April | Poetry Month | 10/30

Prompt:

Go back to your party planning list and choose someone from the list to write an ode/love poem to. Honor them in the here & now. What memories are connected to them. How do you love them? What do you love about them? I am thinking of all the ways we honor and shout-out the people in our lives. Try it in a poem!

Poem 10/30 excerpt

Be grateful in your journal.

For time to memorialize

someone so many loved.

For being 42 & alive.

For existing with the people

you so, so love.

Close your eyes

hope you get

to keep

being.  

 

April | Poetry Month | 9/30

Prompt:

Imagine you are throwing a party. Make a list of all the people that you want to invite. Make a list of all the people that you love - the ones who have changed and shaped you. The ones who you want to spend time with, the ones who make you laugh and hold you when you cry. Who is on that list? Who shows up? Choose one person to write a poem or letter to. Tell them why they matter to you - tell them what they mean to you. Once you are done with that one, move on to the next person on your list. Send these notes away - by letter, email, text message or phone call. Spread the love with poems!

Poem 9/30 excerpt

On the day of the memorial—

I cannot decide what to wear.

Since leggings is my uniform

from the waist down. & lately

I wear only three-four shirts

because still, I am exhausted

by fashion or clothing or any

form of ornamentation at all.

But this is different. Outside

April | Poetry Month | 8/30

Prompt:

Write a love poem for your body. Write about the parts that you love and also the parts that are complicated and harder for you to love. Honor your body and all the ways it helps you move through the world. Write about the whole body or individual parts. Show up for your body with words.

Poem 8/30 excerpt

 There are open hearts, lungs.

Bodies exist the way they are.

Whole. Nuanced. Complicated.

We show up together. Joyful.

Bad attitudes. Funky. Lost.

Shoulder-rolled. We exist.

April | Poetry Month | 7/30

Prompt:

Write a poem about a childhood memory. Think about how old you were - why the story matters - why it stays with you. What happened? Who were you with? What do you remember most. Give all the details to help us see this moment in time.

Poem 7/30 excerpt

This – the let go.

This – the lean back.

This – the heavy sigh.

This – the way the body says

sit the hell down.  

April | Poetry Month | 6/30

Prompt:

Make all the lists you can make! Names of flowers, birds, types of cereal, memories, people you have loved, people you have left behind. Make a list of your favorite songs, movies, foods. A list of the planets, the oceans. Make a list of animals that roam the land and sea creatures too. Make a list of your favorite words and then say them out loud. Mix and match the answers from your lists and see if they speak to each other. I tried a few! Now try yours. Play with language. Experiment! Have fun!

Poem 6/30 excerpt

Go weightless. Go

dreamy. Go asleep.

Even typing is funky

& catching my breath

too. Playing catch up.

April | Poetry Month | 5/30

Visit one of my favorite poetry websites: Poets.org to learn more about one of my favorite poetic forms: Haiku. Try your own versions out.

Prompt:

Think of a moment of change in nature and connect it to your own life. What shifts have happened for you. How does the changing world show up for you? What changes have you gone through that could show up in the haiku. Check out a couple of my examples below and write your own!

Poem 5/30 excerpt

Alive with frolic

flowers flourish, flow, feed me

prosper prolific.


Go on watch the day

go all thrive like - peel open

cut away the raw.


April | Poetry Month | 4/30

Prompt:

Consider your origin. Who are your people? Where do they come from? What history do they hold? Write a poem using three names of the people who raised you up. Include the foods and sayings and locations and histories that make you who you are. What songs and television shows belong in this poem? What stories deserve shine? Write them down.

Poem 4/30 excerpt

Laughing

Careening

Wheeling

Steering

Hoofing

from slide

to monkey bars

jumping

from swing

to swing.

Heavy breath

beneath

their masks.

I can see

all their eyes

fire up.

Imagine

their smiles

last & last.

April | Poetry Month | 3/30

Prompt:

Write a poem about a movie or television show that has stayed with you. What does it mean to you? What do you want to tell it? How does it hold meaning for you? What memories or themes are connected to it. Write it all.

Poem 3/30 | excerpt

We agree.

Keanu is a star.

Patrick Swayze too.

All that hip action.

All those glorious tresses.

But it’s more than that too.

First, it’s a raucous ride.

Big waves, Lori Petty’s back muscles,

Bodi aka Bodhisattva. Nirvana.

Enlightened one. Philosophy.

What it means to search for that one

great ride. Oh my god, it’s all of that.

April | Poetry Month | 2/30

Already day #2 and I feel both buoyant and exhausted. Watching, watching the world around me. The weather hovering around 40 degrees and I am reminded how Spring can play tricks - how it blooms and hides. Comes alive and sneaks away from. Carrying us with it all along.

Prompt:

What is blooming around you? What is healthy and alive? What could use some nurturing and love? What needs tending? Write to both of those things in your life.

Poem 2/30 | excerpt

And I step inside myself

to downward dog, Hail Mary,

shoot bourbon or the like,

kaleidoscope, electric slide.

Front flip, back handspring

the way I used to in middle

then high school. Tumbling

up and over myself to a crowd

hollering and rough housing.

Go on be rough house inside

the stretch of my expanse. Widen

my stance, loosen my belt. Wide

and wider. Toe touch back

bend. All the space is mine.

April | Poetry Month | 1/30

Hello all-

It is officially National Poetry Month & I am so thrilled to be writing & poet-ing & community-ing along with you all. This month, I will be writing with Elma’s Heart Circle - a beautiful collective of women writers founded by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor. We send poems to each every day during April. It is like a wave of words. It is blessing and balm.

All month, I will be posting poem excerpts and sharing writing prompts for you to kick off your own writing practice. Hope you will join me & keep those words flowing.

Prompt:

Write about a meal you loved. Who were you with? What did you eat? What did you talk about? Give us every detail of the meal. Did it shape or change you? Did it stay with you? Why? Write it down. Share it with us.

Poem 1/30 | excerpt

Celi pulls up her mask

between bites. Claims

how proud she is

to be Middle-Eastern.

Our food is good

good food. She says.

& Miriam nods hungry like.

But says she is nervous

to eat indoors with all

the other hungry mouths.

Asks if we will be ok.

Not enough answers

but all & everything

 

is good right now.

is right good now.

now is right. is good,

right? is it good right

now? is now good?

or right? now? is it?

 

Writing Prompts & Sample Poems

Prompt #1 | What will you do to pass the time? Who will you call? Whose voice do you long to hear?

Prompt #2 | What does it take? What do you need to thrive?

Prompt #3 | What do you want to remember? & hold onto?

Prompt #4 | Make a list of all you are grateful for—

Prompt #5 | Write a haiku that captures your heart during this time.

Sample Poem | Free-Write

Go to sleep: pandemic

Wake up: pandemic

 

Study the map

chart your heart

navigate distance

call home

deep breath

meditate

make a list

of all the things

you love

love.

Watch Us Rise | Writing Prompts

Hello all-

It was great to see everyone today on the Twitter Live reading of poems from Watch Us Rise. Thank you all for watching. I wanted to add the prompts that I sent out today in case you are looking for some writing activities to do this week.

Prompt #1: Advice Poems: Write a poem where you give advice to yourself, or to your future/past self

Prompt #2: Look at the cover of beautify magazines. In your first stanza, create a found poem using only words/phrases from those covers. In your second stanza, write down all the messages you wish would be in magazines for you.

Prompt #3: Look up ads for beautify products. What are they saying? What are they trying to sell you? Now flip the advertisement and write your own ad - what would you want it to be about?

Start with these prompts & feel free to tag me on social media to share poems or snippets with me.

Thanks all,

Ellen


What does it mean to be a global citizen? How do you build a community of young people from around the world? How do you share your identity, culture and stories from home to push against stereotypes? What does a global community look like, and how do we nurture it when we return home.

The International Poetry Exchange Project was founded by Ambassador Caroline Kennedy in 2014 as a way to build bridges for students around the world. As a founding partner, DreamYard partnered with schools across the Bronx to write poems, create performances and eventually compete in an international poetry slam. As a community, we have traveled to Japan, Korea and the United States. Currently we work with four schools: Marble Hill School for International Studies in the Bronx, New York, Poongsan High School in Andong, Korea, St. Scholastica in Manila, Philippines and Shuri High School in Okinawa, Japan.

Last week we traveled to Tokyo and Okinawa in Japan for a 10 day journey that included: The Imperial Palace, the Tokyo-Edo Museum, Okinawa World, the Peace Memorial, a visit to Okinawa University to watch the Eisa dance, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Asakusa and lectures about Japan at the Ministry of Foreign Exchange and at the Peace Memorial. In addition, the students spent two nights in a homestay in Okinawa with local families where they cooked together, visited the beach and learned about local traditions. We also visited Shuri High School for a bingata workshop and had a poetry and performance workshop before our final poetry competition held high atop Okinawa. The trip was transformative for all of us - expanding our hearts and shaping our worldview.

Recipe for International Poetry Exchange

Gather 40 young poets from around the world. Watch

languages & hearts & stories & identities collide, shine.

Hear their traveling of mother tongues  

Japanese, Tagalog, Korean, Spanish, English, Soninke

& on. How they all sound like song & invocation.

See them slurp noodles, sample sushi, drink broth from deep bowls.

Watch them swallow the sea, ache from the lists & lists of names

carved into stone at the Peace Memorial. Weep with them

when they share sorrows, see the shards of war. Ourselves.

Bow your head in prayer at Asakusa & the Meiji Shrine.

Stand beside shisas that ward off evils. Learn traditions

the Eisa dance & bingata at Shuri High School. The art

of dyeing, the patience of weaving. Watch cultures inter-

twine & shift alive. Witness shared poetry of longing

& immigration & song & gods & cranes & new worlds.

Revel in their high school after party of Cupid Shuffle,

Gangnam Style & K Pop ballads. They community so hard.

Ask them what they love & they will yell out:

myself & non-crease sneakers & carbs & drawing

& the moon, moon, & anime & R & B, books & sleep.

Ask them what they don’t love & they will call out:

war & stereotypes & sweating & mosquitos

the president (of the US & the Philippines both)

& they will hold their hands out to each other in comfort.

& they will say homework & diarrhea & they will howl in laughter.

Because they are all teenage-ish & grown & young at the same time.

Ask them their names & they will shout them

while shaking their whole bodies: Alondra & Hawa

& Aicha & Fukumura & Ace & Angelica & Lian

& Sungmin & Hyeongseok - their names like prayers

rising into the setting Okinawan sun.

An untangling of letters & histories & place.

Say landscape & watch the streets unravel

& all the salt in the sea wash to shore. This

is how we are one. The only thing that stands

between us is the ocean, Fatou says & you know

she is right. & when Jason says, There are no borders.

there’s only our humanity, you all say yes, yes, yes!

Have them hold hands & conjure words

like: promise, hope, inspiration, community, love.

Say them again & louder & echo what they need

& want in this world. Watch them cry heavy tears

when they leave, lean deep out of bus windows. Carry on

& on. See how they hold. Watch their connections root down.

See their community rise up.









Dodge Poetry - Ask a Poet: Ellen Hagan

Ask a Poet: Ellen Hagan

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Dodge Poetry

This fall, we’re hosting a High School Regional Mini-Festival at the Paul Robeson Center in Newark. Through readings and performances, Q&As and discussions, a group of poets will engage with hundreds of Newark high school students over the course of one school day in October.

For the next several weeks, we will be featuring short Q&As with some of the participating poets on the Dodge Blog each Friday. This week, we’re talking to Ellen Hagan.

Ellen Hagan is a writer, performer, and educator. Her latest collection of poetry, Hemisphere, was published by Northwestern University Press, Spring 2015. Ellen’s poems and essays can be found on ESPNW.com, in the pages of Creative Nonfiction, Underwired Magazine, She Walks in Beauty (edited by Caroline Kennedy), Huizache, Small Batch, and Southern Sin. Her first collection of poetry, Crowned was published by Sawyer House Press in 2010. She is Director of Poetry & Theatre Programs at DreamYard Project and directs their International Poetry Exchange Program with Japan and South Korea. Ellen is a member of the Affrilachian Poets, Conjure Women, and is co-founder of the girlstory collective. She lives with her husband and daughters in New York City.

*   *   *

What is a misconception about poetry that bothers you? Why?

There is a big misconception out there that you can’t make a living being a poet, or that you will go broke following the path of poetry. That’s simply not true. The poets I know curate their lives in beautiful and thrilling ways. They travel the world, they craft brilliant collections of poetry, they teach in community centers, colleges, they edit books, they jump genres and write novels, screenplays, young adult books. They have families, they have massive communities – they make their work. It is possible to do what you love and be both financially and creatively successful. You just have to create the best path for you – and figure out the kind of life you want – and how to build that vision. It’s all possible!

What was your experience with poetry in high school? If you wrote poetry as a teenager, who were your influences then and what did you write about?

I absolutely loved poetry in high school. I went to the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts – a summer arts intensive program, and was taught by my mentor, and now friend: Kelly Norman Ellis, who exposed all of us to poets such as: The Affrilachian Poets, Nikky Finney, June Jordan and Jayne Cortez, to name a few. We were exposed to poetry as a way to define our identity, a way to speak back to the world, confront injustices, write our hearts, craft what mattered most to us, and do the work. My high school experience was transformative because of poetry. I always say it saved me. It gave me a home to harness all of my feelings – it gave me the space to explore who I was and who I wanted to be in the world.

Do you have any advice for those who are trying to help students engage with poetry?

Read and travel and celebrate life. I think the best way to engage with poetry is to witness it all around us. Poetry is on our bus routes, on the train, in the cup of coffee we order at the diner. It’s hanging out after school, it follows us home. It dances and spins – poetry can be found everywhere, so it’s just finding new ways for young people to open their eyes – and finding ways to capture that spirit and energy – with words.

Do you have a favorite spot in Newark? A park, restaurant, open mic venue, etc.?

Lower Broadway! I did a Dodge Poet visit to Barringer STEAM High School in April, and walked from the train station. I ended up on Lower Broadway early in the morning, and was blown away by all of the brilliant murals on the gates covering the stores. There was so much joy and celebration – such color and expression. The whole city feels energized and alive to me. I love that Newark supports the arts – and they have a way to honor that in such a real and vivid way.

What are you currently reading?

I just re-read The Panther and the Lash by Langston Hughes. I used it years ago to find poems for a 2nd grade residency through The Community~Word Project, and saw it again. I wanted to revisit those poems. I also recently joined the board of the I, Too Arts Collective, a non-profit based in the home of Langston Hughes, founded by Renée Watson. I love being in Langston’s House – there is such brilliant creative energy there! It’s such a perfect home for poets and artists. I also recently read Beasts Behave in Foreign Land by Ruth Irupé Sanabría. She’s such a lyrical and socially engaged poet. Her collections stay with me – I can’t wait to teach some of the poems during the school year.

Write Like a Girl - Bloomsbury, 2019


Ellen Hagan & Renée Watson have signed a deal with Bloomsbury for a YA novel. The YA collaboration with Hagan (which will be Hagan’s YA debut), Write Like a Girl, is set for spring 2019. Bloomsbury said Girl is “a dual narrative about best friends, one black and one white, who are classmates at a progressive New York City high school” where they start a school blog that goes viral. Rosemary Stimola at the Stimola Literary Studio represented Watson in the deal, and Cindy Uh at the Thompson Literary Agency represented Hagan.

Langston's House Gala

The I, Too Arts Collective is a non-profit organization founded by Renée Watson, committed to nurturing voices from underrepresented communities in the creative arts. In July 2016, she launched an online fundraising campaign to lease the brownstone where Langston lived and created during the last twenty years of his life. The #LangstonsLegacy campaign raised over $150,000 and secured a three-year lease. Hundreds of people from all over the world supported the campaign. It was truly a collective effort, and now it’s time for the real work to begin.  Check out more here: www.itooarts.com

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