What Sparks Poetry:
Lesley Battler on "redundant"
"I chose to feature 'redundant' as this is one of my first poems written as the pandemic started to unfold. It marks a shift in my work, from a focus on resource industry capitalism to a more interior world, mapping the psychological dissonance caused by the virus along with the greater issue of climate change. In this poem, and in all my post-COVID writing, I have continued working with found texts and I think this poem’s language and boxed-in structure reflect a sense of diminishment and claustrophobia." |
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"Interview with Cleo Qian"
"If I was in a lot of pain, I used to think that I couldn’t die yet because I hadn’t held my first book in my hands. It was a dream that kept me alive through hard times. I had to grapple with what my life would look like, and what it might mean, if I never got to fulfill that dream. In a way, writing had been my religion, what I oriented my whole worldview around, and I was losing it."
via FAMOUS WRITING ROUTINES |
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This April, to celebrate National Poetry Month, we'll share popular writing prompts from our "What Sparks Poetry" essay series each morning. Write along with us! Write an elegy for a plant or animal that you imagine no longer exists in the 23rd Century. The subject can be ordinary—a particular breed of dog, perhaps, or the rhododendrons that lined your grandmother’s yard—or something as unlikely as Nelson’s small-eared shrew. Feel free to refer to both its scientific and common names, as well as natural and imagined habitats. What kind of world does the plant or animal leave behind? Why should we care about this loss? Is there a particular place or person with whom you associate the subject? What understanding does the living thing take with it? What are the implications for you, the person who survives?" |
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