Day 11
Wednesday May 25
I would just like to say that today, Day 11, of my time here in Paris, I am only just now caught up with this blog...take that as you will.
Class today focused on workshopping the sonnets... well not everyone wrote a sonnet... it focused on the fourteen lines we were each asked to write. However, at this time in our class, we have already written six poems in seven days of class, with PARIS and all its trappings looming over us. Its quite the brain drain. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of coming up with something creatively important to say; I think I've hit my limit. Judging by my classmates' angst and tweaky-ness today, I am not the only one. The vibe of the room was that of a two year old who gets wild because he's ready for his nap.
The critiques went well though, and at 1:30 we were released into the world to find food before returning for the second round of workshop at 3:15. I found myself a chorizo baguette and joined some friends on the steps of Sacre Couere to eat and blab. Blab, blab, blab. We needed to run our mouths today. I think we were getting it out of our systems, because we all knew that Ellen Hinsey would be there to run the second workshop. Ellen Hinsey is a poet who was given the privilege of poetic witness at the international tribunals at the Hague for war crimes committed during the Serbian genocide. Her book, Update on the Descent, reads like an ancient philosophical text, wise and beautiful and horrifically violent. We had all read it the night before, so we knew what was in store for us this afternoon.
When 3:15 rolled around, Cecelia put out petit cupcakes for us, and we made some coffee, then Ellen came. She's lovely, very personable and smart. I wished I could see into her head, poke around and find out what exists in a human brain that gives them the ability to write so beautifully. She asked each of us which social issue in the world today concerned us the most. Then she asked us to take our response and free write a poem involving that issue. None of us had poetically fleshed them out before. Then she worked with us individually, helping us find what to develop in our work. Learning how to approach writing a poem that deals with social issues was important for me. I think we all have the tendency to write about abstractions, or ex-boyfriends, or Paris, but there are other things to care about. Social issues have always seemed a little too unattainable in poetry. I'm excited to practice with the genre. Then she read a few of her poems. As we predicted, they wedged into our guts and stayed. When the workshop ended at 6:30, well all went home to our respective apartments and took the night to unwind.
We've been thinking at a hundred miles an hour since being here, and I am exhausted.
I am incredibly happy, but my brain is twisty right now.
I didn't even take any pictures today.
I don't have an alarm set for tomorrow, and we have nothing to write until Monday.
Exhale anddd voila. day 11.
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