by Carol Howarth
Carol Howarth presented the session on Portraits - Poetry (or prose) describing oneself or someone else through concrete sensuous imagery ( ie, using the five senses), an abstract idea which the person feels strongly about, and then balancing the ending with a concrete image. This session was based on an exercise in Kate Clanchy's book, How to Grow Your Own Poem (Swift Press 2020). She used the example of Edip Cansever's poem The Table. This poem is available by 'googling' the poet and title. Also, Kate Clanchy leading a class of young people through this exercise is available for free on YouTube.
It is a clear way of writing a poem about yourself (in the third person perhaps to give distance) or someone you know well. Have a go!
The Table , from the Turkish by Edip Cansever
A man filled with the gladness of living
Put his keys on the table,
Put flowers in a copper bowl there.
He put his eggs and milk on the table.
He put there the light that came in through the window,
Sounds of a bicycle, sound of a spinning wheel.
The softness of bread and weather he put there.
On the table the man put
Things that happened in his mind.
What he wanted to do in life,
He put that there.
Those he loved, those he didn't love,
The man put them on the table too.
Three times three make nine:
The man put nine on the table.
He was next to the window next to the sky;
He reached out and placed on the table endlessness.
So many days he had wanted to drink a beer!
He put on the table the pouring of that beer.
He placed there his sleep and his wakefulness;
His hunger and his fullness he placed there.
Now that's what I call a table!
It didn't complain at all about the load.
It wobbled once or twice, then stood firm.
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