Just as the beauty of flowers is enhanced by the perfect
vase, so the appropriate container will both reveal and enhance the deepest
meaning in your writing. The right container and writing form will empower
your message and allow your words to soar beyond your most ambitious expectations.
Today we will consider the container as a starting place for
writing ideas.
This source for ideas works in two directions. We may start with meaning, then choose a
container or we may begin with a container in mind to structure our words and
ideas.
Starting with the Container
In Writing in the Context of Our Lives, I shared how
Jane Yolen limited herself to the strict structure of the sonnet as she explored
her feelings and thoughts about her husband’s illness and treatment. Marilyn
Nelson also used sonnets collected into a heroic
crown to convey the horrific events surrounding the lynching of death of
Emmett Till.
According to Nelson, she chose a strict form to re-present
this intense story, thus protecting herself from the painful, paralyzing effect of
the subject matter and enabling her to write a beautiful poem to honor his
memory.
Because the limits of a rigid structure force
us to concentrate on our ideas and words, we may be better able to focus
and express our ideas, much like a rite or celebration provides a framework for our feelings and actions. The structure of a funeral, for example, gives us a framework for our grief.
My favorite forms
are the haiku and the haibun, both Japanese forms that require
minimal words and dramatic shifts in thinking near the end of the poem. I often begin with one of these forms to develop and discover my meaning.
So sometimes we start with the
container.
Starting with Our Writing
Other times we may have already discovered our meaning and are ready to choose an appropriate
container.
Several years ago at our writing
project retreat, our theme was Crossing Borders and Expanding Boundaries. As we worked together on our theme, we read many
articles and poems, several of which discussed how trucks driven by “coyotes”
might bring Mexicans across the border.
The conditions were often dark, cramped, poorly ventilated, and hot. The high potential for getting caught or even
dying because of the transportation conditions created a deep sense of fear.
Before bed that night, I read a
few pages from Elie Wiesel’s Night. The section I read told of Jews being
transported in dark, cramped, poorly ventilated, hot railroad cars. With the destination unknown to most, one man
kept crying out in warning. They finally
beat him into silence.
In the context of this juxtaposition of these two texts, I was
immediately reminded of the Middle Passage with its ships—dark, cramped, poorly
ventilated and hot—containing passengers filled with fear. I knew I had to explore this in writing.
Here are the first few line of
the poem I wrote:
Border Crossing Protocol
Why
must border crossings be cramped
with
people crushed and stuffed like smelts in a sauce of sweat and urine and feces
and fear?
Who
decided that nakedness --with all precious personal possessions stripped and
stolen --was the appropriate attire for such journeys?
I also knew I wanted to represent mothers—of all colors and ethnic
groups—all wanting the same things for their children. The poem ends with these varied mother and child
images. painted with words.
The genre I chose to initially explore border crossings was
poetry. By container, however, I mean
more than just genre or form of writing, but also the intended and actual
audience, the means of publication and presentation, as well as intended
purposes and ultimate uses of the piece.
My original poem, Border
Crossing Protocol, ending up being the narration of a video, that I created
with Microsoft Movie Maker. The images,
along with meaningful transitions, music and songs, and also second poem, all
supported, illustrated, enhanced, created, and expanded my meaning. The
film was use in its entirety as the writing prompt for the writing project institute. Selected
parts were also used in my classroom to illustrate concepts we were learning in
Social Studies
.
Together, all of this was the container for my border
crossing ideas.
What container is best for your writing?
Today’s Deeper Writing Possibility
Select a container with which to experiment and contain your ideas.
(Click here and scroll to the middle of the page for sample poetry frames--or select another
form in which you are interested.)
Or
Select a piece of writing that you have already completed
and rewrite the ideas in several different containers.
Which container best expresses your meaning?
What characteristics of that particular container enhance and illuminate your words?
