Poetry Friday.
A Photo Exchange: More than Meets the Eye
In April, Margaret Simon and Molly Hogan came up with a plan and invited poets to join in a photo/poetry exchange. Those who were interested submitted a form and then Margaret matched us with someone in a totally different geographical location. Our charge was to write a poem about the photo we received and post it on our blog for Poetry Friday Roundup on May 25th. Our photos were not to include people because “people tend to complicate things.” There were no rules or requirements for the poetic form. I signed up, and Margaret paired me with Cathy Miller, a literacy coach for Bradford Public Schools, Connecticut. Cathy sent me a photo of a red fox that visits her yard. She snapped the picture from her window during a spring snowstorm {one of those we all remember this spring}.
Red Fox by Cathy Miller
FOX
Magical creature of folklore fame
Hunted for your glossy red coat
Known by your long bushy tail
that covers you in sleep,
long thin legs, lithe form,
and cat-like eyes.
You are most
cunning,
Fox.
© 2018 Alice Nine, all rights reserved
_______
Writing about my writing
A red fox! I immediately thought of a great favorite of mine, The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein. It is a fairy tale-like allegorical novel with a fox as a central character, set in the old country–a place where “all the fairy tales come from, where there was magic — and there was war.” I thought, perhaps I could use Gerstein’s words and write a found poem. And so I did {see below}. However, the found poem just didn’t pair with Cathy’s photograph and the little I knew of her red fox. So I set it aside to begin again.
I needed words. Fox words. So I began searching and reading about the red fox, the Vulpes vulpes. As I read, I strung a list of words and phrases down my paper. I stopped reading and taking notes when the texts became repetitive.
It was time to decide on a form for my poem. I thought I might write a free verse poem, perhaps after “A Doe” by Kristine O’Connell George. (Use the “Look Inside” feature to see the poem in Toasting Marshmallows.) I thought about a sonnet. About a skinny poem. Or perhaps a golden shovel created with a fox proverb.
So I searched for fox proverbs.
- An old fox understands the trap. –William Blake
- The sleeping fox catches no poultry. –Benjamin Franklin
- The fox changes his fur but not his habits. –Anonymous
And there are so many more. But nothing worked, so I stopped, to return on another day.
Next, I thought about the fox in literature.
- About thirty of Aesop’s Fables have a fox character (index to fox fables).
- Indigenous People provides links to numerous collections of fox stories from across time and around the world.
- Whispering Books has a site search. Put “fox” in the search and you will have ten pages of links to fox stories on that site.
Again, nothing seemed right. I put it aside for still another day.
I thought about pangrams. You know the ones. We use them, or should I say used to use them, for handwriting practice, the ones that have all the letters of the alphabet.
Still, nothing was coming together, and May 25th was approaching . . .
Then one evening, I picked up my fox notes–the words and phrases I had strung down my paper. I read down the list and then back up the list — out loud, and it seemed that a poetic form was hiding in my notes. It was a form that started with a certain number of syllables in the first line and then every line decreased until the last line had one syllable. Or did it start with a one-syllable line and gradually increase? I searched my poetry notes. I found it. A nonet.
A nonet is a 9-line poem that has 9 syllables in the first line, 8 syllables in the second line, 7 syllables in the third line, and continues to count down to one syllable in the final (ninth) line.
I began pulling phrases from my notes, sequencing ideas, counting syllables, juggling words, counting syllables again. The poem seemed to write itself {Isn’t it an amazing feeling when a poem begins to write itself!} … and as it did, it seemed natural to address Fox. So I wrote in second person.
_______
My found poem from The Old Country
Here’s the book jacket. Isn’t it wonderful! Can you see why I thought of it immediately?
To appreciate the found poem, you need a bit of the backstory.
The text I chose was about a trial that takes place in a magical forest. A white spider is the judge. A crow is one of the jurors. The defendant is a fox. The plaintiff is a girl, Gisella. The crime? The fox stole and ate Gisella’s hens. I lifted words from trial scene to create a poem.
Gisella v. Flame
My name is Flame.
I am a fox.
I live by my nose,
by my teeth and feet,
by my wits.
How can I steal?
How can one creature
own another — except to eat it?
Don’t we all belong to ourselves?
Until someone else–someone
bigger,
faster, hungrier, smarter–
catches us?
And eats us?
I didn’t steal.
I hunted.
I didn’t murder.
I fed.
I am accused of being a fox.
If that’s a crime, then so is
being an owl,
or a cat, or a spider, or a girl.
I am Gisella.
I believe the fox.
We each do what we must
to live. I love our chickens
and do my best to protect them.
She loves them in her way,
and does her best to catch them.
The jury will decide if these
are crimes. But if I catch her
taking our chickens again, I will
kill her. I give her fair warning.
And if that’s a crime, do to me
what you must.
Jury have you reached a verdict?
We have a verdict, your honor.
We find the defendant, Flame–
the fox whom we hate and fear
because she kills and devours
birds and small animals–
we find her to be innocent.
Court dismissed.
And after the trial !
Gisella had been warned by her Great-Aunt Tanteh to never look into the eyes of a fox. But . . .
I shared a photo of Pacific harbor seals enjoying the sun at Otter Rock, Oregon.
Cathy wrote a delightful poem and because she doesn’t have a blog,
she posted as a guest on mine: Harbor Seals.
Please stop by Cathy’s post and welcome her to our #PoetryFriday community!
Pacific Harbor Seals at Otter Rock
Margaret over at Reflections on the Teche is hosting the week’s Round-Up. Thank you, Margaret!
#PoetryFriday
Poetry Friday Schedule
January – June 2018
Thanks for sharing your journey in writing the two poems. Your persistence paid off. I did not know about the nonet form, and now I want to try it. I do love J. Patrick Lewis’s Zeno form and find it’s a go-to form when nothing else works. I’m intrigued by your found poem inspired by that lovely sounding book.
The first thing I noticed was that the shape of your poem matches the fox disappearing into the top right corner of the photo. Then, when you named your form, I laughed out loud — NINE syllables! Clever. Like a fox.
Alice, I love every bit of this post! Hearing about your process reassured me that we all have to work through our false starts for they will lead us to the poem we’re meant to write. Your nonet is wonderful and gave me an idea for a poem I’ve been struggling with. And, I think I have The Old Country on my shelf at school! Thank you for this rich post!
Thanks for participating in the photo exchange. I’ve enjoyed reading the responses. Thanks for sharing your process, too. Sometimes we feel all alone when we write, like no one else struggles to write quite like we do. Your post is comforting, but also fun to know your process. It’s much like my own. I’m a word collector. The nonet is a great form to use with this topic. While I love books about foxes, I don’t think I’d like to see one in my yard.
I love both your poems. And as always, I learn so much from reading about your writing process. A bonus–I have a new book I want to read!
I love the your process of writing this peom. It’s beautiful.
The nonet feels like just the right form for your fox poem, Alice. I love the snuggly tail, but even more I love how the form allows you to pare away at all we think about foxes until the poem is down to the essentials.
I was fascinated by your journey and recognized echoes of my own during this challenge. Both of your poems are wonderful–The nonet and the found poem. You’ve also sparked my curiosity about The Old Country and I’m going to try to find a copy at my library. Such rich language! PS–I considered writing a nonet as well, but my effort went nowhere! Now I can use yours as a mentor text. Thanks 🙂
Oh, what a rich bevy of poems you wrote Alice, I love them both, and the backstory of how you came to them also! A Nonet, I love how that sounds and the simply beautiful stream-line structure of it. The form seems to fit the stealthy nature of your fox very well, as it moves down to one syllable. Thanks for telling us about “The Old Country” it looks and sounds enchanting, and I love the fox and Gisella coming together into one form on the cover.
Alice, thanks for sharing the nonet form. I copied the information in my notebook to try out at a different time. As for you practice, it is quite sophisticated a process and I am so glad that you share the steps you take to carefully craft your poems. This one led you down many paths but ended up with one that allowed your story to flow. My daughter talks about the red fox that visits their neighborhood in northern Virginia. She loves this type of animal so much she has the baby’s nursery brightened up with Fiona Fox.
I love the sharing of your wandering process and how you finally arrived at the nonet. I need to add this form to my bag of possibilities. It reminds me a bit of the arun form which I’ve enjoyed playing with in the past. I learned about it from blogger friend, Girl Griot. (*Arun – a fifteen-line poem in three sets of five lines. Each set of five lines follows the same syllable structure: starting with one syllable and increasing by one (1/2/3/4/5 – 3X).)
Oh that form sounds like fun. I think it would be great for treating three different areas of a subject (one for each stanza), plus the building as opposed to the decreasing syllables would give an interesting effect. Thanks for sharing, Ramona!
I love the nonet form, and your found poem from a favorite book which I will look for, Alice. And I loved reading about your process in this response to Cathy’s photo. What wonderful poems are coming from Margaret’s challenge! Also, you might enjoy a recent mid-grade novel, Pax by Sara Pennypacker, a beautiful story of a fox!
I’m so sorry you had trouble posting a comment … My security is set for manual approval before they become visible. I so enjoyed reading all three of your comments and I am so pleased you persisted 🙂 🙂 BUT I will only approve the first one for others to see (unless you want me to approve all three). I’ve seen PAX but not read it. I recently saw this review and was impressed: https://www.npr.org/2016/02/10/466274721/left-to-fend-for-himself-pax-the-fox-must-find-his-human-friend I bookmarked it to link with info about the book. Now I must get a copy!
No, approval for one is just fine. I didn’t know you had ‘approval’ set, so thought my comment had disappeared! Now you received many words of appreciation! Hoping you enjoy Pax!
Thanks! I’m feeling blessed. 🙂
Alice, how much do I love that you, Alice Nine, wrote a fox-y nonet?! I have a collection of nonets coming out next year, and I really adore the form. Happy to see it here. AND… I’m ordering THE OLD COUNTRY right away because it may help me with a work in progress. So many thanks! xo
Awww… I am so glad you noticed “nine” and mentioned; I wondered if anyone would. I need to write a piece about my names: Alice / Nine / Alice Nine. There are so many stories, so many connections. This was the first nonet I’ve ever written; I do like the form. I look forward to your collection! And I’m so curious about your “work in progress” because you mentioned THE OLD COUNTRY might be helpful. BTW: I don’t usually buy audio books, but this one I have seriously considered because the reader gives the story such voice in the excerpts I’ve listened to. I recommend you listen to the Amazon excerpt.