Good day, Poets! Sheila, here, and I am so excited to introduce this week’s Poetics hostess – Karin Gustafson. Some of you may know her by her blog’s name, “Manicddaily,” or (as she is apt to sign her blogosphere comments) simply as “K.”
Karin has put together a wonderful prompt for us today so, take a big, deep breath and get ready to dive in as we ponder the undercurrents of poetry.
Take it away, Karin!
Undercurrents, subtexts, the sedimentary (or ethereal) layers of a moment or experience are great fodder for poets.
The examination of these undercurrents takes place in poems in a multitude of ways–sometimes, as a whispered baseline of meaning or sentiment that barely pokes its head above lines of physical description; other times, as a direct focus (when, one writes, for example, about what some character was really saying beneath the spoken words, or really hearing or seeing or feeling.)
Undercurrents can surface through a detail caught in the corner of the eye, a memory snatched from a sound, even a Pavlovian/Proustian association with a brand name or a favorite food; they can also be expressed stylistically through an insistent rhythm, an alliterative stammer, or directed metaphor.
Perhaps the major key to writing about the undercurrents of an experience is simply being sensitive to them. In The Notebooks of Malte Laurid Brigge, a semi-autobiographical novel by Rainer Maria Rilke, he writes of the poet learning to see. Here’s a brief excerpt about Brigge’s encounter with a woman sitting on the street, her face in her hands:
The street was too empty; its emptiness was bored; it caught my step from under my feet and clattered about with it hither and yon, as with a wooden clog. The woman startled and pulled away too quickly out of herself, too violently, so that her face remained in her two hands. I could see it lying in them, its hollow form. It cost me indescribable effort to stay with those hands and not to look at what had torn itself out of them. I shuddered to see a face from the inside, but still I was much more afraid of the naked flayed head without a face.
(From The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Rainer Maria Rilke, translation by M.D. Herter Norton, W.W. Norton & Company.)
Rilke, of course, is a great master of interlacing undercurrent and description in his poems. (See, for example, The Archaic Torso of Apollo), but many other poets come to mind – T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, and Raymond Carver, to name a few.
For today’s prompt, I urge you to consider the different layers (or faces) of an experience, moment, relationship, person, object. You may wish to very directly write about these differing layers, or just to allow them to form your words from underneath.
As a final note, I want to express my under and over-current of thanks to Sheila Moore and dVerse Poets Pub for letting me participate in this exercise today, and for their wonderful support of online poetry and poets. I also want to express a bit of an apology for my very silly painting above, taken from my children’s counting book, 1 Mississippi. (I admit that it is kind of jarring next to the Rilke!)
Karin Gustafson blogs as Manicddaily, where she focuses (sometimes) on the interface between creativity and stress. She has published a collection of her poetry, Going on Somewhere, 1 Mississippi (a children’s counting book), and, most recently, Nose Dive, a light-hearted mystery novel about teenagers, musicals, love, noses, and New York.
OK, Poets, here is how it works:
- Write a poem that takes into account the different layers of an experience, moment, relationship, person, or object. As Karin suggested, you may wish to very directly write about these differing layers, or just to allow them to form your words from underneath.
- Post your poem on your blog, then return here.
- Click on the Mr. Linky button below.
- In the new window, enter your name and the exact URL of your poem and click the submit button.
- Please visit the other participants as you can, commenting and sharing as you see fit.
Thanks, and have a great time!
Sheila said:
Hello, everyone. I am super excited to read your poetry today!
ManicDdaily said:
Thanks, Sheila, for the opportunity to host and read. K.
tashtoo said:
Karin…this is awesome! thanks so much for offering up your time to prompt our pens this week. I’m off to ponder! 😉
ManicDdaily said:
I too am looking forward to it, Tash!
claudia said:
nice..great having you over at dVerse, tending the poetics bar tonight karin..and a fun prompt you whipped up for us.. looking forward to reading what poetic streamings you’re all coming up with..
ManicDdaily said:
Hi Claudia, I really enjoyed yours. I got very trapped in mine, perhaps because I was trying to revive something that never worked the first time. Better to go with the flow! I am looking forward to seeing people’s work. K.
Shawna said:
Karin, yours was amazing!
wcg1670 said:
thank you Karin …my offering hopefully fits your prompt in purpose and perhaps literally
always appreciate the venue here
Peace
darkangelwrites said:
What a fun prompt. I read Claudia this morning for clues and came up with this today.
Sheila said:
enjoyed yours – so much said with such brevity, darkangel!
ManicDdaily said:
Yours has a wonderful dark undercurrent, especially interesting when starting with something fixed/stone. K.
~L said:
… great prompt to get me writing! …as I read this I thought of the poem I wrote last week… I really connected with this one deep with in… I will share this one with you all and will start a blank page and see what I can conger up…. migraines have been on and off the past few days… so I hope to get something done… we shall see.
Thanks for the prompt!
~L
http://untitledmoments.com/2012/01/23/its-deja-vu-isnt-it/
Sheila said:
yikes, I have those migraines every week (or more) too. Hope you get some lasting relief soon. I literally feel your pain.
Shawna said:
Migraines are the worst. 😦 I hope you’re feeling better.
Ruth said:
Hi Karin – a fine post and prompt, and I think the poem I posted just this morning fits the bill (amazingly)…
ManicDdaily said:
Thanks, Ruth! It’s so interesting to see what people are up to.
Laurie Kolp said:
Great prompt! I hope I did it right.
claudia said:
you did great laurie
Daydreamertoo said:
Interesting prompt. Thanks to Sheila and to Karin for hosting and to all at da Pub!
ManicDdaily said:
Thanks, Debbie. I mixed up my comments with you, so sorry, but got it right in the end. Thanks for the poem. K.
nickrolynd said:
Hey, thanks for the prompt! I used it to write my third piece for my new WordPress blog, “30 Minute Fiction.”! My first poem on there! ❤
ManicDdaily said:
Thank you, Nick.
Brendan said:
Deep subject! And as a unreformed selkie, I look forward to swimming through the undercurrents!
ManicDdaily said:
Ha!
Shawna said:
Unreformed selkie. 🙂 LOL
claudia said:
nice…enjoyed diving through the undercurrents of your verse poets… need some sleep now…back in the morning to see what the overnight crowd brought in.. and what i forgot to say…this elephant looks most comfortable…smiles
Glenn Buttkus said:
Some of the time an older poem, one
not seen by many, or any, loves to
resurface for me over at dVerse Poets.
The feedback, reinforcement, and poetic
fervor justifies all of our scribbling, all of
our heartfelt free form lines. I am but a
fledgling to dVerse, but an old condor in
the world of poetics, gray feathers and all.
Sheila said:
love your work, Glen!
Duane F (@pauldy43) said:
Thanks for the great prompt, I wrote two poems and decided to share the second one. This prompt gave me many ideas to write about.
http://blueridgemountainboy.blogspot.com/2012/01/heavy-burden.html
Sheila said:
so glad the prompt could inspire you, Duane. I’m off to read it now.
ManicDdaily said:
That’s wonderful. Enjoyed your poem. K.
oceangirl said:
Hello Karin, hello Sheila, thank you for the prompt, and it is good to be back. I love your silly painting Karin 🙂
ManicDdaily said:
Thanks much. K.
Sheila said:
hi, oceangril – glad you’re back 🙂
brian said:
i am back! had a great day in DC…have plenty of catch up to play here…so will be out on the trail for a bit…thanks for those that stopped in even in my absence…happy saturday all!
brian said:
oh and great prompt…this one was much fun to write…thanks to both sheila and karin (with 2 d’s…oops…sorry!)
ManicDdaily said:
Okay! Ha. (The second D is unfortunately important!) K.
brian said:
really i am sorry…smiles humbly….
Shawna said:
I love the picture, K! I am so drawn to elephants, but the little octopi are precious too. 🙂
ManicDdaily said:
Thanks so much. It’s an old picture from my little counting book, but I thought it went with the prompt. Thanks again, Shawna. K>
ManicDdaily said:
AGH! My wordpress account is not working for all comments so I am sometimes using an old (an never started) blogspot blog called Outlawyer. (I’m a lawyer in my day job.) Anyway, that’s me, ManicDdaily. Thanks. K.
Sheila said:
hehe – outlawyer – I like that, K. 😀
ManicDdaily said:
It is so frustrating–Blogger is not letting me comment at all–so many attempts later am switching over. Kind of crazy. K.
ManicDdaily said:
I’ve finally finally got the commenting working again. My old defunct blog was stopping any comment on Blogger–agh. Able at last to delete the old one. Sorry for any confusion. K.
Lindy Lee said:
I linked my poem “Hard Corps”– hope it worked
http://poeticlicensee.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/hard-corps-by-lindell-vecchio/
S.E. Ingrahams said:
This was both challenging and fun – interesting to try and get to that underneath place … mine is, “Send in the Clouds” at THE WAY EYE SEE IT at the url: http://aleapingelephant.blogspot.com/2012/01/send-in-clouds.html
Now to go read some of the others …
Cressida de Nova said:
Could not resist the TS Eliot example (one of my favourite poems).
When I first submitted my poem the name Cressida de Nova clicks on to a bible study site which I am not familiar with. Quel bizarre! Strange undercurrents going on in the blog world:) I think I may have got up someone’s nose…yet again!
ManicDdaily said:
The Prufrock is one of my favorites too; great to see it spawning. K.
~L said:
🙂 a dream within a dream…. thanks for the inspirations!!! I just finished! 🙂
http://untitledmoments.com/2012/01/28/dream-within-a-dream/
brian said:
caught up and off to bed to sleep off the holocaust experience today…see you in the morning…
Grace said:
I just got home from our overnight stay in Niagara Falls and wanted to participate ~
Lovely prompt and thanks for inspiring us ~
ManicDdaily said:
Thank you, Grace. Hope you had a nice trip.
Jody Lee Collins said:
Ladies and gents, I’ve been blogging for exactly one week or so….this is a delightfully fine repository for the store I’ve kept aside for lo, these many years. Thanks for the ‘push.’
Sheila said:
welcome, Jody!
brian said:
woohoo well welcome jody…will be over in just a few minutes to see what you are offering up…
Sheila said:
I am heading out for now. Will return tomorrow to finish reading your poems (I got through over half) so, keep them coming! Thanks, all. I love reading your poetry!
David King said:
Tough – but why not?
Lydia said:
Thank you, Karin, for such a thoughtful prompt. And thank you, Sheila, for cheering us on via this comments thread.
kd sullivan said:
I wrote about all things unnoticed….what a lovely community with lovely words. Thank you for hosting!
ManicDdaily said:
Thanks–it is such a supportive community, you’re right, and you part of it. K.
kez said:
finally wrote something although not layered ( I’m just so obvious ) all the time ! thanks for the challenge x
Sheila said:
thanks for stepping up to the challenge. I am a literal person myself – heading off to read what you wrote, kez.
Margaret said:
This was a MUCH needed prompt for me as this is something that is so poetic but something I find I don’t really do… and it was so hard for me. But I hope to try and do more of these… Thanks so much, Karin!
Sheila said:
great to take on new things, Margaret. It’s how we grow 🙂 Off to read what you wrote, thanks!
ManicDdaily said:
Thank you, Margaret.
Shawna said:
I’m late joining in. I linked up this morning; I hope you’ll all get a chance to check it out.
markwindham said:
late to the party.. 😦 , but plenty to read tonight 🙂
Ginny Brannan said:
Upon seeing the title of Poetics for this week, I figured it was a ‘sign’ and decided to share an older poem I wrote called “Undercurrents!!” Sorry to be running in so late, but glad I made it!!
ManicDdaily said:
Glad you could make it also. Enjoyed your poem. K.
yoga-adan said:
i think i tripped and clipped myself getting in under the wire, but i’m ok, i’m ok…
😉
brian said:
haha nice adan…been away most of the day but about to play some catch up…looking forward to some good stuff….
yoga-adan said:
well watch that wire brian 😉
i was doing chores and getting some formatting finished and really rushed this, but loved the prompt write-up (like most, but sneaky undercurrent things kinda fascinate me 😉 )
ManicDdaily said:
Adan–absolutely under the wire–wonderful poem too. I really enjoyed it and thanks for your kind words. K>
yoga-adan said:
all true, i promise 😉 nicely done!
Mary Mansfield said:
I’m just a bit late for this party also! I linked up a tritina (my first attempt with that particular form.) Terrific prompt!
jacquesdubois said:
Seems I was late for this…what an interesting prompt for a poem! I must participate in the next one!
HINES said:
Love the goggles/glasses the elephant is wearing (and the octopi).
Great prompt. I think I’m going to enjoy this.
ManicDdaily said:
Thanks! I look forward to reading your poem. K.
Teresa said:
Dang flu~I missed linking up, but I have my poem up.