Slip Casting and Poetry

I found a couple of fun ideas to mix up what I am doing in my social media posts. Both of these ideas came from Joseph Coelho, UK’s youngest Poet Laureate and the opening Keynote speaker at the SCBWI conference in NYC this past February.

He believes that, “a good poem takes an idea and reduces it down to the essence of what it is.”

He shared with us the trick to writing a poem with one word: Have a very long title.

eg

The Day I Ate Macaroni Cheese with Ice Cream

Custard

We wrote one with him. He gave us the title:

Jumping from a Plane Without a Parachute

Foolhardy

or

NOOOOOO!

were some of our suggestions for the poem.

The Sound of Lightning

ZAP

He taught his that poetry must be playful before it can be serious. And poetry goes between the gaps. It goes deep. Poetry is good writing.  It can be freeform or it can be structured.

Then he shared with us his mnemonic for remembering the language forms that every poet can use to create poetry. MORERAPS:

Metaphor

Onomatopoeia — Here is a great blog post that I found with lots of Onomatopoeia words:

Rhyme 

Emotion

Repetition. A phrase with a musical rhythm

Alliteration

Personification

Simile

These will add punch to our writing he said. And he urged us to master them like a juggler masters juggling.

So we wrote a poem. He gave us the subject and we wrote one sentence for each letter of the Mnemonic. Here is our group poem:

The Sun

by the attendees of the NY SCBWI Conference 2024

The Sun is a lion.

It’s hot so the lion roars

He’s sad when the rain pours.

We all cry with him.

wah wah wah

Someday soon the sun will shine again.

The sun wipes his eyes

He wants to shine bright like a star.

When I got back from the conference, I made a poem about one of my characters in my story: The Pirate’s Treasure.

I’m thinking that I could use both of these ideas to spice up my social media posts. And they would also be helpful exercises as I develop the personalities of my characters. Not to mention they are great writing exercises!

Today I spent time over at the Storybook House trimming the slip castings I did over the weekend. Here’s a picture of the few green ware pieces I created:

And here is a poem using MORERAPS to describe the process of slip casting:

Slip Casting by Pamela Hanks

Slip is liquid silk as I pour it in the mold.

Glurp, Gurgle, Slurp

Burp

Satisfaction

Breath in, Breath out

Breath in, Breath out

Rest, Relax, Recover

The liquid clay becomes one with the universe.

Creating a shell inside the mold like a layer of armor.