Stanza Sprints:

The Benefits of High Speed Poetry

(Are There Any?)

      According to Read. Write. Think., writing at high speeds

•  Helps to overcome the “blank page” problem 
• Warms up the brain for higher-level functioning
•  Can increase fluency if done regularly 
• Strengthens the right brain 
• Can help increase motivation 

    Or it can simply help you get caught up on your poem a day commitment for the month of April. Let's give it a go and see, but I have to add that for me the "blank page" problem is solved by 

a. never writing until you don't know what happens next. Always leave enough in reserve so that your subconscious can be working on your story while you're doing more important things like grading papers, caring for your children, hiring a new colleague in your department, teaching, and fighting bronchitis--or maybe that's just my to do list that never got fully done this week.

b. realizing that creativity is the recombination of known facts in unusual order, so to write new things you have to learn new things and ask questions of them.  Keep your mind open and asking --what exactly does "Truth will out" mean and where did that phrase become famous? How could you describe the texture of a wasp's nest?

Now on to the stanza sprints.  I'll attempt to write one stanza poems at high speeds.  Let's try 120 seconds.  Here comes the rubbish!!

(18 of 30)

Wind carries rumors of storms

aloft

lurking

languishing over mountains

shaking houses

liking the rattle of windows

reminders 

of the days when only 

centurion trees 

held sway over the prairies

no one feared 

thunder then

1:26 (86 seconds)

But this speed stanza screams for commas!

Dare I ask, can I top that? 

(19 of 30)

ball

banoing

bouncing 

rebounding

catching up to the laughter

chasing it 'round the

rumor that 

children's laughter 

fuels the soul

(59 seconds) Phew!

Ha! And again. Wow, this is nerve wracking!

(20 of 30)

snoring

not the echo

of greek goods

but the refrain 

rumbling

right now

dog by the door

child on the edge of the bed

husband defying

CPAP

asking

if I have the power 

to stop it*

but my godly skills faded

sixty sleepless nights ago

(1:52  or 112 seconds )

I made it to the * by 59, but that didn't complete the stanza/poem. Who am I kidding, the poems I've been doing this month are mere wisps of drafts, not poems. But a poem can start anywhere.

(21 of 30)

Starting 

With a bead of 

water on a newly stained

deck

the crooked neck

hang of a leaf

the way a swing 

growns as a child launches

for the ground

the emptiness

of energy released

to be captured in a line

an image

a stanza stretched

to show 

us

the poem

that begins

like this

(1.28 or 78 sec)

Last chance to beat the clock-- 59 seconds!!

The pound 

of dog eyes pinning

your heart

touch my head

scratch here

can I come home now?

(36 seconds)

 But is it a poem? Why don't you tell me.