2016 Found Object Poem Project: Day 4

Are we feeling the burn yet? It’s Day 4 of our 2016 daily write-in! This year’s theme is FOUND OBJECTS. We have a new writing prompt for every day in February.


My favorite part of this annual project is seeing how the poems, written in response to the same prompt, resonate with each other.


For those of you who are new to my blog, please read my introductory post about the February daily write-in. You’ll find more information and all of the Week 1 FOUND OBJECTS at this post.


PLEASE NOTE: This year, a few friendly bloggers have volunteered to host a day or two. Tomorrow’s post, which is DAY 5, will be at Matt Forrest Esenwine’s blog, Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme. Leave your Day 5 responses here, in the comments, as usual. I will get your writing to Matt.


20160107_115950 FOUND: Desk Fan


A couple of days ago, I mentioned that the FOUND OBJECT prompts people contributed fell into certain categories. One of those categories is functional objects.


The desk fan was sent in by poet Charles Waters. I’m curious to read what everyone came up with in response to an everyday object. Interesting challenge, Charles!


I really enjoyed the voice of the character speaking in Jessica Bigi’s poem today.


Not I Sharif

by Jessica Bigi


Fly on the wall

I saw nothing

I heard nothing

Humming of fans

Eggs firing on the floor

Shooting sticky words

Like rattle snakes tongues

Pluming clouds of stall sugars

Fingers shuffle papers

As I write my name

not I Sharif

I saw nothing

I heard nothing

Humming of fans

Not I Sharif -Not I

Fly on the wall


Before the Electric Fan


What a gift to have another one of Diane Mayr’s beautifully designed poem-collages today.


Before the Electric Fan

By Diane Mayr


There was a tool far

more powerful than any

with an on/off switch.

Simple, easy to operate,

the hand fan could

cool the flush on a cheek

hide an ironic smile

emphasize a point

mask a nervous gesture

keep a young girl

grounded when infatuation

threatened to get

the better of her. And,

it was pretty to look at.


Playing around with traditional forms is one of my favorite ways to shape an idea or observation into a poem. If you are not familiar with the tightly knit form triolet, read about it at Poets.org. Margaret Simon uses the repeating and rhymed lines to suggest the patterned whirring of a fan.


Fan Triolet

By Margaret Simon


Rusted lines box you in.

Clouds of dust dance on air.

Blades whistle while you spin.

Rusted lines box you in

Making wind, making wind

buzz with a flashy fan flair.

Rusted lines box you in.

Clouds of dust dance on air.


Instead of playing around with form today, I decided to try a prose poem. I’ve been reading a book of interviews with Ray Bradbury, LISTEN TO THE ECHOES, by Sam Weller. In it, Bradbury describes a writing method he used as a teenager. He’d begin with a series of nouns, then word associate with those nouns, asking, “Why did I put this word down? What does it mean to  me? Why did I instantly put this word down and not some other word.” The result was a 100-200 word descriptive paragraph.


I decided to try this out with the fan. My nouns were “fan,” “meeting,” “table,” and “Chuck Yeager.” (This will make some sense in a second.) What came up was a memory.


Meeting

by Laura Shovan


The only thing moving was the fan, upright on the end of the heavy wooden table. I was 19, maybe, not old enough to be at the meeting. Not old enough to be sitting across from Chuck Yeager. He was old, his back military straight. I was old enough to know I should keep my fingers still.


The plastic blades spun a slow a circle inside the fan’s square cage. The only thing escaping was air and a whirring sound. Chuck Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier. I thought he was paying attention to the meeting. He had a pilot’s awareness of the periphery, of movement. No one else saw my fingers slide between the spokes of the box. No one else saw me pull them away, without a sound, when I met the edge of the fan blades.


***


I’m struck by how many of today’s responses create a mood, as if a fan can help change or create a mood, simply by moving the air around us. Molly Hogan’s poem fits this theme well.


Ahhh, A Fan

By Molly Hogan


On certain sticky summer days

when heat slaps me in the face

and my flushed skin drips

and my thoughts grumble

into curdled meanness

and a rash of spiteful words

trembles at my lips,

I would kill

for the simple respite

of a fan

with sweet hum of rotating blades

and soft, stirring air

to dispel the sour chunks

of my humid mood.


Last one in today is Mary Lee Hahn. Don’t you love the voice she creates for the fan?


Lament of the Portable Fan


I’ll never spin a hurricane,

I’ll never turn a weather vane.


I’ll never push a sailboat’s sail

or ruffle feathers on a tail,


power windmills, shape the land,

carry ash or desert sand.


The most that I will ever be

is one small oscillating breeze.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016


http://www.maryleehahn.com/2016/02/found-object-poem-fan.html


Tomato Moon

DAY 5 FOUND OBJECT PROMPT


See you at Matt’s blog tomorrow for Day 5 and Poetry Friday.


Reminder: Leave your Day 5 responses in the comments of this post for Matt Forrest Esenwine, who is hosting tomorrow’s FOUND OBJECT poems. His blog is Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.


If you’d like to read what we’ve written so far, here are links to this week’s poems:


Monday, February 1

FOUND OBJECT: 100 year-old mailing box

Poems by: Diane Mayr, Molly Hogan, Mary Lee Hahn, Linda Baie, Jessica Bigi, Margaret Simon, Laura Shovan, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Catherine Flynn, Jone Rush MacCulloch.


Tuesday, February 2

FOUND OBJECT: Fancy peppers and produce

Poems by: Mary Lee Hahn, Jessica Bigi, Diane Mayr, Molly Hogan, Laura Shovan, Linda Baie, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Margaret Simon, Jennifer Lewis.


Wednesday, February 3

FOUND OBJECT: Moth eggs

Poems by: Jessica Bigi, Margaret Simon, Diane Mayr, Mary Lee Hahn, Molly Hogan, Linda Baie, Jone Rush MacCulloch, Laura Shovan.



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Published on February 04, 2016 16:00
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