Another thing I like to do is make up words or run words together (I got my class to write poems where they joined two words together and now a couple of my students are obsessed with it). I did an exercise from Helena Nelson's How (Not) to Get Your Poetry Published which asked me to make up a word and use it in a poem. Making up a word is surprisingly difficult but it is fun to try. In the end I made up several words and used them all in one poem. For me it helped that I had an idea of the poem I wanted to write using the word and I wanted the word to sound wistful. You can read my poem here on Amaryllis. I think I can get away with it because it is one poem - although if I did it too often it could feel tired or gimmicky. For me the excitement of writing poetry is being able to constantly reinvent style and try out new things. I am influenced by what I am reading of course (both prose and poetry) but also by what's going on around me and by the world in general. I was reading a poem by Lynn Emanuel this morning (from her collection Then Suddenly) where she compares prose to poetry and she pretty much summed up how I feel about it (and why I have never finished my bits of novels). In poetry you don't need all the detail - the reader does a lot more of the work of getting from a to b themselves. "So please, don't ask me for a little trail of bread crumbs to get from the smile to the bedroom, and from the bedroom to the death at the end, although you can ask me a lot about death. That's all I like, the very beginning and the very end. I haven't got the stomach for the rest of it." (Lynn Emanuel 'The Politics of Narrative')
Saturday 27 January 2018
A few thoughts about the use of language in poems
Another thing I like to do is make up words or run words together (I got my class to write poems where they joined two words together and now a couple of my students are obsessed with it). I did an exercise from Helena Nelson's How (Not) to Get Your Poetry Published which asked me to make up a word and use it in a poem. Making up a word is surprisingly difficult but it is fun to try. In the end I made up several words and used them all in one poem. For me it helped that I had an idea of the poem I wanted to write using the word and I wanted the word to sound wistful. You can read my poem here on Amaryllis. I think I can get away with it because it is one poem - although if I did it too often it could feel tired or gimmicky. For me the excitement of writing poetry is being able to constantly reinvent style and try out new things. I am influenced by what I am reading of course (both prose and poetry) but also by what's going on around me and by the world in general. I was reading a poem by Lynn Emanuel this morning (from her collection Then Suddenly) where she compares prose to poetry and she pretty much summed up how I feel about it (and why I have never finished my bits of novels). In poetry you don't need all the detail - the reader does a lot more of the work of getting from a to b themselves. "So please, don't ask me for a little trail of bread crumbs to get from the smile to the bedroom, and from the bedroom to the death at the end, although you can ask me a lot about death. That's all I like, the very beginning and the very end. I haven't got the stomach for the rest of it." (Lynn Emanuel 'The Politics of Narrative')
Labels:
collection,
colloquialism,
editing,
Helena Nelson,
imagination,
language,
Lynn Emanuel,
poems,
poetry,
words
Friday 19 January 2018
Fear and Self-Loathing in the Suburbs
There has been a lot of talk lately about working class writers.
What do you say when some one asks you what class you are? Do you know what class you are? I am not not sure that I know how to answer that question anymore. I definitely grew up working class - five of us lived in a two bedroomed council house. My dad worked in industry - although he was not a labourer but had a skilled job as an engineering draughtsman. I left school at 16. I was on the dole. I did a series of unskilled and labour intensive jobs - farm work, cleaning, warehouse work, catering. It was only in my late twenties that I began to study and therefore improve my lot. I trained as a nursery nurse and became a pre-school supervisor. I trained and became (albeit briefly) a reflexologist. Then at 40 I had an epiphany quit my job and went back to study full time - first doing a creative writing degree and then a poetry MA. Therein is the heart of the problem - I feel both working class and middle class at the same time. Basically I feel like I don't quite fit in either camp.
This is why I have a problem with the question 'where are all the working class writers?' To me it seems that if you are a writer the act of writing itself means that perhaps you are no longer working class. I feel like on some levels getting educated made me middle class. I feel working class and I can certainly write about my own working class experiences, however, looked out from the outside my life might seem very middle class. I work in the arts - teaching, writing, mentoring etc. I live in a middle class area (although I am poor and rent my house). I have a degree and an MA (and the corresponding massive student debt). My son went to university and did an MA. Our house is full of books and art stuff. I go to live literature events. When I can afford it I go to the theatre. I moved house because my son was unhappy and I wanted him to go to a better school. So as you can see on a lot of levels I am middle class now - however I have never felt like I quite fit in. I rent my house rather than owning it (some one once described my end of the street as 'the common end' - meaning lots of rentals). I was a single parent. My career started late, so consequently I don't have the advantages of years in a decent job.
The book I am working on is not really about class - although class does come into it. It is more about identity (and threat to identity). It is about what shapes and defines us - and in this collection at least it examines the things that threaten both us and our identity - things people say and do, ways we cause pain and discomfort to one another, conflict (familial, local, global), the stories we tell our families and those our families tell us, the stories we tell ourselves.
What do you say when some one asks you what class you are? Do you know what class you are? I am not not sure that I know how to answer that question anymore. I definitely grew up working class - five of us lived in a two bedroomed council house. My dad worked in industry - although he was not a labourer but had a skilled job as an engineering draughtsman. I left school at 16. I was on the dole. I did a series of unskilled and labour intensive jobs - farm work, cleaning, warehouse work, catering. It was only in my late twenties that I began to study and therefore improve my lot. I trained as a nursery nurse and became a pre-school supervisor. I trained and became (albeit briefly) a reflexologist. Then at 40 I had an epiphany quit my job and went back to study full time - first doing a creative writing degree and then a poetry MA. Therein is the heart of the problem - I feel both working class and middle class at the same time. Basically I feel like I don't quite fit in either camp.
This is why I have a problem with the question 'where are all the working class writers?' To me it seems that if you are a writer the act of writing itself means that perhaps you are no longer working class. I feel like on some levels getting educated made me middle class. I feel working class and I can certainly write about my own working class experiences, however, looked out from the outside my life might seem very middle class. I work in the arts - teaching, writing, mentoring etc. I live in a middle class area (although I am poor and rent my house). I have a degree and an MA (and the corresponding massive student debt). My son went to university and did an MA. Our house is full of books and art stuff. I go to live literature events. When I can afford it I go to the theatre. I moved house because my son was unhappy and I wanted him to go to a better school. So as you can see on a lot of levels I am middle class now - however I have never felt like I quite fit in. I rent my house rather than owning it (some one once described my end of the street as 'the common end' - meaning lots of rentals). I was a single parent. My career started late, so consequently I don't have the advantages of years in a decent job.
The book I am working on is not really about class - although class does come into it. It is more about identity (and threat to identity). It is about what shapes and defines us - and in this collection at least it examines the things that threaten both us and our identity - things people say and do, ways we cause pain and discomfort to one another, conflict (familial, local, global), the stories we tell our families and those our families tell us, the stories we tell ourselves.
Tuesday 9 January 2018
Books read in 2017
196) The Blackwater
Lightship - Colm Tóibín (fiction)
195) Murder Bear -
W.N. Herbert (poetry)
194) Bottle - Ramona
Herdman (poetry)
193) The Price of
Water in Finistère - Bodil Malmsten (non fiction)
192) The End of the
Alphabet - Claudia Rankine (poetry)
191) Starlight on
Water - Helena Nelson (poetry)
190) Crow: From the
Life and Songs of the Crow - Ted Hughes (poetry, re-read)
189) That Eye, the Sky
- Tim Winton (fiction)
188) A Herring Famine
- Adam O'Riordan (poetry)
187) Ideal Cities -
Erika Meitner (poetry)
186) The Tragic Death
of Eleanor Marx - Tara Bergin (poetry)
185) What I Was - Meg
Rosoff (fiction)
184) Understudies for
Air - Daisy Lafarge (poetry)
183) Mancunia -
Michael Symmons Roberts (poetry)
182) Cur - Martin
Malone (poetry)
181) Nox - Anne Carson
(poetry)
180) Selfie with
Waterlilies - Paul Stephenson (poetry)
179) Nothing Here Is
Wild, Everything Is Open - Tania Hershman (poetry)
178) Elizabeth
Jennings: Selected Poems - Elizabeth Jennings (poetry)
177) Mama Amazonica by
Pascale Petit (poetry)
176) The sky is cracked
- Sarah L. Dixon (poetry)
175) Ideal Cities -
Erika Meitner (poetry)
174) The Likeness -
Martha Kapos (poetry)
173) The Darkness of
Snow - Frank Ormsby (poetry)
172) The God Baby -
Hilda Sheehan (poetry)
171) A Journal of the
Plague Year - Daniel Defoe (fiction)
170) Terms and
Conditions - Tania Hershman (poetry)
169) Primers: Volume
Two (poetry)
168) All My Mad
Mothers - Jacqueline Saphra (poetry)
167) To Sweeten Bitter
- Raymond Antrobus (poetry)
166) Eyrie - Tim
Winton (fiction)
165) The Night My
Sister Went to Hollywood - Hilda Sheehan (poetry)
164) In the Winter
Dark - Tim Winton (fiction)
163) Grief is the
Thing With Feathers - Max Porter (poetry, re-read)
162) The
Knifethrower's Wishlist - Nicola Warwick (poetry)
161) I Capture The
Castle - Dodie Smith (fiction)
160) The Rosie Project
(Don Tillman #1) - Graeme Simsion (fiction)
159) Winter Migrants -
Tom Pickard (poetry)
158) The Nameless Places
- Richard Lambert (poetry)
157) A Patchwork
Planet - Anne Tyler (fiction)
156) Seasonal
Disturbances - Karen McCarthy Woolf (poetry)
155) Moonrise -
Meirion Jordan (poetry)
154) Dirt - William
Letford (poetry)
153) On Balance -
Sinéad Morrissey (poetry)
152) No More Milk -
Karen Craigo (poetry)
151) Would Like to
Meet - Polly James (fiction)
150) Carry Yourself
Back to Me - Deborah Reed (fiction)
149) A Year Without
Apricots - Kate Foley (poetry)
148) The Mezzanine -
Nicholson Baker (fiction)
147) Antinopolis -
Elizabeth Parker (poetry)
146) Slate Rising -
Alison Hill (poetry)
145) Gig - Roger
McGough (poetry)
144) Nothing Personal
- Sibyl Ruth (poetry)
143) Hunger - Knut
Hamsun (fiction)
142) The Dig &
Hotel Fiesta - Lynn Emanuel (poetry)
141) Strawberries and
Black Pudding - Joyce Mansour (poetry)
140) The Number Poems
- Matthew Welton (poetry)
139) Fence - Tim
Cresswell (poetry)
138) The Silvering -
Maura Dooley (poetry)
137) Quicksand: What
It Means to Be a Human Being - Henning Mankell (non fiction)
136) The Months -
Susan Wicks (poetry)
135) The Sorrows of an
American - Siri Hustvedt (fiction)
134) Motherland
Fatherland Homelandsexuals - Patricia Lockwood (poetry)
132) The Blazing World
- Siri Hustvedt (fiction)
131) Pool Epitaphs and
Other Love Letters - Agnes Lehoczky (poetry)
130) Tonguit - Harry
Giles (poetry, re-read)
129) Bird Sisters -
Julia Webb (poetry, re-read)
128) Measures of
Expatriation - Vahni Capildeo (poetry)
127) I Saw a Man -
Owen Sheers (fiction)
126) Astéronymes -
Claire Trévien (poetry)
125) Breath - Tim
Winton (fiction)
124) The Unaccompanied
- Simon Armitage (poetry)
123) Mouthy - Emily
Rose Kahn-Sheahan (poetry)
122) Our Animal -
Meredith Stricker (poetry)
121) Still Life with
Feeding Snake - John Burnside (poetry)
120) Identity Papers -
Ian Seed (poetry)
119) Dirt Music - Tim
Winton (fiction)
118) If I'm Scared We
Can't Win - Emily Berry, Anne carson, Sophie Collins (poetry)
117) Life as It -
Daneen Wardrop (poetry)
116) Except by Nature -
Sandra Alcosser (poetry)
115) The Wall -
William Sutcliffe (fiction)
114) Jackself - Jacob
Polley (poetry)
113) Waiting for
Bluebeard - Helen Ivory (poetry, re-read)
112) Bird-Woman - Em
Strang (poetry)
111) See You Soon:
Poems - Laura McKee (poetry)
110) Rather be the
Devil - Ian Rankin (fiction)
109) Nine Stories -
J.D. Salinger (fiction, short stories)
108) Night Sky with
Exit Wounds - Ocean Vuong (poetry)
107) The Dogs That
Chase Bicycle Wheels - Ilse Pedler (poetry)
106) The Poem Is You:
Sixty Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them - Stephen Burt (poetry,
non-fiction)
105) Looking For
Trouble - Charles Simic (poetry)
104) Knocks - Emily
Stewart (poetry)
103) Five Sextillion
Atoms - Jayne Benjulian (poetry)
102) Wintering - Megan
Snyder-Camp (poetry)
101) Blood Sugar Canto
- Ire'ne Lara Silva (poetry)
100) Void Studies -
Rachael Boast (poetry)
99) Zeppelins - Chris
McCabe (poetry)
98) A World Where News
Travelled Slowly - Lavinia Greenlaw (poetry, re-read)
97) A Tug of Blue -
Eleanor Hooker (poetry)
96) Communing - Ben
Banyard (poetry)
95) Occupation -
Angela France (poetry)
94) The Occupant -
Jane Draycott (poetry)
93) A northern spring
- Frank Ormsby (poetry)
92) Everything is
Scripted - James Giddings (poetry)
91) Teaching My Mother
How to Give Birth - Warsan Shire (poetry)
90) Terry Street -
Douglas Dunn (poetry)
89) The Fabulous
Relatives - Stephen Smith (poetry)
88) Savage - Rebecca
Tamás (poetry)
87) Brother of the
More Famous Jack - Barbara Trapido (fiction)
86) Inquisition Lane -
Matthew Sweeney (poetry)
85) Tell Mistakes I
Love Them - Stephen Daniels (poetry)
84) Bastard Out Of
Carolina - Dorothy Allison (fiction)
83) Incarnation -
Clare Pollard (poetry)
82) Stranger, Baby -
Emily Berry (poetry)
81) Foxlowe - Eleanor
Wasserberg (fiction)
80) Nine Horses - Billy
Collins (poetry, re read)
79) Beans in Snow -
Jennifer Copley (poetry)
78) Anima - Mario
Petrucci (poetry)
77) Gone Fishing with
Samy Rosenstock - Toadhouse (poetry)
76) Every Little Sound
- Ruby Robinson (poetry)
75) Supreme Being -
Matha Kapos (poetry)
74) Euclid's Harmonics
- Jonathan Morley (poetry)
73) Slant Light -
Sarah Westcott (poetry)
72) To the Left of
Time - Thomas Lux (poetry)
71) One With Others:
[a little book of her days] - C.D. Wright (poetry, re-read)
70) Exercises in Style
- Raymond Queneau (Fiction - short stories)
69) Momentary Stars -
Edward Vanderpump (poetry)
68) The Shape of a
Forest - Jemma L. King
67) The Dead Sea Poems
- Simon Armitage (poetry)
66) That Little
Something - Charles Simic (poetry)
65) Ghost of the
Fisher Cat - Afric McGlinchey (poetry)
64) Eclipse - Kim
Lasky (poetry)
63) Don't Let Me Be
Lonely: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine (poetry)
62) A Spillage of
Mercury - Neil Rollinson (poetry)
61) A Career in
Accompaniment - Alex Reed (poetry)
60) Anchored - Lorna
Shaughnessy (poetry)
59) Dreaming of Our
Better Selves - Marion Tracy (poetry)
58) The Man With Night
Sweats - Thom Gunn (poetry)
57) CivilWarLand in
Bad Decline - George Saunders (fiction, short stories)
56) Settle - Theresa
Muñoz (poetry)
55) Ghosts - Anna
Wigley (poetry)
54) Brother - Matthew
Dickman & Michael Dickman (poetry)
53) Which Reminded
Her, Later: Family Snapshots - Jon McGregor (fiction)
52) Henry and Susie
are Missing - Hilda Sheehan (poetry)
51) If I Talked
Everything My Eyes Saw - Natacha Bryan (poetry)
50) The Mole in the
Mountain - Cressida Lindsay (fiction)
49) The Back Door Man
- Dave Buschi (fiction)
48) The Book of Tides
- Angela Readman (poetry)
47) The Year of
Magical Thinking - Joan Didion (non fiction)
46) Complicity - Tom
Sastry (poetry)
45) The Swan Machine -
Dean Parkin (poetry)
44) Contemporary
British Poetry and the City - Peter Barry (non fiction)
43) Waiting For Spring
- R.J. Keller (fiction)
42) The Bricks that
Built the Houses - Kate Tempest (fiction)
41) Winesburg, Ohio; a
group of tales of Ohio small town life - Sherwood Anderson (Fiction, short
stories)
40) The Enchantment Of
Lily Dahl - Siri Hustvedt (fiction)
39) Singing Underwater
by Susan Wicks (poetry)
38) The Glass Age -
Cole Swensen (poetry)
37) Meeting the
British - Paul Muldoon (poetry)
36) Bolt Down This
Earth - Gram Joel Davies (poetry)
35) From A to X: A
Story in Letters - John Berger (fiction)
34) In Doctor No's
Garden - Henry Shukman (poetry)
33) Saints of the
Shadow Bible (Inspector Rebus, #19) - Ian Rankin (fiction)
32) The Plural Space -
Matthew Mahaney (poetry)
31) Even Dogs in the
Wild (Inspector Rebus, #20) - Ian Rankin (fiction)
30) Youth - J.M.
Coetzee (fiction)
29) Mending the
Ordinary - Liz Lefroy (poetry)
28) Ways of Seeing -
John Berger (non fiction)
27) Under Milk Wood -
Dylan Thomas (play/poetry)
26) Nine Horses -
Billy Collins (poetry)
25) West South West -
Erin Moure (poetry)
24) New European Poets
-Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer (poetry)
23) The Deptford
Trilogy - Robertson Davies (fiction)
22) Species of Spaces
and Other Pieces - Georges Perec (non fiction)
21) The Elephant Tests
- Matt Merritt (poetry)
20) Twenty Four
Preludes And Fugues On Dmitri Shostakovich - Joanna Boulter (poetry)
19) The Flaneur: A
Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris - Edmund White (non fiction)
18) Edgelands - Paul
Farley and Michael Symmonds Roberts (non fiction)
17) The Ruined
Elegance: Poems by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (poetry)
16) Carillonneur -
Agnes Lehoczky (poetry)
15) Flatrock - Fran
Lock (poetry)
14) The Land Between -
Wendy Mulford (poetry)
13) Amazon - Catherine
Ayres (poetry, Re read)
12) Geography for the
Lost -Kapka Kassabova (poetry)
11) On Writing: A
Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King (non fiction)
10) Tonguit - Harry
Giles (poetry)
9) Mrs Uomo's Yearbook
- Danielle Hope (poetry)
8) Profit and Loss -
Leontia Flynn (Poetry)
7) Before I die -
Jenny Downham (fiction, YA)
6) The Cabal and Other
Stories - Ellen Gilchrist (fiction, short stories)
5) How (Not) to Get
Your Poetry Published - Helena Nelson (non-fiction)
4) Species - Mark
Burnhope (poetry)
3) Lustful Feminist
Killjoys - Anna Percy & Rebecca Audra Smith (poetry)
2) Deepstep Come
Shining - C.D. Wright (poetry, re read)
1) Acts of God - Ellen
Gilchrist (fiction, short stories)
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