Monday, September 8, 2008

Images and Indirection

Write a poem which satisfies all of the following criteria:

1. The poem must be no more than fourteen lines.
2. The poem should be like a scene from a play.
3. This scene should present realistically, with great concrete detail, a true incident from you life -- either the first time or the last time you did something or found yourself in a dramatic situation which permanently changed you. (The best type of subject matter would be an "initiation" experience, for example the death of a relative, your first kiss, playing hardball for the first time, etc.)
4. The poem should be in the first person singular, like Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy: i.e., it should read as if you were reexperiencing the incident, aware that your remembering were being overheard. Even though it is premeditated and carefully edited, it should appear spontaneous.
5. For this reason, it should be in free verse, not end-rhymed.
6. The poem must consist of a few images which create an emotionally suggestive atmosphere, that imply emotion in the narrator (the persona) but
7. The poem must not use abstract words that name feelings. For example, do not use words such as "happy," "sad," "angry," etc. Do not describe emotions in terms of your body (e.g., "my heart is racing," "my palms are sweating," "my stomach is growling," etc.

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