We love April. Since it's here to stay let's celebrate:
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bounty of poetry to feast your eyes upon.
So. Let's begin.
April 10, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 10
1) Let's start today out with some funny hip hop/poetry videos. First we have a very bored Wes Tank rapping the Dr. Seuss book Fox in Sox. It's tangentially poetry, especially in that sound category. Plus it's entertaining as all heck.
Next is even more for the fun than the educational enrichment. Chris Leavins gives a recital a selection of lyrics from T-Pain's song "Buy You a Drank".
2) And now let's get a little serious. Aesop Rock is notoriously the most verbose rapper ever, and he is one of the few rappers out there that could genuinely have his lyrics stand up on the page—which means they are too dense for many listeners, but those that get it, love him.
He just released an amazing sci fi narrative song about a space mission gone awry. I love the increasingly desperate sound he gives the repeating phrase "Do you read me" throughout the song. I'll write more about this to be sure but listen to the song once or twice. He writes in metaphor as much as a modern poet and there are some tremendous moments in this song. The video is very cool too. I want to play that game!
And for good measure, here is an older narrative song of Aesop Rock's which is much more straightforward—perhaps his most straightforward song, but also one of my favorites. It doesn't have an official video, but here's an interesting animation I found by the artist Dekay (titled "Lucy")
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
"Merely, In an Unforeseen Moment" by Gaylord Brewer in Kestrel Summer 2019.
"In Defense of the McDonald’s Corporation as Represented by the Iconic Figure Ronald McDonald" by Steve Coughlin in Juked January 2020.
"Habit" by Gail Martin in Barnstorm November 29, 2019.
4) Go read all of the following three short poems that were published more than two years ago:
5) Since we focused on hip hop and Aesop Rock earlier, let's get a little dose of more poetry-poetry here. In a second. First check out this short video about Nick Flynn talking about his journey as a writer from being a prose writer to a poet and then a memoirist.
Here is Flynn reading his poem "haiku (failed)" after what looks like being hiacked at AWP by a PBS camera crew.
And finally, with a lot of people home schooling their kids, or trying to find enriching activities to do with their homebound families, it seems fitting to link this short video of Nick Flynn discussing teaching poetry to children and why it is important. He mentions the poem "A Story That Could Be True" which is linked in #4.
6) Step into the time machine and travel back to September 1st 2019 to do this Literary Mad Libs with the Emily Dickinson poem "Come Slow—Eden!" and the sequence of exercises to extract a brand new poem from the game's result.
