In poetry-class today, we looked at a variety of short lyric-poems, discussed a few, and then did some writing. One of several options for writing was to take the advice Robert Frost apparently gave Edward Thomas, which was to describe in prose some occurrence or observation and then--gradually or not--begin to turn the writing into verse. One result is the plain-spoken, understated lyricism we find in Frost, Thomas, Larkin, and others.
I almost always write when students write, so today I chose the Frost/Thomas option and wrote a draft-poem about yoga:
Yoga Poem
When I do yoga,
yoga does me.
I'm supposed to
practice easily,
but I don't breathe
occasionally.
Silly, I know.
Yoga does me.
Afterward, I
do feel good--
more like
flesh than wood.
More of yoga,
less of me:
that may be
one yoga-key.
Not quite up to the standards of "Dust of Snow" (Frost) and "Adelstrop" (Thomas), which we read, but it's a start.
Copyright 2011 Hans Ostrom
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