First, I’m happy to announce that FORCE OF HABIT, my sf/cop/farce novel, is FREE for Kindle for another four days, 12/23-27, 2012. Go get it!
Here is (are?) the rest of my notes on Alice Friman’s Poetry presentation:
Mechanics
Rewriting–has two basic purposes:
To take these unconsious images and make them make sense
To evoke feeling–try to make the reader feel what you felt
Poems are about feelings–they are invisible–only experienced through language.
Say there is a ghost in the room; invisible. You have to throw a sheet over it in order to see it. The ghost is the POEM; the underlying emotion. The sheet is the language, the shape that shows the form beneath. The lighter the sheet, the clearer the form. Every word in a written poem must hold up a meaning or it overloads, blunts, suffocates the ghost.
The title also is working language.
Rhyme: Most people think of rhyme as end stop rhyme–where the phrase stops at the end of the line with exact rhyme.
Enjambment is when the phrase passes the end of the line and stops inside another line. The rhymes are sometimes imperfect.
Interior rhyme lends a lyric quality to the poem.
Assonance is rhyme or near-rhyme of vowel sounds.
Consonance is “rhyme” of consonants: murder/dream/drama/moored are rhymes like this.
l is lovely s is ugly d and hard th are final: death
Line length: the longer the line, the faster you read. The shorter the line, the slower and more purposefully you read.
For a philosophical, lyrical, romantic, thoughtful effect, use “ing” forms of verbs
For a strong and punchy effect, use stem of verb
Exercise: Finish these sentences:
1. The keys want
2. I wish you would
3. The sea has showers of
4. The clock hears
5. What is it that the piano loves?
Poems are made up of adjectives, nouns and verbs. Pick two of each from a thesaurus and make yourself use them in a poem.
Again, I, Marian, tell you that these exercises are as useful for prose as they are for poetry.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Do Friman’s exercises.
MA
Calra
December 29, 2012 at 5:27amThis is a wonderful insight. I love reading poetry and sometimes write too. Best poetry is when your reader can feel exactly what you have wriiiten with the same emotions. Thanks for sharing.
Marian Allen
December 29, 2012 at 7:59amAlice Friman is great at doing that. Then, if you read more closely, you get an idea of what she’s THINKING. That’s amazing!
Veronica
December 29, 2012 at 12:57amCool post about Alice Friman and such amazing and informative notes!!! I loved it! Kudos 🙂
Marian Allen
December 29, 2012 at 7:57amThanks, Veronica! Alice Friman is wonderful!
Emilia
December 28, 2012 at 9:36amThese are some great thoughts. Thanks for taking note on what Ms. Friman has today regarding poetry. Have a nice day!
Marian Allen
December 28, 2012 at 5:20pmYou have a nice day, too, Emilia! Glad you liked the notes.
Joy
December 27, 2012 at 10:05amJob well done! It was so informative and I think I would not see any poet better that Alice Friman. Your points are informative and entertaining to read too. Thanks for sharing this to us. I love it!
Marian Allen
December 27, 2012 at 12:30pmMs. Friman is absolutely one of my favorite writers. Glad you enjoyed the post. 🙂
Jane
December 24, 2012 at 11:28amThese are awesome notes. Ms Friman is amazing–and so are you to have captured all this concentrated thinking. Thank you, ma’am.
Marian Allen
December 25, 2012 at 11:24amAlice Friman is SO one of my favorite poets EVER!