Poetry Friday -Everything All At Once

I am currently involved in an engrossing writing project- my first verse novel. I am enjoying the challenge immensely. Because it set in Victorian England and Australia, the project has involved me in a significant amount of research regarding the lives of children at that time, as well as the language of the day. Because the story is partly fact based, it has lived within me for many years it has been percolating, you might say. It is now ready to emerge. My time in lockdown has helped to focus my writing efforts enormously.

We must also read what we are trying to write, in order to develop an understanding of the genre. For this reason I have for some years been building a collection of verse novels. The work of writers I admire is hopefully informing my own writing. This is a further example of research for my own project.

I recently purchased 'Every thing All At Once, written by Steve Camden. The author, Steve Camden is one of the most respected spoken word artists in the United Kingdom.

Steve has been performing since 2007, and has graced stages from Kuala Lumpur to California via Glastonbury and The Royal Shakespeare Company.

He has written three Young Adult novels for HarperCollins: Tape, It's About Love, and Nobody Real.

'Everything All At Once' focuses on a student's first year in Secondary school. It deals with the challenges of fitting in, finding friends, worrying and worshipping from afar. The book documents the rich tapestry of moments that descend upon new arrivals as they discover Secondary school life is both a haven and a jungle at various times. The poetry thread concerns itself with this topsy turvy world with interrelated pieces, but the poems have the ability to stand alone.

Here are two examples from the book:

Snow
Look at it
So beautiful
So perfect
So pristine
A hundred fields of perfect snow
So crisp and oh so clean

So straight along its edges
So smooth on front and back
So many possibilities
Somebody hold me back

The smell is so
Incredible
The colour blemish free
I want to stroke it like a cat
And make it purr for me

I'll build a world
I'll pen a song
I'll fill it with my mind
I'll pour out so much magic stuff
I'll make the pages shine

You either get it
Or you don't
So don't bother trying to moan
This brand new empty English book
Is mine
So get your own

Lunch Line
I'm standing in Line
behind people I don't know
queing for food I don't like

Can somebody tell me
where do I go
to get a refund on my life?

Steve Camden
From: Everything All At Once

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,' Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not e

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant. A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden

KatApel - katswhiskers.wordpress.com23 May 2020 at 19:28
Well this was a nice little surprise - to come over here and see On Track in such an illustrious stack. Thanks, Al. And best wishes with the verse novel. I too have a project on the go that is linked to the UK - just waiting for some finance and some freedom to further my research over there. It's currently on hold - and I'm busy working on picture books, instead! By the way - you may be interested in my Poetry Pep Up I will be running 1-5 June. That said, I fully understand if you don't want to be pulled out of your current project! I know what that feels like. :)
Molly Hogan24 May 2020 at 22:05
How nice to have a positive focus during these odd days! Good luck with your project!
Mary Lee25 May 2020 at 07:10
What an amazing stack of mentor texts!
Michelle Heidenrich Barnes26 May 2020 at 07:09
Writing a verse novel is something I've wanted to do for some time now, but haven't yet drummed up the commitment that such an endeavor would require. Best wishes with yours! I definitely detect the "spoken word feel" in Steve Camden's poetry. I'll have to check out more of his work.

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