SESSION 29 — Invisible Craft

Photo by Joe Dudeck on Unsplash‍ ‍

Discussion:

• Some poems show their bones—the word choices and imagery that make us feel and imagine the poem’s themes are on full display.

• Others are a little more coy. We know that they work, that there’s something there under the surface making the whole organism hum, but we’re not quite sure what it is.

• Spiderweb in the Doorway is one such poem—small and seemingly insubstantial but dense with craft and meaning. Let’s take a look and see how it accomplishes this.

Spiderweb in the doorway

Sunlight,
caught on its lines,
shivers in the morning air.

Renders the view
crystalline,
facets framed by light—

A green-gold world 
glimpsed through a jewel.

Writing Prompt

• Take an ordinary moment or image — a kettle whistling, a child petting a dog, birds in the mango tree — and really see, hear and feel it.

• What does it taste like, feel like on your skin? What other thing or image does it remind you of? What does it do to you? What emotions emerge? What do those taste, feel, look like?

• It’s ok if, at first, all you have is a random list of sensations. Give it time… come back a little later… or even the next day. Your mind will start to make connections you didn’t even know were possible.

• The poem will come. Then the crafting will begin.