Degas once asked Mallarme why he could not write the
poems when he has so many ideas. Mallerme replies that poems are not made of
ideas but of words (Valery, 1936).
Metaphor begins to describe that for which there are
no words yet. But there are words that
represent things. So the things we know
must suggest analogously our new conceptions, yet unnamed.
My suggestion is we use a google document (like Mike
Wesch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o)
What we live in now, is not just you and me but
us.
Can we make a community statement?
Can we have a community of inquiry?
Hearing each other(s) and asking
aesthetically, metaphorically, can this work to say what we cannot say as one
because we are talking about our world, locally, now.
This is ethnography as some people call it. Our
community is our ethnographic presence.
Not an ethnicity but all of us.
Speak
Together: A Community Poem
Instructor:
Christopher Parker
The world is
changing fast: economic crisis, hurricane Sandy, global warming, proper food
not reaching all children in the USA, terrorism, meaning of marriage, the simultaneous
growth and resistance to faith, and the joy of spring in Essex County, ethnic
richness and conflicts, meaning of careers for young people, the cost of
college, the drifting role of the male and female, the blossoms at Presby Iris
Gardens. It could raise anger, rage or
the opportunity to meet the challenges, and joy. Either way we are in interesting times,
together.
Sometimes it
is impossible to directly state what our perceptions and feelings of our
current lives really are. That is why we
need art and metaphor, more specifically poetry. But poetry comes from a language that is not
totally our own, it requires the writer and the reader, a community. We don’t write totally by ourselves, millions
have helped to develop the language and vocabulary of our day, the meter,
symbols of our time and the phrases we understand; our dialects.
That is one reason
I am suggesting a poetic statement not just from one poet but from the
collective bard (thebardcollective) of our community. In other words, let us develop a community
poem. Let us work together as a
community in the inquiry, philosophy, loss and joy of our day and write,
together, one voice of us with a community poem.
Why
inquiry? Because we need to ask
questions about how we live, what now is, or isn’t, and where we will go. Why philosophy? Because we need to reason, and continue to
question the paradigms we are guided by?
Why a
poem? We need metaphor and form to speak
the unspeakable and state the unknowable.
With form and objective we are more likely to move ahead together, with the
music, cadence and beauty of a poem.
This Adult
School program will begin with an “orientation” rally one evening where we will
agree of format and structure. Then it
becomes a totally on-line project. We
will work to get our message out to the media of our time and community.
Speak
Together: A Community Poem is a new Adult School of Montclair class. Orientation meeting will take place at
Montclair High School on April 1 from 7:30-8:30pm. The remainder of the class
will be taught online. The link for the class will be emailed to students
before the class starts. 973-746-6636. Adultschool.org
I will be
documenting the Google Document process of this Poetry Month experience and be
presenting the process and the results.
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