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poetreeI'm a mockingbird poet. That is to say, I have my own style, but I also have a lot of fun imitating the styles of other poets, or combining elements of several styles into something new.
Why imitate? In my experience, there's nothing like attempting to imitate another poet's style to teach myself appreciation for their subtleties. When I engage with poem or other text as a possible reference for imitation, I find myself paying more attention to its characteristic patterns of rhythm and syntax, the types of diction the author draws on, what makes this poem as the work of this poet distinct from how I or other poets whose work I know well might articulate it. In short, I actively exercise my ability to pick apart how a poem achieves its effects, and add the fruits of that understanding to my own repertoire.
Today's featured project is a game that takes imitation one step further into remix, i.e. imitating some elements and transforming others of one or more pieces to create a new work. 'One Poem, Two Poem, Old Poem, New Poem':
Bonus: I would be remiss if I failed to mentionluzula set 'Far and Fey' to music and recorded it. Listen to luzula's fantastic performance here.
Why imitate? In my experience, there's nothing like attempting to imitate another poet's style to teach myself appreciation for their subtleties. When I engage with poem or other text as a possible reference for imitation, I find myself paying more attention to its characteristic patterns of rhythm and syntax, the types of diction the author draws on, what makes this poem as the work of this poet distinct from how I or other poets whose work I know well might articulate it. In short, I actively exercise my ability to pick apart how a poem achieves its effects, and add the fruits of that understanding to my own repertoire.
Today's featured project is a game that takes imitation one step further into remix, i.e. imitating some elements and transforming others of one or more pieces to create a new work. 'One Poem, Two Poem, Old Poem, New Poem':
Let's play an informal game today. Comment on this post with a favorite line or stanza [without telling me the source], and I will write you a minute remix poem or poem fragment in return. If you or someone else replies to that with another favorite line from a different source, I'll elaborate on the initial fill to incorporate the new reference, and so on and so forth.And here's one of my favorite resulting poems:
FAR AND FEY'Far and Fey' drew inspiration from five different sources — can you guess any of them off the bat? Try to work out what elements were imitated or transformed from each of the source prompts as the poem evolved, and then read the poem in its entirety again. Has your reading of the poem changed? Did any of the source prompts surprise you?
they say your heart went fey to faeryland
where none can touch
or wound it wakeful
and down you went to goblintown
and took their fruit in tax
and down you went to humansground
and took their souls for flax
the goblin men wept and the human women raged
but your heart was far and fey
you ate of fruit and clothed in souls
and merry came away
they say you ride on a ragg'd rich mare
they say you're sharp in mind
but your heart's still gone in faeryland
and you know not what is kind
Bonus: I would be remiss if I failed to mention
luzula set 'Far and Fey' to music and recorded it. Listen to luzula's fantastic performance here.
