SESSION 8 — Variations on Words
Photo by Fernando Jorge on Unsplash
Discussion:
We think that words have set meanings. But do they? What if we were to take a word and stretch it or scrunch it up like a piece of paper. What would it mean then?
Or what if we just let it be? Let it breathe and grow till it is no longer just a word with a singular meaning but a whole country—an expanse of interconnected thoughts and feelings?
What does the poet do with one word or idea in this poem? How does she transform that central word or idea? And how does this impact our experience of that poem?
Margaret Atwood is a poet, novelist, story writer, essayist, and environmental activist. Her books have received critical acclaim in the United States, Europe, and her native Canada, and she has received numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Governor General’s Award, twice.
Variation on the Word Sleep
I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head
and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear
I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.
Writing Prompt
Think about a word, any word, and what it means. Then think about what it could mean if you played around with it. Or spent some time with it growing inside you. What shape would it be? What colour? What does it taste, smell, feel like? What other associations—emotions, beings, scenarios—does it pull into its orbit?
Write a poem about this word. But not as it was. As it is, now that you have transformed it into something else.
If you’d like to share your new creation with us, click below. We’d love to read your work!