Saturday, May 25, 2013

Prompt #147 – Transformations


It’s funny how ideas for prompts and poems happen ...

Here in my part of New Jersey, the 17-year cicadas have begun to emerge and seem to be everywhere. There are literally thousands of them in my neighborhood alone, in various stages of changing from hard-shelled nymphs to winged adults. Once out of the earth, they climb to a rough surface where they struggle out of their shells (a process called molting). White at first, they darken within an hour. The adults move to trees and shrubs where they mate and lay eggs, completing a very short life cycle of just a few weeks. Admittedly, they’re not the most attractive insects but they are completely harmless, and their emergence every seventeen years is really amazing. Watching and photographing the transformations going on all around me led me to think about the process of transformation and how a transformation can be a revelation. 

So … this week, let’s try writing transformation poems, that is, poems in which something becomes something else. One example might be the moment that something or someone you thought was unattractive or plain was suddenly beautiful—a kind of “ugly duckling to swan” idea. Or, a time when something you thought was awful turned out to be great. You might even explore the “poem possibilities” of someone whose personality underwent a transformation.

Things To Think About:

Have you ever seen a transformation of something in nature (caterpillar to butterfly, hatchling to fully feathered bird)? How would you describe it?

How have you been transformed (by an experience, a belief, another person)? What are the particulars of that transformation?

Have you ever experienced an emotional transformation (sorrow to joy, distrust to trust, alienation to belonging)?

Have you ever seen something physically changed (trees cut down to make a log cabin)?

Have you experienced a transformation in a relationship (discord to happiness, marriage to divorce)?

Has there been a time when your anger or resentment was transformed? How and why? 

What have you learned from a particular transformation?

What does the word metamorphosis mean to you? How about trying a poem based on Ovid's Metamorphoses?

How about writing a poem from the point of view of something in the process of transformation (tadpole to frog, nymph to dragonfly, embryo to baby)?

Tips:

Just as transformations can be startling, so should your poems. A poem should astonish its readers, either with an amazing story, with a unique view of something, or with insights that challenge (or change) the reader’s thinking.

Your poem should contain at least one image or idea that takes the reader’s breath away.
  
Work on a sense of immediacy (even when you write in the past tense).

Stay away from the passive voice, and be wary of words that end in “ing.”

Be specific—avoid abstractions and generalizations. Imagery is key. Write about things, not ideas. William Carlos Williams wrote: “No ideas but in things.” Tell it “like it is” in specifics, not through philosophical musings on the “meaning of it all.

Work on a dismount that elicits a “wow.”

Example:


What Floats is Called a Swan 



            By Renée Ashley

Amidst what's left where the shadows catch
At what feels like the shadow end of a life,
At what seems rubble and wreckage, what
Looks to be a dashing hopelessness raising
Its inelegant head, think this: What rises can be
Saved, what is saved just might turn beautiful.


Reprinted by permission of the author. From Basic Heart (Texas Review Press, 2009). Copyright © 2009 by Renée Ashley. 


Other Examples: 



And ... if you're interested in learning a little more about cicadas ... enjoy!




__________________________________________________________

19 comments:

  1. BRILLIANT, Adele! I've never seen a cicada here in London (not sure I'd want to), but I love the way you've woven a prompt around them.

    Renee Ashley's poem is beautiful. I'm going to order her book.

    Love the video too. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jamie!

      In all the times I've been to England, I don't think I've ever seen a cicada (even out in the country). There must be some variety or other ...

      You'll love Renee's book. I recommend it highly.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Ditto to Bob's comment. Another great prompt too. Thanks, Adele.

      Delete
  3. - THE FACE MELTERS -

    They arrived in a Light Year
    from Innocuon - they said,
    The Face Melters,
    rendering Human's faces faceless,
    The Masters of Sparespace Identity

    So, We moved about
    Our devices, devising,
    about custom-izing
    the disappearance,
    from the incorrugate, indesiccate - for
    "TFM's" as they came known -
    had plained us smooth - Homogeniety -
    save ears, & though sans eyes,
    yet sighted, abled to See.

    So, on went the Makeups -
    Images to persona
    distinguishing masques - some,
    distinctive... &
    feathered, dangling earrings stippled & striated
    (Morty had a Joke Arrow "thru" his head)

    There was Shibboleth, & subtle-signing codes
    and invented Language in the Bodyied I.D.
    The fashion of Garb-impassioned speech,
    though some - "The Chosen" - enterprising
    the Altered, a "gifted" quasitelepathy (limit-effective).

    The Innocuon peered in distinct curio...
    at the matter of adaptohuman's Will to Self,
    the dissolution of individuation folly through attempted
    countenance-maintained! Eykis
    had informed all, about
    Humankind in dyer straits...
    About Appearance...

    That
    not even "sound-sight" disappearance
    might Thwart!

    H.e.m.-O’H’H.
    11.20.MMvii.
    (Ecce Interum Charon)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I need one of those characters to mark reading this. I'm a little speechless.

      Delete
    2. Risa - (If you are not being flippant, or even if you are) how can I assist?

      Delete
  4. AK - Pleased you published; hope It brought/brings message & merriment...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Adele, what kind of camera did you use for those incredible cicada images?

    Great idea for a prompt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An old Nikon Coolpix. It was very inexpensive and ultra-compact. I've had it for years, and it's still great.

      Delete
  6. Hi, Adele,

    I was able to order three of renee Ashley's books (Basic Heart, Salt, and The Verbs of Desiring) on eBay (that's eBay UK). Can't wait to receive and read them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops, that should be a capital "R" in Renee!

      Delete
    2. GREAT, Jamie! I know you'll enjoy all of them.

      Delete
  7. Basil, are you there? I miss your poems and i'm sure other blog readers do too. Hope all is well and that you're still writing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Transformation

    live on a higher level
    of consciousness
    not in animal self-satisfaction
    make the effort to evolve!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great advice for any transformation! Thanks so much for sharing, Risa!

      Delete
    2. Risa - By "animal" I glean you infer base (pejorative) instincts? From animals of the non-human(?) species, we get - through evolution & observation (yoga, e.g.) - our highest/non-ego rewards; for me, this is "higher level consciousness," i.e., what you see/experience is what you get/receive/give... Consider, if humans would learn & employ correct BREATH, Planete Murdth would be Planete` Morlde`.

      Sage words, yours...we're on the same page; It's resonant of, ya gotta devolve to evolve...

      Delete