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A colorful compilation of responses to the weekly prompts, all written on-site by poetry club participants. 

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Poetry Club Continues...

Harvest Season

Renga

by

2727California                       

                  Street

Poetry

Club

11/20/19

This collection of Renga poetry was collaboratively created on November 20, 2019, at 2727 California Street by the Poetry Club.  Debby Charlene Segal facilitated and edited this work.

The poets who contributed stanzas:

Debby

Lydia

Lylah

Marco

Sophia

October moon, shrunk

to a bright threaded sliver

lights sleeping wheat field

pitch black five-thirty PM

sight given on next full moon

I know water is

west of here water waiting

for me to visit

the water is very kind

and is very good for me

I wish I was home

but now I'm stuck over here

when will it be done?

I wish to be understood

I see a middle finger

I am lost in thought

climbing my way back to here

noticing my foot

change is the only constant

constantly I am surprised

does a llama cry?

does a llama feel wonder?

how will we know this?

I asked the pensive white beast

contemptuous, quiet said all

wild fire, flown water

trees flaming hot, smoke rising

sad, not beautiful

volcanoes are amazing

so, so hot, the fire is blue

I once heard of a

volcano rock goddess in

a Hawaiian book

I draw my thought with a pen

but my thought starts to fade now

heavy blue squash sat

on the counter in low light

early dinner time

the dinner bell rings---  ding! ding!

the hungry workers eat squash

in a quiet wood

a bear scoops amber honey

hibernation soon

not so quiet, bird splashed blue

squawks and dives between branches

if only, she said

yes, if, said he, but no more

thoughts stopped, quiet glances

heartaches are truly the worst

but it makes you feel alive

the little feeling

inside is all that we have

cherished sacredness

cherished hearts of good people

we will show this world now

peaceful, peaceful fish

swimming in the great big sea

showing love and peace

every scale a message now

one fish eating another

a muddy footprint

under a bridge--- earthly thing

I live here alone

I am of the earth, are you?

I am of the sand and rock

goddess of the night

as I sleep--- watch over me---

you rule the darkness

we want to live forever

so we shouldn't choose to die

fruits are always in season

California persimmons

sweet little pumpkins

crunchy leaves fall to the ground

crunchy leaves all get crunched on

I love the forest

the forest is so peaceful

I wish I lived there

caterpillars do

and thick yellow slugs

I am in the sun

wishing to be in shadows

wishing for something

where did my youth go? Tell me!

I ranted at the hilltops

I lost it somewhere

wrinkles and gray hair suit me---

I know myself now

some things gone need not be found

some losses are natural

this one blue-eyed dog

seems at times not animal

but then poops on rug

animals--- like us, I thought

but are probably smarter

I have been thinking

about Chinese medicine

body as nature

they all help us live if we

share all the things we all have

who is that I see?

there is something in the sea!

there lays big Nessie!

I've heard the story since birth

I'm humble at the lake's edge

a man rakes the grass

he can hear the crunch of leaves

crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch

tree trunks get knocked hard with brooms

walnuts in strange black shells

sea and horizon

one color silver I think

seal slips off the rocks

the wet rocks are slippery

and covered in barnacles

where am I to go?

is the cry of the wild geese

where is my new home?

the fish could not hear, safe below

the pounding rain, a soft rhythm

her bicycle gone

who would do this, she despaired

then--- there!  ---by a tree

jump for joy my bike is here

freedom is with me, goodbye!

grrr, hsst, slither, bay

ba -tat-tat-tat ---"who goes there?"

night animals live

look right over there--- you see?

the animals who rule night

earth, fire and water

metal wood air--- they help us

they all help us live

water is in the air now

a big dark cloud overhead

together with God

rain on top of our fat heads

God don't mind puddles

today I will be happy---

I'm not promised tomorrow

butternut squash at

the market--- kale and corn, too;

one more tomato

The shop workers are bored--not

having seen the young corn sprout up

large flat rock, on sand

sea water just a puddle

has seen angry water

expansive, full of all

emotion, the ocean, our sea

I do not see you

you are big and unmoving

where are you brother?

although I may not see well,

I can still hear your deep voice

I know I just lost,

but that is alright with me

at least I got it

I got something that's just mine

I floated on the water

crows fly over me

an elephant steps over

belly grazing head

bark peeling from the tree trunks

shows the stag has scratched his head

small twigs crunch under

the feet of all who run here

soon they will be soil

ashes to ashes, dust/dust

soil releasing old spirits

Icarus soared, high

ecstatic, triumph is his!

Even as wings melt

we could live a very long time

if we really wanted to

         

              

               *The End*

Week Six

FINAL POETRY CLUB <l=‘^0

Group Activity 1: Reading/Writing Circles (exercise from CA Conrad)

First, we will divide the group in half-- half of us will begin as writers and the other half as readers. The writers form a circle, with their notebooks ready, while the readers form another circle around them, with their texts ready. (The readers can use any piece of text available.) The readers will walk around the inner circle alternating between speaking, singing and whispering their text. Meanwhile, the writers in the inner circle are writing freely, without stopping. There is no right way to do this— the exercise is meant to create a textural experience of language while providing the writer with a wash of disparate words and meaning. 

Group Activity 2:

I have printed out some poems that I felt were emotionally relevant to this moment. One person will read one poem out loud. After the poem has been read aloud, everyone will be invited to speak aloud a word, phrase, or line that resonated. 


Fred Moten

Hoa Nguyen 

Alice Notley

Prompt 1:

Now look over the poems on your own, and on a separate sheet of paper, make a list of those words and phrases that resonated. Try to find at least 20 words/phrases. 

Pass your list to the person on your right ——>

Prompt 2:

Think about the meaning of weather. How can the idea of weather function in a poem to express emotion? Consider the temperature of a poem, what creates a sense of temperature? Think about wind, and what it symbolizes. A higher power, a violent message, breath…? Using the list of words from your neighbor, try writing a poem that somehow contains weather.

Week Five

Prompt #1 PICS

*Choose a photo from the stack (below) that you want to work with. 

Part 1

Make a list of what you see in the image. What you see doesn’t have to be explicitly depicted (i.e. feelings).

Part 2

Write about the image as if you’ve known it forever. Maybe try explaining it to someone like you really need them to understand it.

Part 3

Write to completely dismantle the image. Try to untangle/unravel.

*Find someone to switch pictures with, or get a new one from the stack.

Part 4

With your new image, repeat Part 1.

Part 5

Write backwards toward the image. 

Part 6

Write about the image in a way that’s wrong, a way that makes no sense. 

Part 7

Feel free to repeat prompts on either image.

Using what you’ve written today, make as many two-line poems as you can.

Prompt #2 HOMEWORK

Reflect on what you’ve written over the last few weeks. Choose one poem or piece of text to record yourself reading (up to 3 minutes). Additionally, choose a song, or make a field recording that somehow supports/speaks to your writing. Send your audio recordings/songs to kayanneph@gmail.com, in order to be included in a special audio component of the poetry club publication! 

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Week Four

Prompt #1
Video Description (Inspired by Millie Kapp and Maliea Croy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxP8kxUn5bc&app=desktop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN1Jo3ycR9s&t=1s

--Part 1
Start with lists:
List the shapes, colors, and textures in the video. Can you list the characters?
--Part 2
Start to describe what's happening. Can you construct a narrative? Perhaps utilize your lists.
--Part 3
Write to the beat of the video.

Prompt #2
Using what you've already written, create 3 poems. The 3 poems do not need to be specific to Parts 1, 2 and 3. Feel free to combine and cross-reference.

Week Three

CELEBRATING A NEW YEAR!

Prompt #1 

Using the colorful markers, write down something(s) that you want to leave behind. The thing(s) can be a feeling, an action, an object, anything that doesn’t serve you. Imagine leaving it behind in last year. Place this piece of paper in the bowl of water.

Prompt #2

Close your eyes. Open your eyes and look at the bowl of water. Close your eyes again. Think about your list of what you want to leave behind and choose the thing that stands out most. 

Write it on a new piece of paper. Turn the thing over in your mind, like a stone. Examine the underside of it. What does it look like? Describe what you find. Where exactly will you leave it?

Prompt #3

Think again of that thing you want to leave behind. What is at the other end of the spectrum? What is it’s opposite? Come up with a word, or list of words, that embody what you do want to bring into the new year. 

Prompt #4

Think of someone you want to connect/reconnect with this year. Write them a poem using your new word (the opposite). Write this poem on a postcard and send it to that person.

Week Two

Prompt #1 THE OPEN WOUND (by Anne Boyer)
“To write often means remembering what never existed. So how can I know what has never existed? Like this: as if I were remembering. By an effort of memory, as if I had never been born. I was never born. I have never lived. But I remember, and remembering is like an open wound.” — Clarice Lispector, Selected Chronicas 

-Remember what never existed. Write this down
-Seed the course of future time by creating a proliferation of these memories of what has not been. 

Prompt #2 (by Anne Boyer)
-Textual: Write inside the pores of another text, your own, a text you love, or one that bothers you. Additionally, you might extract a work from the pores of language.
-Spatial: Find a space or thing that appears fixed, monumental, established, concrete, “itself” and write into its permeability as damp would, mold, air, sound, disease, or scent.
-Temporal: Write a work that demonstrates/enforces/creates/charms/advantages the porosity of time.
-Historical: Does history have pores? Can you contaminate them? Try. 

Prompt #3 
Draw what you wrote today. Then find a partner, and swap your writing. Draw each other’s poems.