Friday, November 05, 2021

Bespoke Poetry

You are probably as tired of reading about my difficulty in doing any regular writing for the past few years as I am in saying and living it. 

So I won't give any excuses, nor will I make any promises - except this one which I make to myself: I will spend 20 minutes every day engaged with writing. On some days, that will be the multiverse novel I'm fighting with. On other days, poetry. 

A few weeks ago, I sent out a tweet asking for folks to give me 6 words that I would weave into a poem. 


And folks came through. 

While I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo, I have been writing more steadily. Here are some of the first poems I've written, along with the words that created them:


For Laura Jane 

When I try to wish my way
into silence, fallen branch snap
and leaf litter whisper insist
on conversation. Witness
trees slowly spin stories
in a language I almost understand:
a thousand words for wind and rain,
sun and soil, birds and moss, the tickle
of small creatures against bark
and root. And my clumsy
footfalls; a steady heartbeat.

-Lisa Janice Cohen 11/3/2021

(leaf, star*, rain, spin, whisper, wish) 
*I had star in a line that I ended up cutting and didn't realize until I had already posted the poem

 

11/4/21

In the five centuries between
Father Falloppio's anatomy lessons
and the operation that removed
my ovaries and wayward tubes
I wonder how much wisdom we have accrued.
We still buy tickets to cancer's indifferent
lottery. Celebrate our losings
with extravagant meals--red wine, bitter
greens, ravioli, trying not to think
of rogue cells splitting open
like ripe fungi as we dine.

--Lisa Janice Cohen

 (fallopian, wisdom, green, ravioli, indifferent, fungus)

 

11/5/2021

I drive down roads without signs, streets
so familiar to the locals it would seem strange
to name them. Directions are always a story:
head up the lane a ways, look for the flying
pig on top of a red barn, turn left. Mind
you don't bottom out on the ruts. My survival
skills were made for a different landscape.
The farmer eyes my smile with mistrust,
would never describe his farm, his cows,
their breaths steaming in the chill morning air
as charming. His worry follows me. I fight
the urge to turn back and apologize for everything.

--Lisa Janice Cohen

(up, down, charmed, strange, bottom, top)

 

If you'd like to play along, tweet or comment with 6 words. (Same caveats apply as in the tweet above).



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2 comments:

  1. I've love your poetry forever, and I think these six words ones are some of the best. I especially like For Laura Jane. Some of the poems I wrote in college that I liked best were assignments like this -- with random words or parameters of some kind. This kind of work can really fuel your creativity!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! Drop me some words and I'll write one for you. :)

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