1.
“Deprivation
is the mother of poetry.”
Leonard
Cohen, The Favourite Game, c 1963
2. “He never described himself as a poet or his
work as poetry. The fact that the lines
do not come to the edge of the page is no guarantee. Poetry is a verdict, not an occupation. He hated to argue about the techniques of
verse. The poem is a dirty, bloody,
burning thing that has to be grabbed first with bare hands.”
[Ibid.]
For our time here tonight:
Deprivation is
… ? What it engenders …? How is it poetry? Try to bring forth an example from your own
recollection. Don’t worry about whether
what you’re writing is poetic. In fact,
try not to use any of the standard elements of verse like meter, rhyme,
metaphor, line break, literary conceits, etc.
Be poetically content with content.
Grab it barehanded. Someone or
something deprived of someone or something… bring that forth.
For next time:
Let
your mind return to what you wrote here.
Let yourself rewrite and change it as you decide, using any technique
you judge worthy of better delivery of the content but refusing to use any
technique just because you can or just because you’ve used this technique
before. That is to say, use gloves if
you like, but a fresh pair, and only IF you decide that gloves are called
for. Come with your revision ready to
read to us as a finished piece, poetry as
verdict delivered by you the judge of it.
