Hello again!
Welcome back to National Poetry Writing Month at Christina Shouts into the Void! This year, I’m focusing on poetic lineage. Whether you’re celebrating with a 30/30 challenge (writing 30 poems in 30 days) or just trying to read more poetry this month, I hope these poetry studies serve you.
In this week’s poetry study, we’re going to look at literal lineage, and talk about how to propagate new poems from existing lines that inspire us.
There are a million and one ways to be inspired by another person’s work, and just as many reasons to write a poem “after” another writer. For today’s purposes, we’re specifically going to take inspiration from a single line or image to make a new poem.
I recommend that you try this exercise with someone else’s poem. It is courteous (and, in my opinion, ethical) to credit the poet who wrote the line or poem that inspired you when there is a direct connection between your poem and someone else’s. You can do this by adding “after (poet’s name)” under your title.
Sheila Sadr has some wonderful examples of this homage. At the end of her book Birthday Girl, she lists specific poets and poems that inspired specific images or specific lines in her own poems.
Sometimes it can be difficult to discern whether or not homage is necessary, since artists draw inspiration from so many sources all the time. Everyone draws the line in a different place, but I’m a fan of generous citation in creative work.
You can do this exercise with your own poem too, if there’s a line or an image that you want to expand on in another poem. These poems may grow into two independent pieces, or two parts of a whole. You may also find that one poem works well as an addendum to the other, which is a poetic device I’m really leaning into lately.
Example
The poem I’m going to share with you today takes after “The Opposites Game” by Brendan Constantine:
There are so many compelling images in this poem. I chose the line. “the opposite of a gun is wherever you point it,” and along with the speaker’s students asking the speaker to write “poem” on the board instead of that.
This poem was also partially inspired by some man who stopped my friend Micah at the airport to point to his “Fight Evil with Poetry” shirt to say, “What next? You’re going to fight evil with spaghetti?”
Even though the stanzas that tied this poem most closely to “The Opposites Game” have been edited out of the current version (the original was much longer), I’m retaining the “after” because I don’t think this poem would exist at all without it.
What can a poem do to a gun?
after Brendan Constantine
The opposite of a gun is not a poem
but something like it.
Every poem is a version of something that will end
one way or another.
I think every poem is a small forever.
Only the beginning
eulogized and breathing
past the next clock tick.
Instead of asking what a poem can do to a gun
I want to ask you how you can worship a god
who can hear your thoughts and prayers
for every second grader turned bull’s eye
when the hands you clasp together are still
so wet with blood.
Your Turn!
Choose a line or an image from a poem that you want to explore. What happens when that image opens a poem? What happens when a metaphor that was a supporting character in someone else’s poem takes center stage in yours?
You can choose any poem, but if you need a place to start, here are a few poems that I find really inspiring! Each poem has several lines and images that could each grow into their own poem.
Rudy Francisco - Drowning Fish
Sabrina Benaim - First Date
Amanda Gorman - Earth Rise
Remember to give credit when credit is due. If the work of another poet inspires your own poem, let your readers know!
As always, if you write a poem based on this prompt in any way, I’d love to read it! Send me an email at brown.christina.leigh@gmail.com, or slide into my Instagram DMs @christina.leigh.brown.
I’ll be back in your inbox next weekend with another poetry study! Remember, the first two posts will be available to everyone, but the last two will only be available for folks who subscribe for $5/month.
See you next week!
Christina