AND NO WHITENESS IS SO WHITE AS THE MEMORY OF WHITENESS.”

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

“Memory is a Kind of Accomplishment…

Memory has always been a useful resource for poets to excavate…

In each of the following poems the poet looks back into his or her memories and finds an early experience which was troubling or important in some non verbal way

The poet then finds the images to make the experience more tangible and meaningful now that it is understood

Using these poems as your models you will mine your own store house of memories for a moment to create into a poem.

You will work with the idea of creating a tight piece of work by using the suggested editing techniques listed on the handout “Revising and Restyling your Poetry”

Reading and Thinking

Don’t try to interpret the poem, rather ask. What’s the story of this poem? What’s going on here? Who is the speaker, narrator, persona? What is the setting of the poem? What emotions does this poem evince? Which is

the most powerful? Why?

Preparing to write: Thinking about Memory

Draw a line across the top of your page with a dot on either end

Draw three slashes near the left hand side of the line; label them A, B, and C

This is a life line representing your years on the planet; the dot on the left is your birth, the dot on the right is your current age

The three slashes represent the following: “A” is an earliest memory, “B” is an important or favorite memory, and “C” is a confusing or unresolved memory (memories B and C should be before the age of 10)

Writing: Giving the Memory Life

Write about all three of the memories, using sensory words

Stretch and distort the truth when writing, but keep the truth of the memory alive

Take one of these memories and craft it into a poem, a small fiction based on truth

Writing Small Fictions

As Well as your sensory words, include as many of the following variables as you are able:

Water or liquid of any kind (tears, Coke, melting ice…)

Mention a piece of furniture (bed, car, TV…)Include a sound, smell, or tasteTell a secret and tell a lie (never reveal which

is which)Surprise yourself! Write about something you

didn’t know you knew

Assignment

Your poem is due to me next Monday. Turn it in to me for credit, and I will turn it back to you to share in your small group on Tuesday.

Find a memory poem a published poet has written and turn that in on Monday for credit as well.