I've been enjoying my seminary writing, even though it's not exactly the kind of writing I would be doing anyway. Wesley Theological Seminary has created an exegesis template which has elements of what I've done before, like the background of me as a reader, combined with tasks I've never done, like analyzing some of the Greek words. Much of our theological writing follows that template, or it's more like a response or class homework that I wouldn't be writing for a blog post.
This week, I've been enjoying the chance to do some creative writing. Here's our assignment for Hebrew Bible class:
Pretend that you are Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Colbert, Maria Bartiromo, Tavis Smiley or some other TV/radio host and you are going to interview the prophet Jeremiah on your show. What question would you ask him and why? How do you think he might answer that question and why? Be creative AND be sure to include texts/quotes from Jeremiah and information from the assigned readings to support your points as either the interviewer or Jeremiah.
I'm part of the half of class that has to do a video, but past experience has showed me that having a script is a good idea, so I'm writing it out. Fun!
I am also planning a creative project for my Speaking of God in a Secular Age class. Yesterday, I made this proposal:
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The syllabus says that we can propose a creative project in lieu of a critical essay, and I have a proposal.
Several years ago, I read this interview with the poet Jericho Brown. I was intrigued by his description of how he wrote his duplexes:
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PP: It's so interesting to hear you mention this process. As I was reading, I was definitely curious about the form’s origin story.JB: With all my poems, and with the duplexes especially, but with all my poems, I really just try to use everything I have. I really want to imagine a world in which we have everything we need. And if I can imagine that world in my poems, I hope I can make that world come true in real life. People talk about what they do in their writing day or what they do with their writing time. One of the things that I’m doing is I’m really excavating lines that go back. There are lines in "The Tradition" that go as far back as 1999, and I’m going back and looking at all of those lines and trying to put them together, trying to use what I couldn’t use before because I should know now. I should be a better poet now than I was then, and yet, even then I was a poet and therefore, I had lines that worked. I just didn’t know how to make them work in a poem.So that’s how the duplexes were made. I quite literally took every line that I had ever written in a poem that didn’t work, or every line that wasn’t yet in a poem that was 9-11 syllables long, and I put them all in a file. I printed them out. I cut them up. And I started working with them as little slips of paper.
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Back to me:
When I first read that interview, I wanted to try that technique; I, too, am a poet with lots of lines in lots of poems that never came to fruition. I love the idea of printing the lines, cutting them out, and arranging them to see how they speak to each other. So far, I have never tried his approach, so this class seems like a great opportunity to do that. I would also be happy to write a process paper to go along with the poem sequence to explain my approach and how I experienced the creative process.
I propose that I will create 15-25 duplexes, each line 9-12 syllables, each duplex 14 lines long. In an ideal world, they would speak to each other and hold together as a small collection, a chapbook of poems. But even if they don't work as a chapbook collection, the process of creating the series will be valuable. Since the work of Jericho Brown features prominently in this course, this creative approach will give me an even greater appreciation for his work and what he has accomplished.
I am open to modifying this proposal, and I look forward to your input.
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I love this idea! But 15–25 duplexes is an ambition target. I would suggest 5 as it's a very complex and challenging form, and I will ask you to also write a theological reflection on the process of writing them. Let's touch base soon about details.
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