end with the best line.

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Chapter Seven Interview with Janet Wong

• She writes in spurts and enjoys revising.
• She incorporates her Asian culture into her
  poetry.
• Myra Livingstons poetry and teaching influenced
  her writing.

http//scils.rutgers.edu/kvander/wong.html
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Chapter Seven Interview with Janet Wong

• Some of her poems are like stories, but others
  play with sounds of words.
• She enjoys playing with the speed and sound of
  her poetry.
• She normally writes in free verse.
• Her training in forms of poetry helps her write
  better free verse because she is sensitive to
  word games.
• Advice for young writers READ!

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Chapter Eight Wordplay

• Play with words in a poem to make the reader sit
  up and take notice.
• A good poem needs surprise.
• Describe ordinary moments in unexpected ways.

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Chapter Eight Wordplay

• Try using homonyms.
• Try playing with multiple word meanings.
• Play with puns!
• Play with onomatopoeia.

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Chapter Nine Troubleshooting

• Every poem is an infant labored into birth
• Jimmy Santiago Baca

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Chapter Nine Troubleshooting

• Poems usually do not come out of thin air.
• Poems need rejiggering, reworking, and starting
  over.
• Sometimes many drafts are needed.

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Chapter Nine Troubleshooting Common Problems

• The rhyme does not sound right
• Do not let rhyme use you!
• Try changing a rhyming poem to free verse.
• If you stick with rhyme, be prepared for multiple
  rereadings.
• Keep rhyme loose and do not get too committed to
  any one word.

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Chapter Nine Troubleshooting

• Make sure a poem is not a story.
• Think of poems as snapshots---a snapshot has one
  image.
• Dont cram too many images into one poem.
• Focus on one image.
• Reread drafts and highlight the parts that sound
  most like a poem---copy those lines and start
  over with those on a new draft.

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Chapter Nine Troubleshooting

• Your poem has the blahs and sounds flat. Try
• Narrow your focus and think small on your topic.
• Beware of list poems as it is hard to make them
  tight.
• Avoid flat language.
• Make sure your voice is in the poem Where is
  the I?

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Chapter Nine Troubleshooting

• Poems can become vague and floaty.
• Avoid words that have too many syllables or are
  too complicated.
• Ground your big ideas in natural objects and
  concrete images.

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Chapter Nine Troubleshooting

• Avoid making poems too long.
• Trust the reader to understand you.
• Focus on capturing a moment.
• Poems with fragments and rough edges are
  interesting.
• The poem is a sprint, not a marathon!

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Chapter Ten Interview with J. Patrick Lewis

• Poetry is a blind date with enchantment.
• Reading poems can change your life.
• Poetry is ear candy.

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Chapter Ten Interview with J. Patrick Lewis

• Ideas come from
• Reading
• Observing
• Remembering events of his life and his childrens
  lives.

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Chapter Ten Interview with J. Patrick Lewis

• He keeps a journal to collect ideas.
• Ideas also come from writing workshops and
  nature.
• Reading, talking about books, and writing are
  other idea sources.

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Chapter Ten Interview with J. Patrick Lewis

• For him, poems begin with a single word or
  phrase.
• Poems come from mental pictures.
• Some poems begin by thinking about an entire
  collection of poems and researching the ideas.
• He writes daily at 700 A.M. until about 500 P.M.

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Chapter Ten Interview with J. Patrick Lewis

• He advises young people to never write more than
  they can read.
• To be a writer, you must be a re-writer!
• Find your own voice.
• Unanchor your imagination.
• Resist temptation to rhyme.
• Embrace failureit is the surest road to success!

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Chapter Eleven Form
Why do we value form? Perhaps there is a link
between the meter of verse and the human pulse,
the rhythm of life itself. Robert Wallace
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Chapter Eleven Form

• Endless forms exist in poetry.
• Some are thousands of years old while others are
  new.
• Form can be liberating or suffocating.

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Chapter Eleven Haiku

• Haiku is attentive to space and time.
• Haiku uses plain language.
• Haiku demands accurate and original images from
  daily life.
• Haiku communicates a little revelation Aha!

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Chapter Eleven Haiku

• The challenge of haiku is to create a visual poem
  with just a few words.
• The three line, 5-7-5 rhythm is meant to reflect
  the human breath.

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Chapter Eleven Odes

• Odes are lyric poems.
• Odes may be rhymed or unrhymed.
• The poet speaks to some person or thing.
• Odes are characterized by lofty emotion.
• Odes may also be funny and about mundane topics.

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Chapter Eleven Free Verse and Found Poetry

• Free verse does not follow prescribed rules.
• Found poems are created from words that capture
  your attention.
• Found poems may use words from print or words you
  hear. Copy and arrange to create a poem.

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Chapter Eleven Concrete Poetry

• Concrete poetry is not exactly a form.
• The poet arranges the words to reflect the
  meaning.
• The shape/arrangement visually reinforces the
  poem.

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Chapter Eleven Imitation

• Poets borrow line lengths, rhythm, and cool words
  from each other.
• You may want to imitate a form or pattern.
• Also called, Putting on the Poets Shirt.

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Chapter Eleven Invention

• You are not limited to existing forms of poetry.
• Try creating your own forms!
• Consider how it might fit with what you are
  trying to say.
• Invention can open up ideas but do not let it
  restrict you.
• Form should be an invitation, not a
  straightjacket!

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Chapter Twelve Going Public
Every poem is a blow against silence. Carlos
Fuentes
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Chapter Twelve Going Public

• Make a collection of your poems.
• BYOP (Bring Your Own Poem) Party
• Read your poetry aloud.
• Participate in choral readings of poetry.
• Send a poem to someone special.

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Chapter Twelve Going Public

• Copy your poems into your writers notebook.
• Carry a poem in your pocket or wallet.
• Memorize your poems.
• Make your own poetry books!

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Ralph Fletchers Recommended Poets

• Maya Angelou
• Lucille Clifton
• Paul Fleischmann
• Tom Fletcher
• Kristine OConnell George
• Isabel Glaser
• Lillian Moore

• Eloise Greenfield
• Nikki Grimes
• Monica Gunning
• Avis Harley
• Lee Bennett Hopkins
• Minfong Ho
• Myra Livingston

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Ralph Fletchers Recommended Poets

• Donald Graves
• Lillian Moore
• Walter Dean Myers
• Naomi Shihab Nye
• Paul Janeczko
• Cynthia Rylant
• Judy Sierra
• Gary Soto

• Joyce Carol Thomas
• Ann Tuner
• Valerie Worth
• Janet Wong
• Richard Margolis
• Alice Schertle
• Angela Johnson

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Concluding Thoughts

• This text provides some good ideas for
  mini-lessons and touchstone texts for those
  lessons.
• The book is ideal for younger readers.
• The interviews with the poets are interesting and
  will appeal to young readers!
• A good choice for an optional course reading.

www.ralphfletcher.com