Daily Nourishment for February 26, 2024: Marveling at Poems with Mark Jarman
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“It’s worth it, even if it takes you a lifetime.”
— Mark Jarman
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Unholy Sonnet 11” by Mark Jarman.
Prompt.
Set a timer for seven minutes and begin a response to this prompt from Mark Jarman:
“Take a poem you wish you had written—a poem you love and marvel at—and go ahead and try to write your version of it.
This occurs in poetry more often than you might think. “Sailing to Byzantium” is W. B. Yeats’s version of John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” for example, and “The Windhover” is clearly Gerard Manley Hopkins’ version of the Keats poem. I had long admired and marveled at “Home Burial” by Robert Frost. But it was not until I began to write “Questions for Ecclesiastes” that I was able to recognize that it was my version of Frost’s great poem. This might seem like a tall order and much more than an exercise. But it’s worth it, even if it takes you a lifetime.”
Practice.
In the coming hours or days, read three of the poems Jarman mentions in the prompt above: “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Sailing to Byzantium”, and “The Windhover”.
Study the similarities, differences, and influences.
Take notes. See what happens next.
Want More?
Read the entire interview with Mark Jarman.
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Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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