Splashing Around in the Word Pool: A Memoir Moment

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

 

Splashing Around in the Word Pool: A Memoir Moment

When I saw the flyer about a poetry workshop at our local library, my first reaction was I’m not a poet.  But, I love to read poetry and I admire my colleagues who are able to express their feelings so succinctly  and powerfully through their poetry. It seems to me poetry is a way to distill the essence of an experience into a few words through vivid imagery, similes, metaphors…phrases of well-chosen words that capture a mood or emotion.

Since I am currently deeply immersed, knee-deep, in my memoir edits, I wondered if the workshop might help me break through some of my stalled scenes… I know the pain. I feel it deeply, but I asked myself  “can I convey it on the page in a way that the reader will experience the feelings along with me? Maybe learning more about poetry will help me access some of these deeply emotional areas I am writing about much the same way journaling or listening to music does?”

Poetry says so much in so few words. I think of the rich imagery and depth of emotions and moods conveyed so succinctly in poems, such as this last stanza of “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost (1915).

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep.

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.

Can’t you see those woods, feel the chill and experience for yourself the fight to stay awake?

How can poetry help memoir writers?

Memoir writing is a journey of self-discovery that unfolds gradually, layer by layer each time I sit down to write. Sometimes finding the right words to convey the feelings is a challenge. I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try a new way of finding the words.

Photo Credit: Pixabay Free Image

So I took the plunge and decided to participate in the three-week workshop “Splashing Around into the Word Pool: Diving into Poetry” presented by Judith Prest, a local poet and Soul Collage Facilitator.  There were three other participants and we dove right into writing prompts and exercises then shared our work.

What fun!

Interesting, I usually have a difficult time with writing prompts. Initially, my mind goes blank and I struggle to get started but eventually the words begin to flow.

We worked from pages of word lists, quotes from poems, a “word bowl” of words written on small cards, and writing prompts.

Writing from a prompt and sketch…

For the first exercise, “Your Guest House”, we had to look at  our “house”, select a prompt, sketch something then pick emotions that called out the loudest. Here’s where that took me:

Dad and Mom listening to Edward R. Murrow on the radio, circa, 1956

My Guest House, 1956

Glancing over my shoulder to the past (the prompt) , I see Dad and Mom sitting in the living room of our white bungalow listening to Edward R. Murrow on the radio. The house is silent as I open the back door. I’m coming in from my nightly play with the neighborhood kids where we  giggle and squeal while trying to find the best hiding places –in the woods, behind the bushes, inside the Hackett’s shed. The air is brimming with excitement. We hear the crickets chiming in with their joyful banter. I am happy and free.

I stifle my laughter in my sleeve as Butch CeCe walks right past my hiding place. Butch who chases me with night crawlers and tries to throw them down my back. I have outsmarted him and I feel powerful in that moment. But then a shrill whistle pierces the air. Nick CeCe is beckoning his six children in from their play. And when Nick whistles, every CeCe kid jumps out from their hiding places and races to their sprawling white stucco home on the hill.

This leaves the Hackett twins and me adrift in the night with no choice but to go back to our homes. I am sad that the fun has ended and when I walk through our back door, the silence hits me. I feel lonely. The drone from the radio has captured my parents’ attention.

I stand in the doorway and see their still forms sitting quietly, absorbed and preoccupied. Dad puffs on his pipe and stares into space. Mom sits next to him in silent participation.

I want to run back outside and laugh again but instead, I turn my back on them and walk slowly to my bedroom.

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Writing from “Found Poetry”…

As Judith explained, “found poetry is the rearrangement of words or phrases that are taken randomly from other sources (example: clipped newspaper headlines, handwritten cards, books). ”

I grabbed an obscure old book from 1957, Ariadne’s Thread: A Collection of Contemporary Women’s Journals which featured such notable women writers as May Sarton, Sylvia Plath and Gloria Steinem.  Thumbing through the pages, I wrote down key phrases that resonated, then did this free write from a prompt, “Why I write”:

 

Why I Write

The story burns deep down inside…recurring strands of my life that won’t rest until I form the words and write them down.

But, am I really being honest with myself?

The words need to feel true…so I wrestle and fret as I attempt to reach that place where my personal–trials or triumphs–touch the universal until I find the rhythm to tap into the passion, to reflect, to explore, to expand the truths outside myself.

So I write everyday in solitude,and  anguish, poring the words out until they dance on the page…

and reach out to touch another’s heart.

A Breakthrough…

We did several other exercises but the one that stands out for me is a prompt that led to a breakthrough in a chapter of my work-in-progress memoir that had me stymied. After doing a free write with the prompt, “The way he walked”…I found a way to access the deep emotions associated with seeing my son drunk for the first time and putting that experience into words.

Splashing in the word pool and and diving into poetry doesn’t make me a poet but it certainly has helped me find another way to the words that convey the experience I want to share.

A Few Select Resources…

Also  while poetry is a distinct art form in itself, it can be used to write memoir. Here are few articles I found interesting about writing memoir as poetry:

“Poetry as Memoir Form” by Amber Lee Starfire.

“The Unreasoning Mask: The Shared Interior Architecture of Poetry and Memoir” by Jill Bialosky

“Writing Memoir in Narrative Poems” by Keven Bellows on Marion Roach Smith’s blog.

Another possibility is incorporating your poems into your narrative which my friend and writing colleague Madeline Sharples did with her powerful memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother’s Memoir of Living With Her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide.

The way I see it, poetry is another way into our stories.

Fellow poets L-R Maureen, Judith and Jaye

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How about you? Has poetry helped you write your story? If so, how does it help?

I’d love to hear from you. Please join in the conversation below~

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This Week:

Thursday, 5/24/18:

”The Mother-Daughter Relationship by Joanell Serra: A WOW Blog Tour”

Joanell is the author of The Vines We Planted, the story of a family facing struggles in a saga set in California around Uriel’s family vineyards, where each relationship appears to have a bearing on others.

 

Next Week:

Monday, 5/28/18:

“Never Too Late by Memoir Author Irene Allison”

Irene is the co-author along with her mother, the late Helen Allison,  of Stay , Breathe with Me: The Gift of Compassionate Medicine, an insider’s view of palliative care medicine from the point of view of Helen who was the first hospice nurse in Canada.

May 2018 Newsletter: Updates, Memoir Musings and Max Moments.

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