Misfortune Cookies

Prompt: Using Kathy Fagan’s poem “Misfortune Cookies” as a model, crack open your fortune cookie and insert “not” into your fortune. Spend ten minutes exploring this fortune in poetry or prose.

RIP

In this week’s workshop, we laid to rest several words that have long outlived their usefulness. Some died over overuse. Some died of imprecision. Here are a few of our dearly departed:

Wish you were here

Good writing must travel, not just describe. It must take the reader somewhere new. It must take the writer somewhere new.

As an editor for Blood Orange Review, I reject a lot of work from talented writers. They have great characters, great scenes, great descriptions, great dialogue, great images, great technical skill with language. But ultimately, I say no because there’s no change.

How does writing travel? Well, different kinds of writing move in different ways.

Prose: often takes a horizontal journey. You start at point A move to point B. You have a beginning, a middle, an end. Along the way, something changes. Either the characters do or the situation does. Or, you start with the end and move toward the beginning, figuring out along the way how the characters got there. Narrative is like taking a road trip. By the end, you want to be somewhere else or at least hope you have good company for the drive.

Poetry: often takes a vertical journey. Though poetry sometimes tells a story (as fiction does), the direction of the story is vertical rather than horizontal. Take "Papa’s Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, for example. A scene is described, but the choice of words and the complexity of the poem’s structure creates depth to the scene, and the reader moves deeper and deeper into this moment. Rather than the road-trip of narrative, poetry is more like a 40-story elevator ride.

I saw two rhinos do it

The excerpt “My American Childhood” from Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!) serves as a model for this prompt.

Prompt: Take Colbert’s abstractions at the end of his first memory (faith, family, furry friends, fear of the elderly) and tie one or several of these themes to a specific event in your life, an early memory. Recall smells, tastes, sounds, names, places. This doesn’t need to be funny, but there does need to be some kind of conflict. Don’t just describe the time you lost your tooth. What did losing a tooth mean to you as a child? What did you fear? What did you want to happen? Spend about ten minutes in quiet contemplation before you write.

Documentary: Chalk Talk

Perhaps this situation is best addressed by another poem, written by fellow YAP writer Emma C.:

Chalk art.
Art one moment,
Mud the next.

Haiku Translated

Using symbols from their everyday lives, the YAP writers translated traditional haiku into new work. Some follow the 5-7-5 form, others deviate in favor of mood or tone, but all rely on concise language and vivid images. Inspired by the likes of Basho, Busson, and Issa, here are some of the works that came out of today's class:

Little Timmy running around.
Brown stuff on hands—
poop or chocolate?
~ Jenomi

My breath stains the glass
as I look upon the cold
tormenting the land.
~ Madison

The wind is rushing,
water spraying my face.
The race is on.
~ Sarah

I eat my Cheezits.
Are they naturally orange?
Eat them anyway.
~ Logan

Year after year
thicker lenses. Still
can’t see where I’m going.
~ Stephanie

This is not an exit.
Where does the door lead?
Do you dare try?
~ Heather

I read a book.
Didn’t like it,
gave it away.
~ Jenomi

DO NOT CROSS IT OUT.
Don’t think – Don’t get logical.
Hit the jugular.
~ Logan

Black dog in pursuit.
White gravestones flash by
as it
hunts the ball once more.
~ Simone

Silence does
what silence does,
but how will we ever tell?
~ Emma

A sweet dog
spinning ‘round and ‘round
never tiring.
~ Sarah

Ballet slippers
held in her hand –
what next?
~ Emma

He watches Supersize Me.
Goes out to eat.
Gets a supersize meal.
~ Jenomi

Here is the toad by the lake.
Here is the toad by the lake that eats the fly
and swims away.
~ Heather

Voices fill the stage!
My peers sing many praises
while I check my watch.
~ Emma C-M

It is a war of will.
Horse stubborn and strong vs. me,
and I will win.
~ Heather

We scribble with intent
in collaborative fantasy;
Morgan is an orc.
~ Emma C-M

That old swing set there
What do you mean, it’s broken?
It can fly through space.
~ Simone

It’s summer solstice.
There is food on the table
and in his teeth.
~ Raven

Chalk Talk