Our second workshop was led by Francesca Beard.
Our brief was to think about generating a poetic response to some of the texts included in International Pen’s Writers in Prison anthology. Click on the image below to learn more and to read extracts from these texts:
Francesca started by explaining how a poetic response differs from a poem per se, and that within this brief we have a freedom to explore our response to things without having to worry about form, meter and scansion. A poetic response can be created even by those who have not ever written poetry.
We started by looking at some of the texts from the anthology in detail. The two we concentrated on were Josef Brodsky and Taslima Nasrin.
Through these texts, we learned about how poems are different from prose, and why they might be a particularly useful resource for writers in prison, who would often not have access to pen and paper and might be forced instead to memorise anything they wanted to put down. The patterns in poetry (rhyme, rhythm, cadence, melody) mean that we commit them to memory much more easily than we might a piece of prose. We also discussed the idea of words remaining long after our physical selves have expired, how they are inherited, repeated, passed on, and this is how our memory survives, how the soul remains.
After reading the poem ‘Live’ by Taslima Nasrin, in which the poet pleads with herself to lie in order not to be imprisoned for voicing her beliefs, we thought about different types of irony and form, as well as looking at how voice is created and what establishes a relationship between narrator and writer, and how this can be exploited. We also covered thematic issues touched on in the poem; religion, feminism and anthropology.
Next, Francesca created on the flip-chart a ‘Poetry Island’, into which we wrote things that poetry does and how it makes us feel, as opposed to essays and prose, qualities of which were written in the ‘sea’ outside the borders of the island.
Poetry Island:
1. Poetry makes things come alive in the imagination
2. It is immediate
3. It is therapeutic
4. It can entertain
5. Voice is personal
6. You can get across complex ideas with a freshness and clarity
7. It is emotionally honest, and therefore authentic (even if it is not factual)
8. It can contain a ‘reveal’ or moment of epiphany
9. It takes the reader on a journey of discovery
10. It establishes an intimate relationship between poet and reader
11. It can create change (personal and social)
12. It can trigger memory – not a descriptive record, but a sense memory that can transport the reader to a particular place imbued with a particular emotion that is at once specific and universal
13. Poetic language distances us from experiential presentness- in poetry you try to re-experience the physical world and share it with others – using language against its natural tendency, we can return to a state before language, using it to re-enter the world, which we can shape with words into new forms.
We had a break, to think about everything we had just learned, after which time Francesca led us through a guided free-writing exercise which encouraged us to respond to certain word triggers with as little thought as possible, in order to generate organic and, ultimately, truthful responses, some of which were shared in an open discussion after which we all felt somehow more bonded, more of a unit. Words bring people together, and through sharing words we share our experience of the world.
We all now had enough material to mull over until elements begin to crystallise into the poetic responses you will be reading in our blogs. The final part of the session was spent looking at different types of form, to help us give shape and structure to the material we had generated.
Some of the poetic forms that Francesca suggested might be useful when thinking about Writers in Prison were:
1. A prayer or incantation: what might a prisoner think if (s)he were to pray? What would they pray for?
2. A letter: this is a fun format to experiment with. There are many types of letter; business letters, letters of complaint, love letters, pen pal letters…
3. List poems: One of Francesca’s favourite forms, this is a great way to order ideas which allows readers to pick up on patterns and make relevant connections. This can be a to do list (which could be funny or poignant, working on various levels of irony since, if imprisoned ,there are limits on what one can do and what there is to do), a repeated idea or sentence around which your thoughts are structured (e.g., ‘Freedom is…’), etc.
4. Snapshots or meditations. These allow you to divide your poem into sections, each of which could represent a memory, a particular moment, a thought…
5. A timeline or timetable
6. Dialogue or bits of dialogue
7. A recipe (Recipe for Disaster, Recipe for Freedom)
8. A spell or incantation
9. A parable
10. A horoscope
There are, of course, many more forms, these are just a few examples to get you started. Since it is a poetic response, you are under no obligation to write something with a clear beginning, middle and end. Poetry allows a freedom that can expand time and space when these, in your immediate surroundings, are limited. A prison cell can be transformed, resolve renewed, revolution inspired, injustice vindicated and hurt eased with words of hope, of reverence and of love.
We hope you enjoy reading our young writers’ responses to this important anthology.
