Crafting Poetry
January-April 2018
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I must admit the class workshops was therapeutic. Quite surprised at classmates
honesty in baring their thoughts in it. Since I missed the midterm submission of 6 poems.
Restarting from scratch to finally pen down. I was quite critical of it since
I am never good at words. I found myself recollecting unrecorded experiences of life,
esp inaudible instances and moments which was undeciphered. I found myself also
waiting in the present to let words come in from what I see and observe
everyday. Switch my thought towards what I am actually doing at the moment, this
is a renewed experience for me because I find my thought process which used to
be constantly muddled up ranting out bits by bits in raw unprocessed emotive words
. The drafting piece has lots of lines unused yet it was fun to pick add or delete....
playing with sentences and googling grammer synonyms has led to richer vocabulary...
learning new words and awareness on grammar accuracy, left me
wondering if the gift of words is an inherent or an acquired skill.
Poetry is a safe space to vent...a space to hammer,
transform and give strength to our language and celebrating the crafted mind.
The deep concentration and feeling of the moment as a
waiting period for words to flow was the fuel of the first Poem
‘I breathe’. The Villanelle structure was birthed when I placed
the rhyming of words. From the words itself brings meanings
and new resonance which I connect the dots with migratory
familial spaces to society to political. I didn't intend to but it turned
out into a new stream of thought. It has music element on which
i traced a friend’s who is musician and his absence after his
death and the current grief has led me to understand what is
this present now. Wrote this poem in waves of heightened
emotion and fear. The poem further led to the emphasis on hands
as a major subsequent themes in the rest of my poems.
Speaking of the past history and upbringing has been a major
topic in my everyday engagement to decipher...and the
everyday working of hands stood out as a major theme in the
rest of the poems as well...I am noticing...through the hands
is what comes the eating of fruit good or bad, a metaphor of
nurturing role or brought even the possibilities of Eve giving fruit
to Adam. Holding thy hand as a representation of the Creator.
Poems I infused in is things from pre acquired beliefs, things
from lived visuals and silence in my writing is also used as a
main drive for noting down such non-verbal experiences. I
enjoyed the repeated techniques of villanelle. From this birth
the direction to reality, was rewarding. The poem didn't not
succumb only to private sphere but also moves in legal matter
and even political and cultural catastrophe. In short its best
to write in bad moods, so sometimes I’d write when I am
physically hungry.
I took weeks to finally finish the draft of ‘April’. Found the theme
most challenging to write. putting in bits of past experiences
and the poem April meant to have this resonance of the many
years of april counting from decades in dreading the coming
month of 2018 which is next month. The dates was important
and I resorted with time calculation because of the important
events in April. The familiar sights in the approaching summer
like the cassias always seemed like weeping peacefully. it was
also times of goodbyes to loved ones and celebrating of their
birthdays and anniversaries. However it was after the political
performative poetry workshop, I find the family as politically
socio-economic structure and a closest confide of everyday
interactions. I also wanted to see how my perspective would
change after spilling out an uninterrogated past emotions.
The performative style was different in every performative
poem that I listened for hours. Some are lyrical and narrative and
some sounded more like a resistance in an angry protest, an
urgency. Angershatters and breaks into a mess, I still feel the
poem needs to be edited and I am not satisfied in terms of laying
it out everywhere, I don't understand myself where to put,
what to add and delete or what I wanted to express and in
consideration of what audience I am speaking to. There are too
many characters in thought...I also took advantage of writing
some excerpts from the movie scripts 'Jungle' in the life story
of amazon trekker survivor...i like the way the red ants falls on
him and bites him where he planned this to wake himself up
from psychological hallucination. After writing this poem I fear
no more and ready to embrace the April month.
I enjoyed the visual possibilities of ‘Poetry of everyday objects’
and transferring it into humane sensibilities...I feel I should
work more on the visualisation in writing poems, this may blend
well with my artwork practice as well. The wristwatch
stemmed on the four line poem exercise from the class, to ‘dig
in the sublime thought as the brand’ talk against the popular
capitalist things we consume everyday. Basing the worth of an
object by branding is a rejection of the particular worth of a
gift. The rest of the objects i picked were dearly loved objects,
that which I am familiar ad remember where it come from,
was an easier path to bring out sensibilities in a tea bag, red
velvet cake and Tea tree essential oil. Though honestly
overnight, I guess objects that we continue to use everyday
will bring more nuances as I spend more time with it.
The following independent poem - Unfinished lines starts with
symbolically known historical elements like Auguste Rodin's
hands and ends with Kintsugi a japanese art of mending broken
pottery by Gold. I took more pleasure in using those popular
forms to create a meaning of the love poem in a couplet. This
poem is largely an inaudible expressions except for the
whispering, giving more emphasis on the potential of invisible
lines. This was purely playful. Using the traces from object
poetry and inaudible but experiential expressions except for
a whisper. In another independent poem ‘Here’ I thought of
one theme ‘here’, as a space to talk. A certain space, certain
person, and certain conditions and intentionally made it into
a meditative poem. As a reminder as well, because out of my
habit to write notes wherever I walking, sitting, at any given
time, I thought why not make a poem which is set as a note
reminder to enhance the journey of authenticity.
Altered beauty, a response poem from Nitoo Das ‘Geeta
sings thumri’, I followed the same pattern of four stanza, seven
stanza and two stanzas gave boundaries and did brought
of meaning in its shifts. Getting to read Nitoo Das’s works and
the aim to bring out its interiority .has brought focus on the
concern of editing and directional mechanism of technology
and media. The concept of movie director’s portrayal and the
larger scope of media is huge and vast to generalise it all in.
So i narrowed down into an everyday social media level because
that way is also a public persona and what are we do
without reexamining consumption of visual in the
advertisements and media.
Power of short words, short poems, it's been short four
months of poetry but I shall use this as another quiet space for
venting out. Sometimes I wonder if i edit too much or just let
the words flow with the mix of emotions filtering by time. I
enjoyed the reading and editing of friend's poems, seeing
different insights of weakness and strengths of each poems
and how all these is an integral experiences expressed in
crafted text and filling our blog. At one point I was shocked
too when people laughed at a certain opinion which is against
my faith and I struggled to break out from their one
dimensional background. But eventually I came in peace with
it that all those exercises stays in the classroom and
renewed respect even in difference of opinions was what
shape me. Sir's example of punctuality and preparedness
was which led to birth of poems. A simple act, what is in
poetry is expanding its nuances from that very simple act.
Words are still blunt and spread everywhere as I draft but
the draft i think is a gold mine to always go back when lost.
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Written By,
Gracelia Gangmei
MA VISUAL ART
