Living
Poems, Writing Lives provides a basic introduction to/review of a selection
of poetic devices such as imagery, metaphor, line, structure, point of view, rhythm,
diction, punctuation, theme, texture, revision, and completion. We will (re)acquaint
ourselves with each of these within the context of its meaning for reading and
writing poetry. This first step done, we will then apply each of these devices
to living a conscious life.
We
will explore the images we have of life; examine the nature and levels of our
chosen structures; consider how our chosen metaphors (life's a jungle/life's
a gift...) both result from and contribute to our point of view; we'll
discover the need for and the benefits of revision; and we'll face the
inevitable—completion —the reality that our lives, like our poems,
eventually come to an end. We'll engage these topics in each session through writing
exercises, brief lectures, discussion, listening to and providing feedback on
our poems, and an introduction to/continuation of meditation practice.
No
poetry-writing or meditation experience is necessary.
Week
#1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW / STRUCTURE
We
will introduce and provide an overview of the course content and process. More
specifically, we will remind students that this process uses poetry and poetic
process as a tool for self-inquiry. An opening council will help students get
acquainted, after which we will begin with poetic structure and form. The session
will conclude with an introductory meditation and writing exercise.
Week
#2: STRUCTURE: KNOWING OUR FOUNDATIONS
We
will continue with poetic structure and form (taking a brief look at the sonnet,
villanelle, pantoum, and sestina, and contrast them with structured and unstructured
free verse). This done, we will begin to look at the structures in our lives concerning
such areas as time, money, work and vocation, intimacy and solitude, wisdom and
compassion, wandering and settling, and secularism and spirituality.
Week
#3: LINE: HONORING EPISODES AND BUILDING A LIFE
We
will explore the line as a basic building-block of the poem, and consider the
effects of long and short and of end-stopped and enjambed lines. The parallel
"building blocks" in our self-inquiry will be the episodes of our lives—be
they one-minute events or ten-year periods. Our focus will include several areas:
interpretation and meaning (especially perceived continuity and discontinuity);
interdependence among episodes; and transitions between episodes.
Week
#4: IMAGERY: JUXTAPOSING WORDS AND DEEDS
Here
we will consider the power of the image in poetry and learn to discern the difference
between "showing" and "telling" when we write. Our self-inquiry will explore the
juxtaposition of our words and deeds—the extent to which we "walk our talk"
every day in our lives.
Week
#5: POINT OF VIEW: WHO ARE WE, REALLY?
At
the core of the course's experience, point of view will explore who is
speaking (someone we truly know, or Merton's "anonymous authority of the collectivity?),
and we will learn to consciously choose, or at least recognize, point of view
when we write. When we shift from our poet to our self, we will attempt to discern
the "little" or "small" self through an overview of several developmental theories,
and the "Big" or "True" Self through an overview of selected mystical traditions.
Week
#6: METAPHOR: LIFE IS A GIFT...A JOURNEY...A TRIAL...A WAR?
After differentiating
between metaphor and simile (and then temporarily forgetting the difference),
we will explore explicit, implied and extended metaphors. Our self- inquiry will
ask us to look at our conscious and unconscious comparisons: do we see life as
a gift, a battle, a circle, a game, etc. This done, we will consider how our metaphors
both affect and are affected by our point of view.
Week
#7: DRAMA: RECOGNIZING REAL AND THEATRICAL CONFLICT
Our consideration
of drama will include the exposition / rising action / climax / falling action
/ denouement of "traditional" dramatic and narrative poetry as well as the open-ended
conflict that is common in much contemporary writing. In our self-inquiry we will
consider the nature of conflict itself, and then differentiate between "real"
conflict, which we can neither avoid nor control, and "theatrical" conflict, which
is typically the result of our response to real conflict.
Week #8: DICTION: THE CHOICES WE MAKE
Diction,
word choice, will help us to choose from among the likes of skinny, thin, scrawny,
emaciated, trim, and similar words when we write. We will attempt to discern
the differences among a bell's ringing, tolling, pealing or sounding.
When we turn to our selves, our "diction" will encompass all of our means of expression—from
the obvious, what we say, write, and do, to the not-so-obvious—our choices
of wardrobe, vehicle, vocation, recreation, etc., etc.
Week
#9: PUNCTUATION: PERSONALITY AND THE SENTENCE OF LIFE
Our very
brief review of the basics of punctuation will culminate with the debate between
the pro- and anti-punctuation schools of poetry. This done, we will explore punctuation-as-personality—do
we live our lives as question marks, exclamation points, periods, commas, colons,
etc., etc. Toward this end we will provide an overview of personality typing with
a focus on the Enneagram.
Week
#10: RHYTHM: GOING WITH AND CONTROLLING THE FLOW
This
discussion of rhythm will bring us back to the line and line breaks, as well as
introduce us to a fearless, no-anxiety look at meter. Our self-inquiry will explore
basic biological rhythms (breath, heartbeat, menstruation, brain waves, sleep)
as well as the rhythms of our day-to-day choices such as work, play and relationships.
We will focus on our needs, desires, and abilities to both "go with" and "control"
these rhythms.
Week
#11: REVISION: INTERPRETATION, TRUTHFULNESS, AND THE STORY OF A LIFE
Our ability
to "see again where a poem wants to go"—to revise—will address both
basic grammar and punctuation as well as style, tone, texture, and diction. When
we turn the revision process inward, we will explore the value in having multiple
interpretations of our life stories. More specifically, we will learn to interpret
episodes, choose metaphors, engage conflict, and recognize personality in such
a way that serves, rather than limits, us.
Week
#12: THEME: BIG PICTURES AND UNIFYING IDEAS
What
is the underlying meaning, the main idea, even the "moral" of the poem? Once we
have explored this question, we will again turn inward and look at the "big pictures"
and "unifying ideas" in our lives. We will consider the interrelationships among
structure, imagery, metaphor, point of view, drama, and diction as they contribute
to theme.
Week
#13: TEXTURE: INTEGRITY, QUALITY, AND HOW WE FINALLY FEEL
Texture
is the overall quality of the poem—not its meaning or main point, but the
cumulative effect of all that it is. Texture, although it may be studied by dissecting
the poem, exists only in the whole, and actually disappears in the dissection.
It need not be searched for, only pointed out. Likewise, the texture of an individual
life disappears in the step-by-step analyses of structure, imagery, metaphor,
etc. Texture, the overall quality, again, need only be recognized or pointed out.
Week
#14: COMPLETION: ILLUSIONS, ENDINGS, DENIAL, AND DEATH
Here we
will concern ourselves with bringing the poem to completion—or recognizing
that it is complete. Likewise, we will learn to look at the inevitable realities
of dying and death for the self. We will strive to understand what is illusion
and what is real, and suggest that the only way we can die a "dignified death"
is to have lived a dignified life.
Week
#15: COMPLETION (completed)
We
will complete our discussion of dying and death with an attempt to understand
the opportunities to "practice dying" that we are given throughout life, and in
so doing, complete the course.
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