Cisco Writers Club Rendezvous With Writing

Poetry Workshop! by Priscilla Bettis https://x.com/PriscillaBettis There’s a song played at Christmastime called “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” No doubt I’ll have the song stuck in my head before I finish typing this column. If you don’t know the story, the song was written in 1944 by Frank Loesser. He wrote it so he and his wife could sing it at the end of a party they were hosting … you know, as a gentle way to tell folks it’s time to go home. “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is a contrapuntal song meaning there are two songs sung at the same time, one song tripping over another. Frank’s part is a complete song in itself. His wife’s part is another complete song in itself. Put together, it’s a third song, the popular song we hear on the radio eighty-some years later. The same technique works with poetry: two standalone poems that, when put together, create a third poem. Famous examples include “Aubade Ending with the Death of a Mosquito” by Arfia Faizullah, “Pervoe Svidanie” by Andrei Bely, and “Swan and Shadow” by John Hollander. “Swan and Shadow” is also a shape poem. It’s shaped like a swan, complete with a watery reflection. You read down the swan’s neck for one poem, and you read the body for the second poem, and you read across the neck into the body for the third poem. We won’t do anything as fancy as Hollander’s swan poem, but at the July meeting of the Cisco Writers Club, we will help each other write contrapuntal poems. It’ll be a simple enough process for beginners but with an open-ended complexity for seasoned poets. Grab a pen and some paper and join us! 7PM, July 3rd, at the Connect Spot inside the Myrtle Wilks Community Center. See ya there! Priscilla Bettis is Cisco Writers Club’s secretary. Her inspirational poetry and short-story collection is due out this fall.