Craft & play Vol. 56

Hello friends,

Happy Summer. Happy Canada Day, and Happy U.S. of A Day. I (Emily) intended to write ten pages of poetry this morning but was abruptly stopped by the stirring of my domesticated animals and children. By the time I fed and made everyone happy, it was high noon, so my husband came home, so I had to make lunch, and then after he had lunch, my children were hungry again. So I had to make more lunch. Then by the time they were finished, I had to dust and scrub the toilets, kill a colony of ants, and make dinner. After dinner, I had to read to my children, force them to shower and sleep, and by the time I sat down at my desk, I was tired and ready for bed.

I (Julia) have stayed in my house as much as possible this week, because we have been plagued by intense heat and humidity. My children resort to building castles out of the couch cushions when they are cooped up. I trip over them every time I do anything. My husband, much like Odysseus, has been traveling, and I wait at home for his return. I cope by throwing out clutter and deep cleaning the baseboards. And late at night I make it to my notebook and write a few lines before my eyes begin to close from exhaustion.

This month’s theme is part odyssey, part ars poetica, a tribute to being a poet in this modern age. We are not having the poet summer we imagined, because resistance lurks at every corner. So to fight it, we are embarking on our Odyssey, writing mock epics, blank verse, and maybe even heroic couplets, because why not. If writing is already hard, why not make it even harder? All jokes aside, some form of limitations force us to be more creative. And honestly, a challenge makes it feel more worthwhile to sit down with pen and paper.

This week’s Craft & Play is a mock epic, in which we write a satirical lament to the “muse,” begging for inspiration.

Instructions:

1. What obstacles are you facing to reach your goal? What do they look like if you personify them? Journal it, or write it in a list.

2. For our poem this week, we are starting with an invocation to the muse. Address the poem to your muse, and start describing the backstory to your journey. For example, in Paradise Lost Book 1, John Milton writes,

   “Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top

   Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

   That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,

   In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth

   Rose out of Chaos: or of Sion Hill”

3. Write your poem in sestets; it doesn’t have to be metered, but we won't stop you if you choose to write in blank verse. Write as many stanzas as you want.

Here is our poem:

Poet Crawling Towards Blank Page
Scream to me O muse
    before the coffee hits my throat
5 am this morning dark,
    before I embark on crawling
towards the island of the stark
    naked blank page.
Scream to me O muse
    so loud the walls of my ears
pop and the flood of your song
    gushes out, birthing upon
the shore, bits and pieces
    of your music mingled
with my wanderings.
    But before the trash heap
of today's thoughts spill on the page
    I am called by the trotting
of children like seagulls
    begging for morning bread.
O muse, your whispered words
    are lost on the howling winds,
drowned out by the siren call
    of the phone in my pocket, which
hums and cries out to me from the dark
    denim cave, nobodies begging
for my attention in the ocean
    of robots and advertisements.
I lick my lips and savor the salt,
    I fill my glass with sardines,
with shiny things like scales
    and the reflection of the moon
but you, o muse, escape me, the tin
    clanging of your heart beats
dangerously close to mine, and I
    in my folly, have searched for you
in a creaking ship, where ocean's roar
    drowned out the labyrinth of my veins. 

Here is a sneak peek at the inside of this month’s zine:

May you all have a blessed weekend!

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For our paid subscribers, this month’s zine, Poet’s Odyssey, is available for download below.