“Today, I’d like you to write a poem that explicitly incorporates alliteration (the use of repeated consonant sounds) and assonance (the use of repeated vowel sounds). This doesn’t mean necessarily limiting yourself to a few consonants or vowels, although it could.”

The last couple poems have been big efforts with a lot of revision crammed into the one-day time frame. So today’s was written quickly and intuitively and, probably, goofily. As William Stafford says, “writing, like talk, can be easy, fast, and direct; it can come about through the impulsive following of interest, and its form and proportion can grow from itself in a way that appears easy and natural.” Interestingly, many of the same devices of allusion, ambiguity, metaphor, consonance, and assonance that appear in my more deliberate poems also jumped into this of their own accord. As Ginsberg was fond of saying, “Shapely mind, shapely art.”

These kinds of poems also need to be written and included in the writing process to keep that mind limber, playful, and surprising. When you are no longer surprised by your own thoughts, it’s time to pack it in.

A Gift of Snow

yoko
ono
ononononononono
dipthong
john
sing along
clapton
voormann
feedback
sonic attack
ack ack ack
dipthong haiphong
tokyo
railroad
1963
kyoko
haloed
1963
kyo
one
on
yuku haru
kana –
bride wore light
bride wore black
mirror crack
mirror song
american blue
america’s in flux!
save us!
america’s in flux!
fave us!
america’s in flux!
free us!
free john
free the word
free money
free dope
free hope
free attica
attic shape
attitude
free attitude
free you
ono
oh ono
oh yoko
yes

by m.j.smith