Question Prose As Default

[jjhunter]

Apologies for the delay on this last post — I've quite been under the weather the last few days.

Engineering "time & occasion to read, write, discuss, ferment poetry and poetic play into one's everyday life" doesn't have to take the form of a series of large and intimidating commitments. Ambitious projects can be useful to push oneself past plateaus, but unless you are making a living out of poetry, there will be times where periodic opportunities for poetry feel more sustaining & engaging than additional commitments to writing poetry.

One of the ways I engineer such opportunities for myself is through hosting 'How Are You? (in Haiku)' days,

Pick a thing or two that sums up how you're doing today, this week, in general, and tell me about it in the 5-7-5 syllables of a haiku. I will leave anonymous comments screened unless otherwise asked; feel free to use this to leave private comments if that's what you're most comfortable with.

which I've been doing roughly once or twice a month for almost two years. I enjoy the chance to check with people in my circle, and to sometimes respond in kind. For example, untonuggan's haiku about bone-piercing cold last year inspired this haikai from me:

if I were a moon
and your heart radiant sun
I'd reflect your warmth

and your bones would know summer
in the greediest of winds

More generally, I make time for poetry in my life even when I'm feeling busy bee busy by questioning prose as my automatic default. There are times when poetry is not appropriate — certain types of professional correspondence spring to mind, etc. — but poetry as a way to communicate emotion, insight, a sense of playful purpose or perspective can be not only appropriate in place of prose but fun more often than you might think.

I've written personal emails as poems ("I chose to write this email to you as a poem, just because"), fannish comments as poems ("Oh this is delight and sorrow keen-woven /with eye for Thorin's subtleties"), even science commentary as poems (see below). I don't have to, but sometimes I choose to — and there is much joy to be found in that, and sharing that with others.

I love spot-the-affected-tissues, here:
shame makes your eyes burn;
anxiety makes the stomach churn,
the heart beat fast, and the neck
(and shoulders?) knot;
contempt chills arousal;
the spectrum of incandescence runs increasing
from pride (head, shoulders, heart)
to anger (all that plus fireball fists on burning arms)
to love (head, heart, and lower core like a trinity of suns)
to happiness (warmth from head to hands to toes
the person entire full like embers
of a campfire rippling heat and contentment
out into the night, face a beacon of yes)

— re: graphic featured in 'People worldwide may feel mind-body connections in same way' @ medical xpress

As always, I welcome all and any thoughts you have to share, in whatever form you are moved to share them.

Comments

[calissa]

I like this idea of questioning prose as the norm. It reminds me of when I used to exchange emails in haikai with a friend. And it is always a special delight to see your comments scattered around DW in poetry form. So I can see how this approach combines both beauty and practicality.

[kaberett]

can responses well?
in any case, this one is:
that you said it
you said it best
when you told us
that poetry is more than prose with (look here!)
random line-breaks

thank you, hunter
of brilliant fire-hearted joy
thank you, thank you, thank you

[jjhunter]

little gives me greater joy
than to play catch with poetry
to cultivate cultures
where poetry
comes as ready as prose to typing tongue
or lively conversation

a working definition of poet
one who makes a practice of poetry
intriguingly suggests
that writing is not all
that there is poet also
who finds poetry as they go
even if they do not speak it
but reach out for others' hands
and gently move those clasped connections
to feel the shapes of things
another way

[macey]

Ha. This reminds me of one of my favourite projects - I once wrote a (functional, compilable and code-correct, though the body was somewhat nonsensical) Shakespearean sonnet which ran to print a haiku (which was much better poetry). Code and poetry play interestingly together, I think. It fascinates me, how much 'writing code' is a creative process but how little people think of it as such.

dawn over the lake;
waves break yesterday's bottles
against the concrete

#include "early_morning_run.h"
int main(void) { int spanish_wine = 0;
char first_beat[] = "dawn over the lake;";
int alcohol_age = 21;

char epaulette[54] =
"waves break"; char *no_fuss; // empty as yet
if (alcohol_age < 34) {
no_fuss = strcat(epaulette,

" yesterday's bottles");} spanish_wine++;
printf("%s\n",first_beat);
printf("%s\n",no_fuss);
char end_line[] = "against the concrete";

printf("%s\n",end_line);
printf("\n"); return spanish_wine;}

[jjhunter]

Oh, that's fantastic!

You may be pleased to know that the dept. of literatures, cultures, and languages at Standford has started a Code Poetry Slam series

programmers and poets: create! compose! compile! (+ pizza)

which has an excellent set of related resources & discussion — or as the homepage puts it,

What is "code poetry"? A C++ sonnet? A Haskell haiku? An algorithmic poetry generator? Something completely new? Check out our Resources tab for examples and theory.

[macey]

Ooo, I did not know about that. Thanks, I'll have to look into it!