Surrealistic Poem Generating in Creative Writing Class

Once again, not as much writing time this morning--but the next two mornings will be glorious.  Finally, Fall Break is here!  I've been going full steam ahead since CPE started on June 9.  I thought about scheduling all sorts of appointments:  hair, dermatologist, car.  But I've decided that I really need something else, which will probably look like staying home to bake--although I might see if I can get the car in for an oil change. 

I need to do some planning for my Creative Writing class; I need poems for next week.  Yesterday I changed plans when I realized it was going to take time to get individual poems together.  I shifted to my surrealistic poem experiment, which I tweaked to be both individualistic and collaborative.

Yesterday went well.  That's my best case brain talking.  My worst case brain says that they were overwhelmed and mystified at how what we did constitutes poem writing.

I left all the samples in the office, but we created some fascinating poems.  I gave them my document of abandoned lines, which had space above and below to add lines of their own.  Here's an example, the first page of the document:

----
In a past time, you’d have been Magellan

I watch you solder bits to a motherboard

This body, a country with no maps

Some days the backyard garden explodes

I keep the quilts made by a spinster aunt.

-----

I have 15 pages, so they have plenty of lines to choose from.  I had them write companion lines and then cut the pages into strips.  And then we did a lot of experiments.

First we chose 6 strips at random and turned them over.  We asked ourselves, how did they work together?  We had the option to add more lines from our collection of strips.  We could create more lines.  We could rearrange.

I had also rearranged the tables so that we had several tables with long sheets of paper on them.  I had them put the strips they weren't going to use on those sheets of paper--ideally, everyone would put at least one strip on each strip of long paper.

Everyone had a long sheet of paper with strips, and we spent 15 minutes arranging the strips into something resembling a poem.  I read a few out loud.  I thought they worked as poems, but my students seemed more hesitant.

I do realize that one reason why I think they work is that the abandoned lines are my lines, so in some sense, they do work well together.  I also realize that I have more training in doing reading without insisting on some external meeting; I did confess to my students that I like having a clear meaning, which these poems may not always have.

Next week, when we return from fall break, I'll back up a little.  We'll do some poems with clear meanings and talk about how/if/why they work.  And we'll do a bit more experimenting with form:  sestina and villanelle and pantoum and sonnets--but maybe we'll do something simple, like triolets, and avoid/save the harder stuff.

But first, Fall Break!  Actually, first I go down to Spartanburg Methodist College.  Today is a writing day for my students, so it will be easier for me--which is good, because midterm grades are due, and we have a Humanities department meeting.