BEN DUKE’S WORKSHOP 10/12/15

BY FRANCESCA CAREY

We focused more on poetry in this session with Ben Duke which I found really interesting. We created three poems, one inspired from a chosen object, and the other two were inspired by an image.

My third poem was inspired by an image of earth.

We had three rules before making this poem:

– It had to be in first person
– It had to be made in relation to the image
– We had to consider the five senses

‘I am a twister of clouds, crashing together like waves.
I am space and the sky. I have no limitations.
Spirals of white intimidate me, surround me.
When the deep, luring blue confines me, I relax. I can breathe.
It is fresh, there is no cold nor any heat.
I am isolated. But not forever alone.
There are frightening wisps, they sweep me off my feet.
I am caught. I am swirling. No way out.
I am being swallowed whole by this clashing of white and blue. Light and dark.
I see an outline.
I feel calm. But I can’t feel.
I am a twister. A wave of crashing clouds’

We had to turn one of our poems into physical movement. I found this difficult as I had chosen this poem that I had written with the consideration of showing the atmosphere. I thought it would be easy as I felt my poem was quite atmospheric, but I actually found it quite difficult and couldn’t work out how to show the atmosphere so I gave myself three keywords to help me with the process: twisting, crashing, clashing. I found it challenging and enjoyed it but I wasn’t entirely pleased with the outcome of my physical movement.

One thought that Ben Duke shared with us, has really stayed with me: “These poems are fiction, but let’s imagine they tell us something about you.”