She gave us three exercises to jot down instructions for - recipes for poems - that we could take away with us and work on in our own time, as well as talking us through two of them during the session.
Between the exercises, she read some of her own poems. One made me cry, but I don't think anyone noticed.
Jackie said that finding the trigger for a poem is like finding a tiny key - or something similar. I don't actually recall her exact words because I was writing:
40 people are writing "find the tiny key"
which I thought was very funny as everyone appeared to be looking for a tiny key in their notebooks whilst writing (I suppose you had to be there).
Because it was a large group we didn't get time to introduce ourselves, so I have no idea who most of my fellow poets were. But I did get to read out the poem resulting from the final exercise. Jackie said I had approached the piece from an unusual angle with original imagery and that it was very sensual..and other things, but I was already twelve feet in the air on a trapeze surrounded by parrots and cherubs playing jazz on petunia trumpets.
(Afterwards, as I waited in the nearby department store for my husband and son to meet me, I must have been visibly swooning, still, as a store assistant asked me if I was alright.
"Yes, I'm great, I've just lost my husband, that's all," I replied.
For which the assistant apologised and offered his condolences.)
4 comments:
This sounds like an extraordinary experience. Except for the losing husband part, which is hilarious, nonetheless.
It was a good morning, Lori - lots to make my brain tick! The store guy - well - that's just standard fare for my life - every day holds oddities!
A good adventure all round! x
It was a grand day out, Rachel x
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