Today is the first day of my participation in a six-day poetry "boot camp," run by poet and teacher extraordinaire, Molly Fisk. Here's how it works. Find a group of your friends. Sign up with Molly and pay her some money. Every day for a week, write a poem every single day and email it to Molly and to everyone else in the group. Every day for a week, write a critique of one other person's poem (critique matrix arranged by Molly), and receive a critique of your poem by one other person plus Molly. Only rule: no recycled stuff, no revised stuff, a new poem every single day.
This means I can't re-use any of my previous Sappho poems. But that doesn't mean that I can't write a poem ABOUT Sappho. So here is my poem for day one of poetry boot camp:
Fragments of Sappho
It feels now as if she meant to have them
read
this way
the spaces in between
the gaps
a part of
the poem itself
This is all that is left
these broken lines
these words
so few
Their brokenness a grief
for all that has been lost
all that will never be restored
and yet there is
a beauty in
the pause
the breath
a beauty in the
brokenness
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Good poetry done well, I think, is often marked by a rhythm and flow that allows the reader to go through and feel enlightened, but look back and see how deceptively simple it is, how much sense it makes. Usually, this is achieved through rhythm and word play, but this poem accomplishes it in meaning and subject matter. You have a gift. (:
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