Finding A Good Sentence

The first thing that we have been asked to do as a class is look for sentences. The assigned readings are out of a book recently published by Stanley Fish, How to Write A Sentence. The book begins by relating the reason for looking at and loving sentences as a writer. Sentences, says Fish (and Annie Dillard) are the paint used by writers. In order to be a writer one must first love sentences, in the same way painters must love paint.

Naturally, I completely agree. However, I want to focus on the advice that Fish gives at the end of the first chapter in which he explains that a study of good sentences requires the imitation of good sentences. This is the same I would argue for all art. Imitation is key to a practice of writing because it teaches you about form and style. This is the same advice given by Austin Kleon in his book Steal Like an Artist. 

"Once you get the hang of it -- " says Fish (pg 10), "zeroing in on a form that can then be filled with any number of contents -- you can do it forever."

I see this as fundamentally the work of poetry. Take a form, understand it, break it down and use it. Perhaps this is the way with all art, but I think that it is especially important to the crafting of poetry because you are working specifically with form.

Take a sonnet. Writing a sonnet has rules: It must have 14 lines (except when it doesn't), it must have a particular rhyme scheme (except when it doesn't), it must have a turn or volta somewhere in the middle (except when it doesn't), and it most often discusses love (except when it doesn't). If we take the sonnet form and zero  in on what those aspects mean, we poets can break it, use it, change it to being something different and new. In this way Fish seems to be saying, every sentence must be a poem.

The sentence that I collected for this week is:

"I thought myself as a city and I licked my lips." 

I absolutely love this line. It is an excellent reason to subscribe to the poem-a-day from the Academy of American Poets. I took it from the poem Landscape with a Blur of Conquerors, by Richard Siken.

I think I like it because it does something to the brain. It is more powerful still because of the rejoinder on the next line:

"I thought myself a nation and I wrung my hands"  

Hello out there!!

I have created RUMMAGE as a journal of writing experiments and an exploration of my writing life and practice.

The weekly posts for this blog are a project for a creative writing class at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, taught by Anne Fleming (2014). The content will come out of the exercises and musings, brought about by this class.

Where to start? 

First, a little bit about me: I am primarily a poet and print maker. In my work, I am exploring visual art as a medium for the expression and exploration of poetry. My work in creative writing in the last three years has lead me to regard publishing and the creation of books, as a fundamentally visual practice. 

Throughout this summer I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to self-publish Genesis, as a handmade work,  (You can see more of this book making project here) which, in turn, has lead me to think of myself as a printer, or, (although the definitions differ) a print maker. Although I am fundamentally a poet, I am very interested in how the form of the book and its content come together to create a cohesive whole. 

I am interested in what it means to live in a place and a body, I am interested in the innocence of objects and how humans make meaning of the things around them, and I am interested in how art impacts and reflects culture. 

My major project for this class will be the creation of a series of about four chapbooks of poetry and experimental fiction. I will also be creating an art series of prints that reflect these writing projects. I want to explore and experiment with different things, especially the juxtaposition of form and content. 

So, hello and welcome!