Dear Poets,
I came across a note written to me by my own poetry teacher, Jack Ridl, around this time a few years back. I wanted to pass some of his words on to you because I think they are relevant for our class and reflective on the anniversary of 9/11, which we acknowledged on Tuesday:"Yes, It is September 11, an event that has marked us all. And while we remember it, let's also remind ourselves that while it can be good to do good and good to combat what destroys the good, it is also crucial that we continue to create good. We are creative beings. We arrived with that as a given. And when you create a poem, you have placed good into the world... We artists are questioned over and over again about our "usefulness." We are vitally useful. Our use is to heal, comfort, to lead to realization, to bring laughter, to sing the blues, to celebrate, to be of soul-filling USE. This is a great good thing we do.
The Christmas after 9/11 Sharon Dolin, Billy Collins, and I were asked to read our poems in NYC. Can you imagine how we felt? What could we possibly do to be of any "use"? We told those present that we would do what we could to give them two hours for their hearts, souls. And that's all we could do. After the reading, the audience stayed and stayed and said how much that two hours mattered."
I hope you know how much your poems matter!
We are going to take a look at a poem or two by Billy Collins today.
Some bio information:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/billy-collins#poet
Video of Collins reading "Names" and reflecting on 9/11
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/301
You can listen to "Workshop" here:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19755
You can read here:
Workshop
I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.
It gets me right away because I’m in a workshop now
so immediately the poem has my attention,
like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve.
And I like the first couple of stanzas,
the way they establish this mode of self-pointing
that runs through the whole poem
and tells us that words are food thrown down
on the ground for other words to eat.
I can almost taste the tail of the snake
in its own mouth,
if you know what I mean.
But what I’m not sure about is the voice,
which sounds in places very casual, very blue jeans,
but other times seems standoffish,
professorial in the worst sense of the word
like the poem is blowing pipe smoke in my face.
But maybe that’s just what it wants to do.
What I did find engaging were the middle stanzas,
especially the fourth one.
I like the image of clouds flying like lozenges
which gives me a very clear picture.
And I really like how this drawbridge operator
just appears out of the blue
with his feet up on the iron railing
and his fishing pole jigging—I like jigging—
a hook in the slow industrial canal below.
I love slow industrial canal below. All those l’s.
Maybe it’s just me,
but the next stanza is where I start to have a problem.
I mean how can the evening bump into the stars?
And what’s an obbligato of snow?
Also, I roam the decaffeinated streets.
At that point I’m lost. I need help.
The other thing that throws me off,
and maybe this is just me,
is the way the scene keeps shifting around.
First, we’re in this big aerodrome
and the speaker is inspecting a row of dirigibles,
which makes me think this could be a dream.
Then he takes us into his garden,
the part with the dahlias and the coiling hose,
though that’s nice, the coiling hose,
but then I’m not sure where we’re supposed to be.
The rain and the mint green light,
that makes it feel outdoors, but what about this wallpaper?
Or is it a kind of indoor cemetery?
There’s something about death going on here.
In fact, I start to wonder if what we have here
is really two poems, or three, or four,
or possibly none.
But then there’s that last stanza, my favorite.
This is where the poem wins me back,
especially the lines spoken in the voice of the mouse.
I mean we’ve all seen these images in cartoons before,
but I still love the details he uses
when he’s describing where he lives.
The perfect little arch of an entrance in the baseboard,
the bed made out of a curled-back sardine can,
the spool of thread for a table.
I start thinking about how hard the mouse had to work
night after night collecting all these things
while the people in the house were fast asleep,
and that gives me a very strong feeling,
a very powerful sense of something.
But I don’t know if anyone else was feeling that.
Maybe that was just me.
Maybe that’s just the way I read it.
Billy Collins, “Workshop” from The Art of Drowning. Copyright © 1995 by Billy Collins. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press, www.pitt.edu/~press/.
Source: The Art of Drowning (1995)
Buy or borrow this book:
Please post a reaction to the information/poems provided today and/or the value of workshopping our own poems in this class. Develop your thoughts and respond to others in order tio receive full credit!
Billy Collins poem made me feel quite intrigued as I read it. I like how it was funny, yet thoughtful, and perplexing to the mind, yet poetically soothing to the soul. Yes. the fifth stanza was my favorite. "Also, I roam in the decaffeinated streets." That is genius. I mean, seriously. I feel that way a lot, so sluggish and tired. I could relate to that. It seems like this poem pretty much sums up a workshop!
ReplyDeleteI am always impressed with the language of poetry, but never as much as I am when I hear it from the mouth of the writer. I hadn't read The Names before today, but I did know about it. I looked it up and read it before I noticed there was a video of Collins reading it. Listening to him read was a completely different experience than reading it. They almost seem like different poems. Hearing a poem in the authors voice they are exposed to the exact intention the poet had in writing. Inflection is different, emphasis is different, pauses are put in, even certain tiny words are different. This reveals a raw understanding of the poem, and it makes me appreciate it, and love it even more. I think this is what makes workshopping so beneficial. For one thing, the reader has a firsthand understanding of what the poet is trying to convey, especially if the poet reads it aloud. In addition the poet has an opportunity to explain their intentions to a reader, and learn how they can make the message of the poem clearer, without losing the original intent and raw language.
ReplyDeleteGracie Elliott
I really enjoyed reading/listening to Workshop by Billy Collins. Here is a distinguished poet, one who is idolized and used as a role model, and he is mocking the idea of workshopping poetry, despite it being something that he does and something he teaches. The poem has a voice of its own, but listening to Collins read it brought it to life - the comments on a poem that make a poet roll their eyes and question not their writing skills, but the workshopper's. It's so lighthearted and fun, but the overall style and techniques used are just brilliant. I really like his use of complete sentences scattered amongst the enjambment, and also just the casual tone.
ReplyDelete"Names" was also brilliantly done, although it perhaps not my favorite 9/11 tribute poem. I think the concept of seeing these names everywhere one goes is a beautiful one, and truthful, but the flow of the poem wasn't as pleasing to my ear on the first listen as "Workshop" was. My second listen was a lot smoother; perhaps I just wasn't in the right mindset on my first. His images are strong - the cloth of the day, the dew being tears, names being on windows - it spoke well to the grief one feels after losing a loved one; the search for them everywhere.
I have always found workshopping to be more enjoyable than it is tedious, although it can be hard sometimes to find the right things to say - what can one like if it's truly just not a very good poem; likewise, sometimes it's hard to find fault in a truly good poem. But in any case, I find it useful, and sometimes when workshopping another piece, it brings your attention to a stylistic or technique that you could use in your own work - or one that doesn't work that perhaps you use and realize maybe you shouldn't. It's also a good way to keep reading poetry - maybe it gets old sometimes to only read professionals and their published work. They started out with first drafts too. It's nice to watch a poem from the first stage to the last (although I'd argue that no poem ever reaches the last stage - you can always go back and find more to change.)
- Taylor Rugg
From this reading it gave me the impression that poems and work shopping are useful in ways that we might not look at it. It opened my eyes to the value of workshopping. Some people may look at it in other ways than we do so its always better to get a different point of view.
ReplyDeletewe are not always right and pointers are great, especially when you can realize your mistakes. Just from Sharon Dolin and Billy Collins reading poems in NYC and having it be of some use to people was great. Others may have a different outlook on your work than you do.
I really like this poem. A poem about writing poems(poemception) but I do feel he's making an interesting point about reading stanzas that penetrate your mind and stick with you, while others are just there or leaves you lost. THe Shifting of scenes, the irrelevant metaphores and mixeed messages is really all apart of structing poetry. The mixtures of thoughts. Usually all or most of the mixed thoughts would be summed up or would make some sense in the last stanza or two. But really, if the true message of the mixed thoughts were never summed up or gained closure, wouldn't it be an unfinished poem? To leave you with those random mixed thoughts and nowhere to place them. It's like leaving you with a bag full of fresh produce and grocery, but no refridgerator to put them. You either take em' with you and try to eat the most of what you can, while you can or you can jus give them to somebody else hoping they'll know what to do with them...why am I being metaphorical.
ReplyDeleteI have read The Names before, and from what I remember is that it was beautiful and very well-written. The poem Worksops was also very well-written, and almost comedic. I loved the way he wrote it, with the cool (I don't know what to call it) perspective. Also, I liked the fact that some of the vocabulary in the poem was regular, and some was very interesting, such as the words obbligato and dirigibles. As for the idea of workshopping, I think that Collins hits upon it perfectly. As Carolyn said, the decaffinated streets line is genious. The poem does, in fact, sum up the way I feel about workshops; fun, confusing, and slightly dramatic.
ReplyDeleteThese are the things I don't understand about poetry. Workshop is just a poem of what he would say to a person as he read their poem. I guess you have to have some serious poetic talent for people to still appreciate this as an art form rather than just a man giving his opinion. Angela and I listened to the poem aloud, which was much better than reading it. When you read it yourself, you don't know where the author would put emphasis. It's better read aloud then read to self, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI only listened to the reading of "The Names" and then I read the poem "Workshop" and his bio, and whilst doing that, I realized how much I really liked his poetry. I loved the poem "The Names", and how he really used every letter, and they were the names of actual people. Also, the way he came up with the poem itself was really interesting to me, because i have a really hard time processing and actually writing a poem, even if I have a format. So, seeing that he used two sort of general ideas to write such an amazing poem really inspired me. The format, and even just the type of writing that was included in "Workshop" got me really excited to write because of how free the poem seemed. I dont know if that makes any sense to anyone but me, but the way he words things is really interesting. Reading his poems made me want to write more poetry. I also enjoyed the bio because it explained more about Billy Collins, and I enjoy learning more about the authors we have to read.
ReplyDeleteAs for the value of workshop to writing, I like to do it because i know that my work needs help, and I think that having someone else edit your work is always better then dong it yourself, because you can always justify why you used a certain word, or why you formed a sentence a specific way to yourself, but its not so easy to others, and that way you get a par of fresh eyes, which will always help. It also gives you, the author a chance to see what a readers reaction to your poem or and work of writing might be like.
Angela Boyle
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I didn't enjoy reading Workshop until I was able to hear Billy Collins read it aloud. With him speaking, I could tell which parts were meant to make me laugh and which were not. Reading it to myself it was hard to pick up on any cues, and it bored me some. However, I like that he is sort of mocking work shops (biting the hand that feeds him, as he said). Sometimes people over analyze poetry and really tear is apart - sometimes with good reason, sometimes without. We also sometimes stretch too far and assume deep poetic intentions where their are none (like with the mouse in the last stanza.)
Completely opposite to that is the poem The Names, which I couldn't focus on while listening to it, but was absolutely fantastic when I read it to myself. Brilliantly written, I was suddenly jerked out of my morning haze and into the realm of poetry. His word choices were perfect, somehow slowing everything down and placing an emphasis not too great or small on the names themselves. I love the idea of rain and tear drops he used... Basically, that was a perfect poem and I would love to learn how to write like that!
Angela Rollins
Shannon Kalia
ReplyDeleteThe poem "Names" made me like and respect Billy Collins a lot, because the poem made 9/11 much more than just a terrorist attack by making it more personal and actually listing the names of the victims that passed away. It made me realize how devastating the attacks were more than I already did and I thought of all the people who lost their lives and all their families that were effected. The poem's serious tone when read out loud made me like the poem a lot more and take in everything he was saying, too.
Workshopping our poems in class actually helped a lot. It was nice getting feedback on things people liked or didn't like, and from several different people, and helped me improve my poetry by cutting certain things out, realizing small mistakes and rephrasing certain stanzas. After writing three drafts of the poem, it constantly improved because of the tips Ashley and Angela gave me before working on it. Workshopping made me more comfortable with some people seeing my writing and helped me make my poem better when I wrote it again.
When I heard the poem "Names" being read by the author, I paid more attention to every word and detail. It's different when I just read a poem. I don't slow down and take in every letter and every punctuation mark. However, the author wrote the poem and knows exactly how he wanted it to be read. It sheds more light on the meaning when it’s read the way he intended it to be.
ReplyDeleteI like how he incorporated the alphabet because it gave the poem a certain foundation. It was clever to put all the names on the insignificant things within the city that someone may or may not notice; a flower petal, a drop of dew, a bridge etc. This to me represented that everywhere people went after 9/11, those lost and gone were there too. “Names” also creates a personal level with those who survived and/ or family or loved ones of those who didn’t. It was fresh in the minds of people all over the world, especially those in New York City.
-Ashley Lawson
Last year we were briefly introduced to Billy Collins and his style of writing and how he usuaally takes a more witty approach, as seen in "Workshop." His sarcastic and comdeic tone is much different from other authors, which is why "The Names" sets itself apart from his other work. This poem in particular can relate to pretty much every American as he goes through a list of common names that may remind us of people we know today. In his interview, it's interesting to har his perspective on writing in a more serious tone. I believe that is where the importance of workshopping comes into play. Many people are set all of their writing in a specific tone, but another reader can expose them to a number of different possibilities. Having someone edit your work can trigger even more brainstorming and tranform your original idea. I believe poetry is my weakest form of writing, and having someone else give me their opinion of my work is very helpful. Reading other people's work will ultimately help improve my writing skills as well.
ReplyDeleteI love what Billy Collins says in some banter before his reading of "Workshop." He jokes that poetry, like most forms of writing, has always been a process that is left to the sole individual to do for himself--it is not a collaborative art. That is, not collaborative until the rise of the poetry workshop. And there's a lot to be said for that collaboration to create something, to place some good in the world, in the words of Jack Ridl. Collins' poem is interesting in that it is written in a a sort of stream of consciousness--though not firmly in that genre---and describes something a lot of us go through when we read a poem. The different reactions we have, what we see and what we like and how ridiculous some poetry is. It's humorous, of course, but also profound: he concludes with the line "Maybe that's just the way I read it." We all have different interpretations of what works for us, what is powerful or weak, emotional or emotionless. Workshopping is important because it gives us a look into those different interpretations, while still retaining our sense of self. If we lose that, we've lost our way altogether. As poets we must listen to our own voice, but invite the voices of others to guide us. The evidence of the powerful work possible to come out of the individual is evident in Collins' poem in response to 9/11, The Names. It is a beautiful work that only becomes better when he reads it--most works do when read by the author--and I think is a wonderful, devastating, hopeful, remembrance of the tragic event. Poems can do that to us. They can have powerful effects, as Collins describes after reading the poem to us. Art in a time of mourning is not useless. It helps us make sense of what we are and what we're doing here, helps us shape our boundaries between the shaky line in the world of the beautiful and the ugly.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though you get more from a poem when you hear exactly how the author intended his/her poem to be read, the poem have more life and as a reader you appreciate the words more. It is more interesting hearing it rather than reading it myself. The poem Workshop is different from a lot of poems that I have read; it’s funny and kept my attention. Although poetry wouldn't be my first choice, work shopping comes in handy. You appreciate the criticism and it gives you a chance to feed off of other writers and share ideas. As Billy Collins explained in his poem Workshop, sometimes as a reader you may not understand what the author is trying to say or what he/she means but with workshops the author is willing to explains his/her meaning so that it is clear to the reader.
ReplyDeleteBriyanna Brinkley
I remember Billy Collins as the founder of Poetry 365 or something along those lines, and in AP Literature last year we had to do projects on poets and someone did a project on good ole Billy. Billy Collins’ writing style is really open in a sense where it’s sort of conversational and he’s been recognized for that. I remember listening to his poem The Lanyard, which was sweet and funny, a different kind of poem that’s easier for teenagers to reach out to. Workshop is a poem that’s literally speaking to us, or at least, that’s the kind of tone I get from it. And Billy Collins gets it. In the 5th stanza, I completely understand, I’m not a poet at all, and it’s hard to get it sometimes, the poem is the epitome of what I feel most of the time when I’m reading poems. I just don’t get it, and I’m sure there are some high schoolers out there that feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t have any earbuds so instead of listening to Collins’ reading of The Names, I googled it and read the poem. He was poet laureate the year 9/11 occurred and it’s a touchy subject then as much as it is now. In fact, it’s probably even worse now. But he wrote the poem and I really liked how the names were incorporated. Yeah. I know it’s called The Names, but I mean, it’s like unveiling all of these identities. If 9/11 wasn’t real to you before, now it is. Names of people from all different places, I watched the video (with no audio, though that would’ve helped) and the solemnity was conveyed, absolutely.
Going back to the workshopping question, it’s pretty important. It’s getting a fresh view on your poetry, it’s like writing something and then leaving it alone for a few days and seeing the mistakes you’ve made. It’s getting new insight. If you’re just viewing it by yourself, there can be things you won’t ever see, and having someone else point it out to you might be the turning point for an even better poem. Even though it’s an awkward process initially, it definitely helps.
Although it is not the kind of poem I would usually find appealing, Billy Collins poem "Workshop", is surprisingly brilliant to me. I enjoyed Collins humor throughout the poem, a characteristic of the piece that I was able to capture more when reading the poem out loud than when reading it in my head. While this poem has a lighthearted side, it was also able to capture the very essence of what happens in a workshop. Personally, I was able to connect with the poem, understanding the thoughts of the narrator due to having had similar ones when hearing other writers work. Another thing I liked about the poem, "Workshop", was how Collins broke the thoughts of how the narrator felt about the different stanza's of his peer's poem, into the stanza's of his own poem. I thought this was unique and realistic, since almost every individual critiquing a poem edits by doing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteApart from the poem, one comment stated by Billy Collins that I enjoyed was that poetry, and writing in general, is a solo activity; that is until you are placed into a workshop and it becomes a collaborative effort. This statement, as well as the narrators thoughts, made me question whether or not work-shopping always helps an individual with their writing or just makes it more difficult to accept the piece you have written.
My favorite part of "The Names" was when Collins wrote the names themselves--the specicifity of individual human lives lost, the reminder constantly showing up everywhere, was very strong--as was the juxtaposition of these short, one-word names among long, flowing sentences.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of Collins before, and have read "The Lanyard" in class, but I have to say he's not one of my favorite poets--but to be fair, I haven't read much of him at all. I find him accessible and I find his language simple--almost simplistic. Or I did. I think I have a misconception that poetry is supposed to be complex and intricate, where now, led by Billy Collins, there's a movement to return to the poem as a conversation between a reader and a poet. To let the poem stand on its own, to let it be understood and to let it spark conversation.
I like this snippet that Collins noted, in his biography, about finding an audience: “I have one reader in mind, someone who is in the room with me, and who I’m talking to, and I want to make sure I don’t talk too fast, or too glibly. Usually I try to create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like stepping into a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong.” I like the idea of having a poem be a conversation, conscious of itself and its use of language.
Collins writes a very "conscious of itself" poem in "Workshop," a poem I enjoyed a lot (I especially liked the mouse). I like how this relates to our workshopping, especially the line "In fact, I start to wonder if what we have here/ is really two poems, or three, or four,/ or possibly none." I'm finding, through my own workshopping experience, the importance of keeping it simple, of not cramming too many opposing ideas into one poem. There is something to be said for Collins' simplicity and for becoming aware of how specific one gets when one explores this one moment one has chosen to make into a poem. I'm not sure how much sense this post made.
I also remember Billy Collins from the Poetry 365 program and also from presentations we did in AP English Composition last year. I found his poem 'Workshopping" to be very light and humorous--I find it easy to relate to when a piece confuses you. I especially like how he describes these pieces of a poem, all together jumbled, since you are not reading the poem he is workshopping (if one exists!) and the second to last stanza is very poignant, as it suggests that the poem may be two or three poems, or nothing at all. That is the nature of workshopping, I think; finding how clear your work is, refining it, and realizing which pieces fit where. Anyways, I've always enjoyed Billy Collin's work. Cool.
ReplyDelete