readergirlz writing contest (2): the story song winner (2)

The second winner of the readergirlz story song contest is Rachel L., who brought us a lyric called "Strength."

Strength

To stand as stone; to sing as wind.
To call your name; to let me in.

With flame and ice and skin aglow,
Those eyes that crackle; those tears like snow.

The heart that’s stronger
Than the oak’s wide frame;
The lips that call

And those that came.


Choreography Explanation: When I get an idea for a piece of writing, usually it comes in the form of a single image. Then I take the image and do what I can to sketch it out and transfer it to the reader’s mind. Once I found my image, my strategy for this poem was vagueness. I wanted the words I wrote to conjure up an image in the reader’s head and perhaps a feeling that went with it, but I didn’t want it to be the same thing that came into my head. I endeavored to take my image and just lightly brush around it with my finger, enough that the reader has an outline of my thought, but there are thousand possibilities of what I could have meant. My meaning is mine alone, and your interpretation makes the poem yours too.

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readergirlz writing contest (2): the story song winner

The second readergirlz contest asked writers to think out loud about the way their own work is choreographed—how it moves across the page, and from sound toward meaning. Our winner is Q. Here is her poem, and her reasoning. Q receives a signed copy of House of Dance.


Tinged with regret
The girl in the bus
window
sees me on a park bench,
me with all my waiting and
watching her,
too.

I might have known her
once,
and I wonder if she saw me
for who I was,
for who I am,
or for who I'd like to be.

And how do I see
her?

She is a sheet of
paper,
breezing by on the wind
of the bus she sits in.

(Maybe I should have
sung
when I had the chance.)

When I write a poem, each sentence is its own stanza. I break lines where the next word should be emphasized more, leave a word on its own when it should be said slower and more alone, and leave lines together where they ought to be said faster. That, however, is just the basic structure.

I imagine this speaker thinking about the direction her life is taking and, perhaps, not really knowing where it leads. The girl on the bus could be anyone--like the sheet of paper, she is generic and fleeting. Yet, the poem starts with her perspective because it ends with the speaker's. She allows the speaker to build to a climax at the end of the second stanza, and then draws the speaker to her regretful conclusion, all without saying a word.

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readergirlz writing contest (2): the story song

For the second readergirlz contest, I've chosen a topic close to my heart—choreography—and called it The Story Song. Please find the details below:

I read books to meet new characters, to go new places, and to find out what happens. I also read to learn how the author has chosen to choreograph the narrative. Is it a straight-forward telling, or a book that turns round on itself? Does the story speed up and slow down, are there embedded refrains, which themes recur, which details, and why? Watch this video, then share with me one of your own poems or short (up to ten lines) pieces of writing. Tell me, with your submission, just how you thought about the piece as lyric. What, in other words, was your choreographic strategy?

Send your entry to me at kephartblogATcomcastDOTnet by October 25, 2009. The author of the winning paragraph will receive a signed copy of House of Dance, a novel about a young girl who, in taking care of her dying grandfather and learning about the life he once lived, decides to offer him one final gift. The winning work will also be posted on my blog.

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