Amy Lowell and Medb Charleton - Workshop 13/06/22
Hello, everyone.
Amy Lowell was born in Massachusetts, in the Unites States. She died in 1925 at the age of 51. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry the year after in 1926.
Medb Charleton is a New Zealand poet who grew up in Sligo, Ireland. She did an MA in Creative writing at Bill Manhire's Institute of Modern Letters.
A theme we can see in the first poetic text is that of the recurring or intrusive thought. You could write about having ideas that are too fixed.
A theme from the second text is poetry itself. We can call this poetics. You could write about writing. Make a poem about poetry.
The structure of the first text is one we use often, the 14-line sonnet. You could write a piece in 14 lines or choose any other number of lines before you begin.
The structure of the second poetic text could be called 'block verse'. And because the poem is about a lifestyle block, it seems appropriate. You could write in block verse today.
Six words to attempt to incorporate into your writing from Lowell: constant, mind, recurring, habit, freedom, mercy.
Six words from Charleton: place, wild, wind, dream, bright, hum.
If you have a copy of The Exercise Book (Manhire, Duncum, Price & Wilkins), turn to "#48: Poetry 'Voice' Exercise" for a different challenge.
That's all. I hope you are inspired to write today.
A Fixed Idea
by Amy Lowell
What torture lurks within a single thought
When grown too constant; and however kind,
However welcome still, the weary mind
Aches with its presence. Dull remembrance taught
Remembers on unceasingly; unsought
The old delight is with us but to find
That all recurring joy is pain refined,
Become a habit, and we struggle, caught.
You lie upon my heart as on a nest,
Folded in peace, for you can never know
How crushed I am with having you at rest
Heavy upon my life. I love you so
You bind my freedom from its rightful quest.
In mercy lift your drooping wings and go.
I Can See the Poem in this Lifestyle Block
by Medb Charleton
Setting into the far-flung sea, bush staggered over acres, a small holding. If you’re into Peace this is the place. Remind me how it goes; pulling back curtains to an infancy of space and wild trees, hawks adrift in pockets of wind. How to say moths shining in our lamplight or laundry in midair swinging is a dream as agapanthus blooms tall and startlingly purple on a bright day. And then silky nights, star strengthened resolve, hum of the world.