This month, the Poetry Sisters created an Exquisite Corpse poem. We wrote an original line, then chose a second line from Linda Mitchell’s clunkers. Tanita started us off, and then each poet saw only the lines written by the person before them in the process as she crafter her two lines. Only her two lines were sent to the next person. Tanita brought the process full circle with the final line of the poem. At our monthly meeting, we all typed our lines into the zoom chat, one at a time, and watched our poem unfold, amazed at how well it held together.
Sun and light, gardening and seasons weave their way throughout our lines. And any of those could be topics for poems I would write. But the poem I found within our lines is not a poem I would have written any other way. This is not my experience, not my feelings. And yet, it feels so true. I am left wondering how I can write more poems like this on my own, pushing myself out of the comfort zone of writing about the world in front of me and the feelings inside of me. A good challenge.
Here’s what the rest of the Poetry Sisters came up with this month. I’m excited to see how each of them kept/modified/jumbled/reimagined our original lines:
Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Kelly @ Kelly Ramsdell
Linda B. has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at TeacherDance.
Here’s what I read this week for the Sealey Challenge: WHAT IS A FRIEND and WHAT IS A FAMILY ed. Vardell and Wong, CHAMPION CHOMPERS, SUPER STINKERS by Linda Ashman, ANIMALS IN SURPRISING SHADES by Susan J. Taylor, POETRY BY CHANCE ed. Taylor Mali, TWO TRUTHS AND A FIB ed. Bridget Magee.
Next month, the Poetry Sisters are writing Diminishing Verse poems, aka Pruning Poems. There are some mentor text poems out there if you use your favorite search engine. Here’s our best suggestion: start gathering word possibilities NOW!
The photo for this post is via Unsplash.
A(nother) Year of Reading 
That is gorgeous, y’all! Such wondrous talent for words, imagery, and gardening, too.
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I love how you crafted the ending to be beautiful and hopeful even amidst decay. We should always stockpile the sass and snap–and sweetness. For me, that means playing with friends like our poetry group, and reading lovely poems like this one.
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Powerful sorrowful poem you all composed, but a bit of light crawls out at the end. And yes,
“writing about the world in front of me and the feelings inside of me,”definitely a good challenge! Your image so evocatively 😔, thanks Mary Lee.
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Sass, snap, and sweetness – your poem is all that for sure! xo
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I think you and Kelly had a harder job working with the lines we wrote in the same order and trying to make a different meaning out of them. It was much easier for me to slice and dice. I so appreciate what you have done here. The first stanza almost hurts, particularly the last line: “I’m not sure where to plant or what.” Beautiful.
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Love that last stanza especially, Mary Lee. I, too, would like to broaden my perspective.
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The image you chose is perfection – truly an exquisite corpse! I love how you essentially sandpapered what was there until it smoothed and the joins dovetailed. There is melancholy but resolution here, and it’s a bit surreal those are our lines!
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Tanita…just letting you know here that I love your post! I’m not able to comment yet. I’ll keep trying!
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What a beautiful poem you crafted! I love the picture that you paired with it as well. It truly captures the mood of your piece.
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Putting it all together then a re-reading of what it might mean makes a poem that’s thought-filled, Mary Lee. It’s a chatter of voices in conversation, fits so well here at the end of summer. I still smile and wonder about that green bean line. What was written?
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Mary Lee, This is an absolute model of revision! Rather than cannibalizing what we had, you polished and made more potent. You found the (beautiful) (logical) (deeply felt) sculpture in the block of marble. Thank you for this!
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This is fabulous, Mary Lee! And I’ve been pondering a lot lately about the writing of poems for grown-ups mostly in first person that are NOT my own emotions, experience. It’s so tricky, because everyone assumes…Something about singing all the words–that bit right around there–really gets me.
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Mary Lee, I love what you wrote about how this experience pushed you to create a poem that you wouldn’t have otherwise. It reminded me of your mom, and the poem you wrote last year about what she would have written about the green beans. Amen to what Liz said! Well done.
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I can’t believe I didn’t remember that I had already written to that green bean line! I had to do a blog search and go look. I love that poem about what mom would have said. Thank you for reminding me!
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I love the analogous link between the human condition and nature. You establish this with a masterful turn of phrase throughout Mary Lee. I also found much appeal in the alliterative ending. Your crafting of this poem does you proud.
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Mary Lee, how beautiful…how amazing all these poem threads pulled together into this poem. I’m gob-smacked at all the different responses and ways that the sisters responded to this challenge. Just…wow! Your last stanza is perfect…found a bit of September to sweeten your September. Fingers snapping here.
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It really is a whole new poem, like some kind of stranger that you feel like you’ve known in another life. (This is patricia)
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What an amazing challenge, Mary Lee!
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Mary Lee, when we dig inside ourselves, we find feelings that may be strange but real. Your poem found its voice and stood tall to keep it real. “I don’t cry anymore but sing all the words.” “Words tangle.” I notice when I use the word I, the thought digs into my soul. Many people are afraid to do that. I liked the way you chose to refine the poem. I am trying out this format.
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Thank you for sharing the individual lines, Mary Lee. They are woven together in a way that strikes truth, just as you mentioned. Something caught me with the photo and “but I’m left with holding cuttings” that I could identify with — my gardening tends to be a lot of cutting/culling/clearing/weeding and it mirrors that universal need to clear our minds. Declutter the negative but stockpile the goodness. Great ending!
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