Posts Tagged ‘process of writing’

• FOUND POEM

  Date: 2021.01.13 | Category: Assignments, LHP/MHP, Poetry, Septuagenarian | Response: 0

  FOUND POEM

  Attributed to Septuagenarian: love is what happens when I die (March 2021)

   

  One doesn’t have to imagine good and evil amidst all this terror

  sadness, the bones and the blood surrender

  we can make a difference we are all somebody

  we are not on the backs on the backs on the backs

  of sorrow

   

  that preceded

   

  head separated from body

  body separated from country

  family separated

   

  love guarantees memory        madness

  guns in white rooms the ghost

  of a man an unholy ghost trying to rewrite the story

   

  what if what if what if asking the questions is [not] enough; sometimes

   

  I feel like a boxer punching    the world

  is heavy that’s when the silence is broken

  not with words but with images   children

   

  didn’t know what to make of the bickering

  children got lost in the silences babies suffering;

  the father the mother the siblings gone

  a newspaper headline

   

  to the wicked and the wise there is a difference

  between opinion and truth, a space where dying

  to love where freedom is clearly not where in the world we are

   

  divisive and our lives are at risk

  tolerate a difficult word; racism, white men with assault rifles; death

   

  is temporary

   

  history implodes on a regular irregular heartbeat the charade is over this year

   

  love

  like a sorcerer reads palms this is love choking on air,

  ready to survive pedestals

  collapse amidst a pandemic

   

  hallelujah!

   

  as I sip my morning coffee it is grief it is death it is love;

  hate travels the ♥ broken is what saves us.

   

  © Sherry Quan Lee January 12, 2021

   

  ASSIGNMENT: I’ve been thinking about the recent insurrection at the capitol, the fast and flowing media coverage, the attempts to oust the 45th, etc.  My thought was, as a poet, I should write a found poem based on various print and even video media; but, I thought it would be complicated because of copyright, what is fair use, and how to attribute my sources (unless there is no thought of publishing it).  Instead, I turned to my own writing using only text from my forthcoming book.  Try this as an assignment, use words and phrases from what you have previously written and “find” a poem. I started with a goal in mind, to discover what I might have, perhaps unknowingly, said beyond the personal, have I entered the world?  Having a theme in mind isn’t necessary, it is enough to just randomly choose words and phrases you are drawn to as you reread what you have written over a particular span of time.

  NOTE: The poem published here is a first draft.

• How Dare We! Write FREE DESK COPIES

  Date: 2017.05.21 | Category: How Dare We! Write a multicultural creative writing discourse, The Art of Writing | Response: 0

  WRITING INSTRUCTORS PLEASE NOTE:

   
  “If you are teaching a high school or undergrad or graduate Creative Writing course in 2017-2018, we are accepting requests for desk copies of “How Dare We! Write: a multicultural discourse.”

  Please email info@ModernHistoryPress.com from your faculty email address to request a copy and include the following:

   
  1. The course number, name and institution where you teach
  2. Your complete shipping address and whether you would like printed or eBook edition

   
  We can only guarantee that the first 50 instructors who reply will get a desk copy. You are encouraged to share
  this information with interested colleagues.

  (Review: https://thelinebreak.wordpress.com/…/on-how-dare-we-write-…/)

• Excerpt from How Dare We! Write

  Date: 2017.03.23 | Category: Writers Who Dare | Response: 0

  “The tinikling offers a visual explanation of how bilingual writing
  works. Like the agile dancing feet of a tinikling dancer, a bilingual
  writer’s mind is connected to her feet at all times, transferring and
  translating the beat of clapping bamboos from a hearing experience to
  a whole body experience. Living in a predominantly English-speaking
  culture means you cannot stop to think or even attempt to explain
  your actions and your meanings, or you will lose track of the dominant
  beat and find yourself caught in the thorns of misunderstanding. I can’t
  help but relate this to the spate of recent attacks on black bodies we
  have witnessed. There is never time to explain your black skin or your
  brown skin to someone intent on eradicating your black or brown
  body because he or she feels threatened by the mere sight of you. You
  have to keep dancing between the clapping bamboos of race
  perception. Those who tried, hands up or not, have ended in tragedy.
  Is this a far-fetched metaphor? If it is to you, you’ve never had to
  dance/write between bamboos.”–Marlina Gonzalez, How Dare We! Write

• Excerpt from How Dare We! Write

  Date: 2017.03.23 | Category: How Dare We! Write a multicultural creative writing discourse | Response: 0

  “I would add that many programs do not even offer courses dealing
  with race and writing as an elective. I didn’t know such a thing existed.
  Over the duration of my program, my writing became less race conscious
  instead of more. Sure everything thing I do and say leaves the
  mark of blackness behind. However, instead of drawing a circle around
  the mark, expanding it, aiming the camera directly at it, I placed
  translucent covering over it, not completely hiding race, but placing it
  in the background. Without knowing it, I was learning to write like a
  white woman because I must have believed that they knew what they
  were doing. They were award-winning authors. They were where I
  wanted to be. They were my teachers.”–Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, How Dare We! Write