READING AND REVISION WEEK

Read: THIS ESSAY ON HOW POETRY SHOULD BE MADE ACCORDING TO CHARLES OLSON

Then read: Denise Levertov's essay HERE --4 pages (easier to "get" than Olson's Projective Verse, and also extremely influential)

Then, maybe try this: 


RADICAL REVISION #2: LINEATION

GEOGRAPHY -by Rae Armantout

1

Touch each chakra

in turn and say,

“Nothing shocks me.”

                2

Watching bombs fall

on Syria,

we feel serious,

occupied,

not preoccupied

as we were

previously.

                3

“Makes me end,

where I begun,”

wrote   John Donne,

turning love

into geometry.

A NIGHT SKY  -by Robert Creeley

All the grass
dies
in front of us.

The fire
again
flares out.

The night
such a large
place. Stars

the points,
but like
places no

depth, I see
a flat—
a plain as if the

desert
were showing smaller
places.

So:  

Select a poem that you have written. For the purposes of this assignment, it is best if the poem consists of lines at least ten syllables in length and/or heavily end-stopped lines (meaning that punctuation appears at the end of the line).

After you have selected a poem, arman-trot/creeleyize your poem. In other words, rewrite your poem by breaking your lines at unexpected moments, creating frequent enjambment and short lines.

The purpose of this assignment is to revise the lineation of your poem, exploring ways in which your changes in line breaks and line length open up new meanings and points of emphasis in the poem. It might also suggest possibilities for further revision to imagery and sound.

• Does the change in lineation help reinforce the rhythm of the poem? Or does it seem distracting?
• Is the change in lineation appropriate for the meaning of the poem? In other words, does this new form enhance the content of the poem?
• What words and phrases stand out to you in this revision that did not stand out before? How does this change the poem?
• What additional ways might you revise the poem to explore other possibilities for making meaning, sound or word play?