The
Forbidden Poem
by Alicia Ostriker, Spring 2004
This poem is in the voice of one of the following:
A serial killer: a man who kills women or a woman who kills men
An abusive father or mother
A schizophrenic visited by Jesus (or who believes himself to be Jesus--or Mary,
if the speaker is a woman--or God, if the person is a Jew)
A runaway teenager
A homeless person begging on the street
An unwed mother to her newborn
A woman about to have an abortion
A man to a woman he has raped
A soldier to a prisoner he is interrogating
A terrorist
The title of the poem is a color. This color will reappear three times
in the poem, either in a refrain-line, or in varying contexts. The poem
also contains the words "I remember," and "I wish." The conclusion of
the poem is a surprise.
A second time round, pick a different persona and this time the words are "I
hate" and "I know."
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Another
Forbidden Poem: The Parent Poem
by Alicia Ostriker, Spring 2004
TO READ: IN NORTON ANTHOLOGY
1386, THEODORE ROETHKE, MY PAPA S WALTZ
1605, JAMES MERRILL THE BROKEN HOME
1732, SYLVIA PLATH, DADDY
1861, RITA DOVE, THE BISTRO STYX
1872, GJERTRUD SCHNACKENBERG, SUPERNATURAL LOVE
ASSIGNMENT:
A poem in the first-person, addressed to a mother, father, or child. Maximum
1 page. The poem narrates a "forbidden memory." It does not name or comment
on the emotions involved--it tells a story. The poem must include the
following:
The title of the poem is an article of clothing; this article will appear
in the poem.
- Location
- specific action
- images of the body
- at least one line of dialogue
- no punctuation
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Inner/Outer exercise: poetry of meditation
by Alicia Ostriker, Spring 2004
Read the Jane Hirschfield chapter on poetry of the inner
and outer life (in her 7 Gates book)
and write a poem responding to one of the poems quoted in that chapter. There
are several possibilities:
- your poem begins with a line lifted from the other poem, and travels in an
alternative direction
- your poem imitates the tone or mood of the other poem yet with different images
- your poem enters into dialogue with the other poem, meditating on its meaning
in your own way
_______
When your poem is finished, write a page describing the process of writing
it: your
location, your mood(s), what was significant to you in the language and/or form
of the poem you chose, what direction you took with it, what the experience of
this writing was like for you. Were there surprises, did you find yourself
doing something unusual for you? (etc.)
(Obviously, an assignment like this can spin off all sorts of reading assignments)
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Modernization Exercise
by Alicia Ostriker, Spring 2004
Read Michael Drayton's sonnet #61:
Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part.
Nay, I have done; you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands forever; cancel all our vows;
And if by any chance we meet again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now, if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.
What is the situation? To whom is the speaker talking, and what does he
seem to want at the beginning of the sonnet--the first and second quatrains? What
happens in the third quatrain when love is personified as a man on his deathbed?
What is the surprise (or is it a surprise?) of the closing couplet?
ASSIGNMENT:
1. Write a poem in a modern voice, using a parallel situation (the expected
end of a relationship) and ending with a similar emotional reversal. Length:
14 lines. Don't try to rhyme or write in iambic pentameter unless you
feel confident of your ability to do so and still make the poem sound natural,
not forced!
2. Use at least two body images somewhere in the poem, and at some point create
a "scene"complete with gestures like the one in Drayton's 3rd quatrain. Most
important--make this voice sound dramatically real and believable--it is the
voice of someone speaking. To get a feel for how to do this, any Sharon
Olds poem or Li-Young Lee poem can help. Or your favorite talking head. Bukowski?
3. When your poem is completed, write a prose commentary of a couple of paragraphs: what
have you done that is like the Drayton poem? And
what are the differences? Be prepared to talk about this!
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