Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Kobayashi Issa and third grade responses
We presented the following Kobayashi Issa poem to students and asked them for their reflections...
Don't Kill That Fly!
Look, don't kill that fly!
It is making a prayer to you
By rubbing its hands and feet.
Kobayashi Issa
"I don't understand this poem. But when I read it I feel like it is saying something very important."
"I think it is like the lion and them mouse where the fly is saying please don't kill me because one day I could be important for you."
"This doesn't make sense. Kobayashi is putting his own feelings into the fly. Flies don't think."
"This remind me of a friend of our family's who's family doesn't have a religion so she decided to be Buddhist. She goes around all Buddha this Buddha that but then she kills mosquitos."
Don't Kill That Fly!
Look, don't kill that fly!
It is making a prayer to you
By rubbing its hands and feet.
Kobayashi Issa
"I don't understand this poem. But when I read it I feel like it is saying something very important."
"I think it is like the lion and them mouse where the fly is saying please don't kill me because one day I could be important for you."
"This doesn't make sense. Kobayashi is putting his own feelings into the fly. Flies don't think."
"This remind me of a friend of our family's who's family doesn't have a religion so she decided to be Buddhist. She goes around all Buddha this Buddha that but then she kills mosquitos."
Interview with Ryan Winet, poet
32 questions for a real live poet
1. Why did you decide to be a poet?
I decided to be a poet after reading Zbigniew Herbert’s poetry in college.
2. How many poems that you have written do you know by memory?
Because I usually type my poems on a computer, I do not usually have them
memorized by heart; however, I have composed poetry while hiking. In these cases,
I remember the poems in full for much longer.
3. What is your favorite poem you have written and why?
My favorites change from week to week. I am proudest of poems that seem to pick
up on a rhythm that’s all my own.
4. Have you studied only poetry all your life?
I was not very interested in poetry until I was about 20 years old. I began to study
poetry seriously about 8 years ago.
5. How do you get your ideas? What inspires you?
I get most of my ideas from the Internet and spoken conversations. The many
words we speak and write everyday inspire me. It’s remarkable how much beautiful
material floats out there, waiting to be made into poetry.
6. How do you find words that rhyme?
I try and find words that nearly rhyme. I like similar vowel sounds but different ending
consonant sounds. I especially like to think of words that nearly sound the same but
are very different from each other, such as “rock” and “lock.”
7. How do you invent the rhythm of the words for you poems?
I typically think of my poetry as made up of sentences, so I try to vary my rhythm
between short and long sentences. Many poets think of meter, such as stressed
and unstressed syllables. In their cases, these poets will often substitute one kind of
foot (say a trochee) for another kind of foot (say an iamb) to invent their own unique
rhythm.
8. Do you think you are a good poet?
I do not know if I’m a good poet. Sometimes I think I have written good poems. Many
times I think I have written poor poems!
9. Do you recommend begin a poet?
Absolutely! Poetry is not about being good or poor: instead, poetry is about
appreciating the words around us. By appreciating these words through poetry, I can
learn a great deal about myself and about other people. I think the world would be a
much better place if people read poetry as often as they read the news.
10. Are the feelings in your poems your own?
Not always. Much of my poetry is “found” on the Internet.
11. Where do you think poetry comes from?
For me, poetry comes from collisions, accidents, and slips in language.
12. Did you get inspired by another poet? If so, who, and why?
I am inspired by many poets. I was first inspired by Polish language poets like
Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, and Wislawa Syzmborska. Later I discovered
American poets like Jack Spicer, Charles Olson, Elizabeth Bishop, and H.D. I was
originally inspired by Polish language poets because they came from a tradition
very different from my own: their poetry was very intellectual and unromantic. I fell
in love with American poetry because of its enthusiasm and bravery with language.
As far as Spanish language poets, I especially like Pablo Neruda, Cesar Vallejo, and
Frederico Garcia Lorca.
13. What types of poetry do you write? Can you give us an example?
I tend to write poems that I hope are playful but not too obvious. I wrote a sonnet just
for our meeting today. The sonnet was inspired by George Herbert’s poem, “Prayer.”
The idea behind the sonnet is that there are some very special words in the English
language that don’t have partners to perfectly rhyme with. My sonnet plays with
some of these words and does its best to find rhymes for them!
Sculpts. Engulfed. Midst. Cusp.
Rhymer's nightmare. Maker's limits.
Neither/nors. Singulars. Crust
Of always-different, bits
Of individuals in our midst.
Remainder’s teeth. Species stains.
The rhyme forever missed.
A stubborn sound remains
Dangling, self-engulfed
Calling to nothing but itself.
Why not be common, tagged
Taken from a shelf?
Instead: shavings, pulps—
Purest of that which a poet sculpts.
14. How do you stay inspired?
I read lots of poetry and talk often to people who also read lots of poetry.
15. When did you know that you are a poet?
Looking back on my life, I can say that I knew I was a poet when, as a little boy,
I was watching a documentary about our Solar System. One of the scientists
described the color of Uranus as a “featureless blue.” I thought that phrase was so
pretty I wrote a paragraph of sentences exploring the words and sounds together.
16. Did poetry change your life?
Definitely! And it has changed it for the better! The much much better!
17. Have you ever been stressed?
I am stressed every day. Thankfully, I have poetry. Without poetry, my days would
be stressful AND uninspired. Poetry makes the stress worthwhile because it reminds
me to stop and listen.
18. Does your family affect your poetry?
I did not grow up around poetry or even books. I grew up around the television set.
My family has always been supportive of me pursuing my dreams but they do not
read poetry. I think my family has read two or three of the hundreds of poems I have
written!
19. Do you know other poets?
Many of my friends are poets. I’m also an editor for a poetry journal, so I get to know
even more poets through that line of work.
20. Could a nine year old kid be a poet?
Of course! For me, poetry returns me to a sense of my childhood. A German poet
named Ranier Maria Rilke once gave an aspiring poet the following advice: “And
even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s
sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that
treasure house of memories?” I think that children are better at being children than
adults, which means I think that children are usually better at being poets than
adults!
21. When you were a kid what did you want to be?
I always wanted to be an artist. Now I’m pursuing that dream, in a sense.
22. What do you try express when you write a poem?
I try to write a poem the way I grow a plant. I want the poem to grow but I can’t
control everything. I try to transform my thoughts and emotions into something
outside of myself.
23. Has poetry made you a better person?
I hope so! It has certainly made me a more thoughtful person.
24. Who is your idol poet?
My idol poet is Emily Dickinson: I hope to someday write poems as she wrote them.
25. When you feel ignored, how does poetry help you?
Poetry connects me to family members I never knew I had. When you read another
poet, you are communicating across vast spaces and periods of time. You are
getting to know members of a poetic family. I never feel ignored or lonely after
reading poetry for a while.
26. How do you feel when you write poetry?
Many things. Excited. Frustrated. Intrigued.
27. Do you like poetry or do you feel forced?
I like poetry now. I used to feel forced.
28. Did something affect you so much that you still write poems about that?
I still write about strange things I have seen and thought. I write about friends I have
not seen in a long time.
29. Do you ever feel frustrated when you write poetry? How do you go on?
I almost always feel frustrated writing a poem. I go on because believe in the
process of writing poetry. The writer Ernest Hemingway once said that an aspiring
writer must like sentences. An aspiring painter must like the smell of paint. An
aspiring poet must like the sounds and meanings of words, even if those words
sometimes do not cooperate!
30. What would be the name of your last poem to ever write?
“A Poem Prematurely Abandoned”
31. What do you do in your free time?
I read, draw and paint, play basketball, and go hiking.
32. Is the poetry your write an expression of your imagination?
My poetry is the transformation of my imagination.
1. Why did you decide to be a poet?
I decided to be a poet after reading Zbigniew Herbert’s poetry in college.
2. How many poems that you have written do you know by memory?
Because I usually type my poems on a computer, I do not usually have them
memorized by heart; however, I have composed poetry while hiking. In these cases,
I remember the poems in full for much longer.
3. What is your favorite poem you have written and why?
My favorites change from week to week. I am proudest of poems that seem to pick
up on a rhythm that’s all my own.
4. Have you studied only poetry all your life?
I was not very interested in poetry until I was about 20 years old. I began to study
poetry seriously about 8 years ago.
5. How do you get your ideas? What inspires you?
I get most of my ideas from the Internet and spoken conversations. The many
words we speak and write everyday inspire me. It’s remarkable how much beautiful
material floats out there, waiting to be made into poetry.
6. How do you find words that rhyme?
I try and find words that nearly rhyme. I like similar vowel sounds but different ending
consonant sounds. I especially like to think of words that nearly sound the same but
are very different from each other, such as “rock” and “lock.”
7. How do you invent the rhythm of the words for you poems?
I typically think of my poetry as made up of sentences, so I try to vary my rhythm
between short and long sentences. Many poets think of meter, such as stressed
and unstressed syllables. In their cases, these poets will often substitute one kind of
foot (say a trochee) for another kind of foot (say an iamb) to invent their own unique
rhythm.
8. Do you think you are a good poet?
I do not know if I’m a good poet. Sometimes I think I have written good poems. Many
times I think I have written poor poems!
9. Do you recommend begin a poet?
Absolutely! Poetry is not about being good or poor: instead, poetry is about
appreciating the words around us. By appreciating these words through poetry, I can
learn a great deal about myself and about other people. I think the world would be a
much better place if people read poetry as often as they read the news.
10. Are the feelings in your poems your own?
Not always. Much of my poetry is “found” on the Internet.
11. Where do you think poetry comes from?
For me, poetry comes from collisions, accidents, and slips in language.
12. Did you get inspired by another poet? If so, who, and why?
I am inspired by many poets. I was first inspired by Polish language poets like
Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, and Wislawa Syzmborska. Later I discovered
American poets like Jack Spicer, Charles Olson, Elizabeth Bishop, and H.D. I was
originally inspired by Polish language poets because they came from a tradition
very different from my own: their poetry was very intellectual and unromantic. I fell
in love with American poetry because of its enthusiasm and bravery with language.
As far as Spanish language poets, I especially like Pablo Neruda, Cesar Vallejo, and
Frederico Garcia Lorca.
13. What types of poetry do you write? Can you give us an example?
I tend to write poems that I hope are playful but not too obvious. I wrote a sonnet just
for our meeting today. The sonnet was inspired by George Herbert’s poem, “Prayer.”
The idea behind the sonnet is that there are some very special words in the English
language that don’t have partners to perfectly rhyme with. My sonnet plays with
some of these words and does its best to find rhymes for them!
Sculpts. Engulfed. Midst. Cusp.
Rhymer's nightmare. Maker's limits.
Neither/nors. Singulars. Crust
Of always-different, bits
Of individuals in our midst.
Remainder’s teeth. Species stains.
The rhyme forever missed.
A stubborn sound remains
Dangling, self-engulfed
Calling to nothing but itself.
Why not be common, tagged
Taken from a shelf?
Instead: shavings, pulps—
Purest of that which a poet sculpts.
14. How do you stay inspired?
I read lots of poetry and talk often to people who also read lots of poetry.
15. When did you know that you are a poet?
Looking back on my life, I can say that I knew I was a poet when, as a little boy,
I was watching a documentary about our Solar System. One of the scientists
described the color of Uranus as a “featureless blue.” I thought that phrase was so
pretty I wrote a paragraph of sentences exploring the words and sounds together.
16. Did poetry change your life?
Definitely! And it has changed it for the better! The much much better!
17. Have you ever been stressed?
I am stressed every day. Thankfully, I have poetry. Without poetry, my days would
be stressful AND uninspired. Poetry makes the stress worthwhile because it reminds
me to stop and listen.
18. Does your family affect your poetry?
I did not grow up around poetry or even books. I grew up around the television set.
My family has always been supportive of me pursuing my dreams but they do not
read poetry. I think my family has read two or three of the hundreds of poems I have
written!
19. Do you know other poets?
Many of my friends are poets. I’m also an editor for a poetry journal, so I get to know
even more poets through that line of work.
20. Could a nine year old kid be a poet?
Of course! For me, poetry returns me to a sense of my childhood. A German poet
named Ranier Maria Rilke once gave an aspiring poet the following advice: “And
even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s
sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that
treasure house of memories?” I think that children are better at being children than
adults, which means I think that children are usually better at being poets than
adults!
21. When you were a kid what did you want to be?
I always wanted to be an artist. Now I’m pursuing that dream, in a sense.
22. What do you try express when you write a poem?
I try to write a poem the way I grow a plant. I want the poem to grow but I can’t
control everything. I try to transform my thoughts and emotions into something
outside of myself.
23. Has poetry made you a better person?
I hope so! It has certainly made me a more thoughtful person.
24. Who is your idol poet?
My idol poet is Emily Dickinson: I hope to someday write poems as she wrote them.
25. When you feel ignored, how does poetry help you?
Poetry connects me to family members I never knew I had. When you read another
poet, you are communicating across vast spaces and periods of time. You are
getting to know members of a poetic family. I never feel ignored or lonely after
reading poetry for a while.
26. How do you feel when you write poetry?
Many things. Excited. Frustrated. Intrigued.
27. Do you like poetry or do you feel forced?
I like poetry now. I used to feel forced.
28. Did something affect you so much that you still write poems about that?
I still write about strange things I have seen and thought. I write about friends I have
not seen in a long time.
29. Do you ever feel frustrated when you write poetry? How do you go on?
I almost always feel frustrated writing a poem. I go on because believe in the
process of writing poetry. The writer Ernest Hemingway once said that an aspiring
writer must like sentences. An aspiring painter must like the smell of paint. An
aspiring poet must like the sounds and meanings of words, even if those words
sometimes do not cooperate!
30. What would be the name of your last poem to ever write?
“A Poem Prematurely Abandoned”
31. What do you do in your free time?
I read, draw and paint, play basketball, and go hiking.
32. Is the poetry your write an expression of your imagination?
My poetry is the transformation of my imagination.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)