By Thomas Page
For the month of January, I will be writing one poem in a “poetry marathon.” The poems will be posted here: https://tupelopress.org/the-3030-project
You may also find out more about the poets and their fundraising campaigns here: https://tupelopress.org/the-3030-poets
As part of the marathon, I will be providing commentary on each of the poems every five days.
General Context:
For Days 16-20, I will talk about how I generally revise poems and what resources I use when I write / revise. The point of this marathon is that these are all drafts but I do a brief review of it before I send to Kirsten Miles over at Tupelo. Most of this is making sure it makes sense, at least to me. When I was learning how to write, I was told by my mother that I tended to write slower than I thought. Many of my sentences would be missing either the subject or the predicate (I must the reincarnation of the Latin poet Virgil, haha) so I try to read it for comprehension.
After that, I tend to do a quick grammar check (with the tools on my word processor) before I decided it’s good enough for the marathon. Most poems I have written in the past have gone through this process. Poetry tends to be more flexible with these things than prose but I want it to be somewhat in English.
When I am writing a poem, I tend to use a rhyming dictionary (RhymeZone specifically) to make sure that these words do rhyme, at least in American English. I spent my learning-to-talk years in the United Kingdom (we’re not British, just there for a job), so my vowels are a little off with how most Americans say it. I also have the added complication that some Mid-Atlantic mannerisms have snuck into the way I normally speak (dropping syllables mostly, especially around nasals –> you might call the Crayola product a CRAY-on while I will say CROWN if I’m not paying attention) so if something doesn’t rhyme but it should, that’s why.
Day 16: Knight-Errant
This is a traditional sonnet modeled after Edmund Spencer’s style. I realized that after writing it that is not a Spencerian sonnet (at least in form). Oh well, whatever. The content of the poem is a mythicized account of having to do things for someone else like a page does for a knight. I’ve been reading a lot of Arthurian / tragic literature so that crept in to the way poem ends.
Day 17: When they don’t know what “hospice” means
This is a persona poem, a technique that was discussed in a Tupelo meeting. For this persona, I have opted to do a note written by a nurse. I have seen nurses type in this fast, Hemingway-esque way while with relatives at the hospitals. “Hospice” is normally reserved for end-of-life care.
Day 18: When they don’t know what “terminal” means
This is another persona poem but from a doctor’s point-of-view. This is based more on what I have heard a doctor say but I tried to implement the same form as the previous day’s poem. I also tried to use more of an internal structure in this poem with a pseudo refrain.
Day 19: Commiserate
This is based on conversations I have had with other being taking care of their relatives. There seems to be this idea that a lot of people aren’t allowed to discuss (or complain) about the realities of taking care of someone else. I would say based on experience that almost everyone has felt this way. The poem is written using the numbers of pi to count the number of words per line.
Day 20: Embrace
This is based on an incident which a doctor told one of the yous if they were going to die then it would be that night. My memories of how the person hugged me formed the basis for the imagery of the poem. The poem is written in a French ballade form.
Academy of the Heart And Mind 