Weekly Write 16: Reading ‘out-takes’ – or ‘intellectual leap-frog’.
Here are some ‘out-takes’ from Joy Ladin’s poem ‘Survival Guide’. (https://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/survival-guide?page=1)
I have chosen phrases which I thought were resonant, and written them out on cards. To a group, I would offer them (written out in duplicate and triplicate, as necessary), asking each person to sift through and choose one to use as the starting point for 5 minutes ‘free-writing’.
no matter how old you are Voila! You’re free. you’re so busy being afraid
the real you clothing yourself in the embarrassment of life
to be unfinished, a mysterious statement you are going to be
your family looking uncomfortably away learn to love the awkward silence
you're missing the fun you can only discover by being other
the mannequin they named the production of love
frost your lids with midnight it helps to be young
After writing people might share their own writing before looking at the poem from which the ‘out-takes’ were taken. We would then talk about consonance and dissonance.
Lastly, I would ask each writer to look through what they had written and pick out a phrase from their own writing of similar length to the original ‘out-take’ and write it on the back of the original card.
The process could then be repeated with a different group, but with the additional possibility of using a prompt phrase at one step removed from the original poem. This is an exercise in intellectual leap-frog.
I have chosen phrases which I thought were resonant, and written them out on cards. To a group, I would offer them (written out in duplicate and triplicate, as necessary), asking each person to sift through and choose one to use as the starting point for 5 minutes ‘free-writing’.
no matter how old you are Voila! You’re free. you’re so busy being afraid
the real you clothing yourself in the embarrassment of life
to be unfinished, a mysterious statement you are going to be
your family looking uncomfortably away learn to love the awkward silence
you're missing the fun you can only discover by being other
the mannequin they named the production of love
frost your lids with midnight it helps to be young
After writing people might share their own writing before looking at the poem from which the ‘out-takes’ were taken. We would then talk about consonance and dissonance.
Lastly, I would ask each writer to look through what they had written and pick out a phrase from their own writing of similar length to the original ‘out-take’ and write it on the back of the original card.
The process could then be repeated with a different group, but with the additional possibility of using a prompt phrase at one step removed from the original poem. This is an exercise in intellectual leap-frog.