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Assignment 3 Beginning Poetry

Due By: Tuesday, March 14
3/7/2006

In this week’s lecture, you saw a number of one-line poems. Try writing a one-line poem yourself. Remember, a one line poem is usually most successful when there is tension between the title and the line that makes up the poem.

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I’m not sure I have the concept right or not, so I wrote two of them.

A House of Pieces

Pull out one piece - will it still stand?


Flowers in the Sun

Follow the light all day long.


Jason Schneiderman -- kafkaboy@yahoo.com -- 3/16/2006 01:02
I think that I prefer the second one. The first one seems less interesting to me-- I'm not sure what would distinguish a house of pieces from any other house (aren't all houses built out of pieces-- floorboards, pipes, sheetrock, ceiling tiles, cinderblocks, insulation, etc), and also I feel like the question posed depends too much on the piece. Pull down a ceiling tile, and the answer is no. Pull down a load bearing wall, and the answer is yes. I suspect that you're getting at something else-- that I'm missing what's at stake in the poem. The second poem seems much simpler and more successful. I have a strong sense of the action in the poem-- although the time frame of the poem creates a kind of stasis and motion at the same time. As the flowers follow the sun, the motion would be invisible to a human observer, but knowing the time frame lets the motion take on a power and speed. I really like the paradox that you establish between frames of reference. Really good work.

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