My piece here is called a copy/change poem, a technique which I learned during my summer with the National Writing Project, and is one which I found most effective at helping my students stretch their voices by trying on the cadence of a professional writer or poet's syntax. Thanks to Garrison Keillor's daily email newsletter, I discovered John Stone's poem which inspired me to express my joy over the inner healing I experienced while taking an Art Journaling course facilitated by my muse, and my dear friend, An'Angelia Prather Thompson.
Whittling: Imaging:
The Last Class The New Literacy
***A copy
change poem***
(with thanks to John Stone)
What has been written What has been written
about whittling about language
is not true
is not true
most of it
half of it
It is the discovery It is the
image
that keeps
that brings
the fingers moving
feelings to the message
not idleness
not text alone
but the knife looking for
but text owns logic
the right plane
reasons, facts,
data,
that will let the secret out
left-brained analysis
Whittling is no pastime
A picture is worth 1000
words
he says
she says
who has been whittling
who has been painting her
feelings
in spare minutes at the wood
with watercolor crayons onto the
journal
journal
of his life for forty years
of her life for 55 years
Three rules he thinks
Three
rules my muse speaks
have helped
from experience
Make small cuts
Write, “This is not a perfect book.”
In this way
on Page 1
you may be able to stop
to
free yourself from the
before bondage
what was to be an arm
of the self-imposed prison
has to be something else
of perfection.
Always whittle Recycle--Weave
everything
Away from yourself
even paint-swiped paper towels
and toward something.
onto your page.
For God's sake
For God’s sake
and your own
and your own
know when to stop
Have fun—experiment—play
Whittling is the Art journaling is the
best example
best way
I know of what most
to marry image with text
may happen when
to name your experience
least expected
fully
bad or good
no holding back
Hurry before
Get started
now--
angina comes The blank page
invites
like a pair of pliers Your
subconscious awaits,
overflowing
overflowing
over your left shoulder
secrets ready to spill onto the page
There is plenty of wood
There is more than enough
material
for everyone
to fill a large
Moleskin,
and you
maybe three
Go ahead now
No moment like the
present
May you find
May you discover
in the waiting wood
on the waiting page
rough unspoken
clean blank
what is true
your truth
or
and
nearly true what needs to be revealed
or
and
true enough. A chance to learn
that
mistakes are part of
this
masterpiece—You!
"Whittling:
The Last Class" by John Stone, from Music from Apartment 8. ©
Louisiana State University Press, 2004. (buy now)
No comments:
Post a Comment