[stylist] FW: Some examples of Twitter Poetry
Homme, James
james.homme at highmark.com
Mon Oct 17 11:33:21 UTC 2011
Hi People,
Forwarding.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Jacqueline Williams [mailto:jackieleepoet at cox.net]
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2011 6:04 PM
To: Homme, James
Subject: FW: Some examples of Twitter Poetry
Jim,
If you get this, will you send it to the crowd in my behalf. Somehow I am
having trouble getting it out there. Thanks, Jackie This is because I
e-mailed it to myself first.
From: Jacqueline Williams [mailto:jackieleepoet at cox.net]
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2011 2:31 PM
To: jackieleepoet at cox.net
Subject: RE: Some examples of Twitter Poetry
Jim,
This is more about beginning poetry, short and sweet, or in some cases, not
sweet. These are examples of Twitter poetry that I submitted to the Arizona
State Poetry Annual Contest. I have written the poem, in many cases, a
cinquain which this purpose can be called a Twinquain, followed directly by
the character count and the font I used For the character count, go to the
tools menu, go down to word count and listen carefully.
The font should be given if you press "insert F. Since published poetry
cannot be submitted in a poetry contest, please consider that these are sent
to you for critiquing as in a round robin group, and not truly finished. I
will find out in a month or so if any are winners, and would hate to be
disqualified.
And now to see if they come out in the correct format.
I suggest that you read line-by-line so you can identify if it is a
Cinquain (2,4,6,8,2) syllables.
All of you, think back on your 40 word poems. This is shorter, but what I
remember is good thoughts, metaphors, etc., so have fun.
8. Twitter Poetry Jacqueline Williams
1431 West 7th Place
Mesa, AZ 85201
480-834-1782
Molded
Poured hot
into man's mold,
plastic woman fulfills
her Stepford role-caregiver, and
abused.
94 characters with spaces
Tahoma
Coming Full Circle
They think
a life is round
but errant lines jag out.
A fool expects a final
closure.
101 characters with spaces
Magneto
Lobsterfest With Dick
A voice from a watery grave
He asked
for a lobster-
boiling water-boarded .
He ate me-red-my secrets still
withheld.
132 characters with Title and spaces.
Mixed font, ?
E-Mail
Alone
at ninety-one
he pecked out messages.
Death came, from Cyberspace, sat in
his place.
92 characters with spaces
Impact
For Those Who Would Go Back
My friend,
your mind-
a passenger
on a train
bound for the past.
It must be derailed
for the rest of us
to survive.
136 characters with title and spaces Times New Roman
No Support Left
You burned
your bridges. Fires
so hot they charred the one
you built to bring you safely back.
Don't cross.
119 characters with spaces
Gerimond
Practicing How to Reject, Diplomatically
"My love,
come cruise with me.
Roses, jewels, my heart."
"No, thanks, but I'd love a jelly
doughnut."
137 characters with spaces
Rockwell
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Homme, James
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 10:52 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Writing from a blind perspective
Hi Jacqueline,
Thank you. Please send whatever you wish. I'm beginning to think that some
of the journaling I have begun may take the form of poetry. I got a Bard
book about writing poetry last weekend. I wonder if at my writing level I
should get a kids poetry writing book.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jacqueline Williams
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 1:23 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Writing from a blind perspective
Bridget,
Right on. Several years I taught a poetry workshop about writing and finding
poetry using all of the senses. When I get through these too many e-mails, I
will try to find some examples of other than visual and forward them. I
still hesitate to copy and paste from word because it so often changes the
format. That is not so important in prose, but it can be deadly in poetry if
it is a form instead of a prose poem.
I wonder who did the screenplay for that movie, "Wait Until Dark" starring
Audrey Hepburn. I am waiting for a novel featuring a blind sleuth using all
the senses we use to solve a crime. Let me know if any of you already know
of one.
Jackie
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 2:15 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Writing from a blind perspective
Chris and others,
That's bullshit- pardon the French. Smile. That others would tell you
your story has holes because of a lack of visual descriptions is just
stupid, and much like in our real lives, people are only focusing on the
blindness and nothing else about a person, or in this case a character.
Sensory descriptions are not just visual. As we know in real life,
nonvisual means exist to do many, many things, yet so many question how
anything can be done without sight. It's the same when providing sensory
descriptions in a story. It can be done, and done quite well, without
actually giving visual details.
In my classes, we were expected to provide details beyond visual ones so
readers had a full sensory experience. As a sighted writer, it will
usually be natural to write more visual descriptions, but at least we
were encouraged to seek new perspectives. In a poetry workshop, we had
to write a poem about a piece of art but not to give any visual details.
At first, most of the class found it difficult, but the poems turned out
really good. It was quite the learning experience, even for me.
To be honest, I rarely write blind characters- oddly enough, I find it
difficult. Even though I'm totally blind, I was sighted before, which I
know many of us were, but I still am extremely visual. I have visual
memories now of things I can't "see," and though I can't say how
accurate my memories are, nonetheless, the memories are there. So when I
write, it's natural to include visual details. However, I've been
working on writing other sensory descriptions because I don't want to
end up in a rut unable to rely on other descriptions beyond the visual.
One way, Chris, you can try to provide more detail about how your
character goes about something is to use descriptive language when they
do something. For example, not that this will be a good one, but you
could try something like, "The electronic voice droned from the speakers
as he paid bills online." Or, "The mailbox clanged as he tapped his cane
against it. Sliding the back of his hand along the top, he found the
handle, opened the door and dropped his letter into the depths of the
mailbox." Or, "Her sultry voice suggested a matching body. I moved
closer picking up a hint of jasmine. Grabbing her hand, I weaved my
fingers through her slender ones. She leaned against my chest, and I
felt the weight of her breast as images scorched my mind."
You don't necessarily have to describe exactly how things are done, or
provide the inner workings of things, but add a few verbs and details
that signify what the character is doing. And I don't think it has to be
written in first person to accomplish this. That's obviously a choice
you make, but don't let others dictate that choice. I know we have to be
mindful of how readers perceive our plots and characters, but at some
point we also have to stay true to what we believe are the right
choices. To me, this sounds like a case of people focusing on one aspect
of a character, refusing to look deeper.
Also, a story is about perspective. If a character is blind it stands to
reason that we will "see" the story from the perspective of a blind
person. Actually, in an open, or omniscient perspective, you can pan out
providing descriptions even if characters can't see since it doesn't
have to be the blind characters narrating, but if you limit the POV to
that blind character, regardless of first or third person, you'd still
want to remain in that nonvisual world. It's insane that anyone would
suggest a story told from the POV of a blind character should have
visual descriptions. Unless you have a omniscient POV, it makes sense
the story would lack visuals, though have other sensory details to make
up for it. A limited POV doesn't divulge certain information like what
other characters think or do unless in the presence of the POV
character, so if they're blind, the story would be in this perspective
if told in a limited POV.
During my first convention, while attending a Writers' Division event, a
young girl asked how to write visual descriptions. She was blind from
birth, but was always told her stories were lacking because no visual
details were present. This was just ludacris to me. Her perspective was
different, and she should celebrate it. Certainly one can learn to write
visually, but as a writer, you also want to find a unique voice. If you
can't describe something visually, why do it? Use what senses you have
to paint a picture, or maybe, rather, record a song. Smile. Perspective
is what creates a story full of depth. If your perspective is a
nonvisual one, there is nothing wrong with that. We're always told how
we're "lacking experiences," or slightly inferior because we can't see.
I get sick of this. I certainly don't feel lacking in experiences or
anything else. The same goes for our writing if we write from a
nonvisual perspective. And just a side note, if you aren't providing
enough, or good enough, sensory descriptions, you probably wouldn't give
great visual descriptions either. I just realized how this sounds- I'm
not meaning you, Chris. Smile.
You have to make any description germane to the story, which includes
visual descriptions along with other sensory details. Just as it doesn't
make sense to constantly drop in how-to descriptions for every action a
blind character takes, it also doesn't make sense to give visual details
that the character wouldn't see. It would go against the perspective of
the story.
Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 20:55:21 -0400
From: "Chris Kuell" <ckuell at comcast.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Hemingway quote
Message-ID: <5A8AA93EAB9A441695CDB7DCBC00FC4F at ChrisPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=response
Hey Brad,
I've heard the gist of that quote before, and now it's got me thinking.
I'm
currently winding up a novel about a blind massage therapist caught up
in a
sticky love triangle, and after writing the first 5 chapters in third
person
POV, I started over again and have been writing it in first person. The
reason for the change was that 1. people generally prefer the stories
I've
written in the first person , and 2. I wanted potential readers to be
inside
the head of a blind guy. It's been interesting, but very challenging to
pull
off an entire novel. I belong to a critique group, and 2 'complaints'
I've
received are that I never describe my main character, or my other
characters
visually, with the exception of one luscious female, but even then it's
a
description of her fabulous body, and the reader, like the character,
knows
nothing about her face, eyes, smile, hair, etc... I know all the books
about
craft tell you that you need to get in a description of your main
characters
early, and I've noticed that most novels do. But, in Hemingway's novel
'For
Whom the Bell Tolls, the main character has a fling with a former female
prisoner, I forget her name but it begins with a P (Pia?), and Hemingway
describes only her short hair and the hat she wore. I've tried the
remembering-a-photograph technique, but it strikes me as awkward and I
cut
it out.
The second criticism is that people are interested in technology, or how
my
character 'does things. This is where your Hemingway quote came to mind.
I
know how Dan, my character does things, and I've mentioned a few, but I
haven't gone into detail, which I feel is appropriate. He's got a
computer
with a screen reading program, which I mention in chapter 1 with about
that
much detail, and from then on he just uses his computer. I don't mention
how
he tells time, or pays his bills, although at one point I say a friend
helped him go through his mail. I say he takes the bus, but I don't say
how
he finds the bus or puts his money in the little thingee. He cooks, but
I
don't describe how he cooks, etc... In part, I think it's more
natural--I
mean, if he wasn't blind and you said he cooked a lasagna, you wouldn't
want
to know how. And in part, I just think it's awkward. Several years ago I
read a novel with a blind character. The character lived in Baltimore,
and
to the author's credit (it was a sighted writer), she'd obviously done
her
research, and showed it off--too much, in my opinion. She stopped the
flow
of the story every time she had to take half-a-page to describe how the
blind lady did the mundane things we all do in life.
Anyway, your post made me think of it.
chris
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