Unit 2

 

Lecture

 

Writing “outward looking or political” poetry.

Writing a poem considered “outward looking or political” simply means the poem is not poet centered. This doesn’t always mean that the poet is not in the poem. This usually means that the poet is not the center of attention – the scenes show something the poet observes.  There are no feeling statements like “I like this, or I feel numb, or I love this or I don’t like this.” As readers we might understand all these things about the poet after reading the poem, but we come to this understanding through the scenes the poet shows us in the poem.

 

About the Poem Content

Usually this type of poem will have a strong sense of place, history or landscape for “outward looking” and will have an observation of our world and how we behave as occupants of the world for “political.” The observations don’t always have to be negative – this is an area where the poet has to be careful when choosing words because the poem could be perceived as preachy or didactic. Used correctly the political poem  becomes a powerful message carrier.

 

The “outward looking” poem can have the following characteristics:

i.e. specific place names, terms associated with topics – like science, math, nursing terms – any words that help ground the reader in the subject, can also show a poet’s connection and response to art in some way (we look at this last characteristic more closely in Unit 5,

i.e. setting is historical – like wars, a historical site, an object from a period in history, an occurrence in a particular period of time.

 

The “political” poem can have the following characteristics:

i.e. pollution, population problems, saving whales – the rain forests,

personal relationships, cultural issues or observations.

 

The above characteristics are suggestions for your poem’s editing process. After you’ve drafted your poem for this unit you’ll want to go back through to see if the poem fulfills the expectations of the assignment. This is part of the editing process.

 

Let’s look at the following example poem by James Wright. Explication will follow.

 

“A Blessing”

 

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,                             1

Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.                                           

And the eyes of those two Indian ponies                                             3

Darken with kindness.                                                           

They have come gladly out of the willows                                  5

To welcome my friend and me.                                               

We step over the barbed wire into the pasture                             7

Where they have been grazing all day, alone.                             

They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness          

That we have come.                                                                       

They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.                    11

There is no loneliness like theirs.                                              

At home once more,                                                                       

They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.     14

I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,                      

For she has walked over to me                                                

And nuzzled my left hand.                                                      

She is black and white,                                                            18

Her mane falls wild on her forehead,                                         19              

And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear                           

That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.                               21

Suddenly I realize                                                                  22              

That if I stepped out of my body I would break                                    23

Into blossom.                                                                                 24

 

 

Explication:

Lines, phrases, and words in red illustrate:

i.e. specific place names, terms associated with topics – like science, math, nursing terms – any words that help ground the reader in the subject,

Lines in blue call attention to the poet who enters the poem in the last two lines – what do you think he means “I would break/into blossom?” How does he “feel” at this moment?

 

Significance of Location - Video Clip
Explication of Significance of Location

Escarpment
Explication of Escarpment

 

Links to other poems that connect “outside” or are “political” in the student literary journal:

 

The Rio Review – Spring 1998

 

Outside Yourself

Cottage by Heather Crippen

Lightness at Once by Judith Glenn

Naming by F.J. Emberton-Homes

My Building by Erin Welch

Tempest by Johnny Sayre

Gruta by Audrey Woods

 

Nature

Memory by Jennifer Adair

Cottage by Heather Crippen

Raspberry Wish by Heather Crippen

Wet Dirt, Changing Wind by Christina Galindo

Worm Tracks by Judith Glenn

The Salmon by Rich Perin

Tempest by Johnny Sayre

 

The Rio Review – Fall 1998

 

Outside Yourself

When She Said No by Christina Santos

To a Bluebonnet by Kathy Judge

To a Tulip by Kathy Judge

Wishful Winter by Blake Moran

Wish for a Dandelion by E.Z. Piltz

This Ordered Scene by Brian Watson

Vague Memories and Assertion by Brian Watson

 

Nature

To a Bluebonnet by Kathy Judge

To a Tulip by Kathy Judge

Wishful Winter by Blake Moran

Poem by Laura Parker

Wish for a Dandelion by E.Z. Piltz

 

Art Response

Wishful Winter by Blake Moran

Pardon Me, Sir by Christy Popp

This Ordered Scene by Brian Watson

Vague Memories and Assertion by Brian Watson

 

 

The Rio Review – Spring 1999

 

Outside Yourself

What Gods Will Take by Chere Deinlein

Window by Amber Hamilton

The Good Oil Days by John Ly

The Them and the Us by Ian J. Neuhold-Orth

The Dreamer by Camille Wheeler

 

Nature

The excerpts from the winning entry of The Balcones Poetry Prize:

The Redshifting Web by Arthur Sze (non-student)

Red Cabin – Winter Wood by Lois Johnson

A Piece of Bone in the Middle of Europe by Mike Peck

 

Art Response

What Gods Will Take by Chere Deinlein

Red Cabin – Winter Wood by Lois Johnson

Impression of Darkness by Jessica Morrow

Schmerzensmann by Jessica Morrow

For Mrs. Jenkins by Dana Mullaley

Santa Rosa by Dana Mullaley

A Piece of Bone in the Middle of Europe by Mike Peck

Split World by Jason Wright

 

 

The Rio Review – Fall 1999

 

Outside Yourself

Dying Gaul by Ted Barrow

Adrian by Krist Bronstad

Letters to LBJ after the Selma Incident by Krist Bronstad

My Name Is Filmgirl 33 by Krist Bronstad

Past Summer’s Eve by Lalo Garza-Pacheco

From within the Capital of Hell by Marita T.E. Peppard

 

Nature

Fragments from Age 3 to 20 by Ted Barrow

Adrian by Krist Bronstad

Letters to LBJ after the Selma Incident by Krist Bronstad

The Men of West Texas by Ken Cameron

1702 Windsor by Thomas Patrick Miller

Across the Ohio-Texas Border by Jessica Morrow

Hyde Park by Jessica Morrow

Boston, MA by Dana Mullaley

Crude by Jacquelyn Torbert

Cows in the Cotton by Camille Wheeler

 

Art Response

Dying Gaul by Ted Barrow

Car Culture by Thomas Patrick Miller

A Letter to The Beatnik by Daniel Nichols

 

The Rio Review – Spring 2000

 

Outside Yourself

Black by Sunny Ashabranner

Now, Even, Sometime for the Dying by Shawn Badgley

Since 1884 by Shawn Badgley

The Poet by Mark Boyle

Black Clouds in the Kitchen by Krist Bronstad

Richard the Neighbor by Krist Bronstad

I’ve Got to Hand It to You by Bear Montgomery

Regarding the Woman in the House Opposite by Elizabeth Pereira

The Window by Elizabeth Pereira

 

Nature

Eternal Rainbow by Monica Cadena

Summer Storm by Monica Cadena

Equinox by Elizabeth Pereira

Winter Evening, Chicago by Elizabeth Pereira

The Willow by Cheryl Wanamaker

 

 

Reader’s Response 2

·      Choose one of the student poems from the list above to read.

·      Find at least 3 ways the poem fulfills the requirements of an outward looking or political poem.

·      Using cut and paste, send your examples from the poem to me.

 

Poem Assignment 2

 

·      Read the student poems illustrating this topic in the Rio Review for examples.

·      Using any of the topics from the free writing exercises write an outward looking or political poem.

·      Give the poem a title.

·      Make sure the poem is long enough to feel movement - a beginning, middle and end.

·     Make sure your poem has the elements of an outward looking or political poem as defined in the section – About the poem content.

 

Send your poem to me.

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