Creative Writing Workshop Two

laughing_monkeyToday you filled my heart with joy.  It was just great listening to your poems and it was fun writing a collective story.  I was almost rolling with laughter! 
I tried to refrain myself, since I did not want to disturb other people in the school.  As a matter of fact there was a teachers’ meeting and if I had not refrained from laughing too loud (guffawing) the headmaster would have certainly summoned me to his office!

Let’s go back to our session now. Dizraeli’s great slam poem started us off with our free writing activity (What English means to us).  We are going to read The 21st Century Flux again in the near future and we will deal with some interesting issues it raises. 

Here is the script (the guy is a genius, isn’t he?).  At the end of the course we will write our own slam poem and we will upload it on Youtube:

The 21st Century Flux

English. The new disease?
It pours out of television speakers and computer screens
Disregarding Babel with its very cocky fluency
Sticking on its labellings at every opportunity.
Nothing’s safe; it won’t stop when it begins to spread
it dominates the airwaves and reigns/rains on the internet
leaving cultures altered and confused as to what’s what
turns the dialecting of the youths to a hotch-potch
rag-tag scrabble bag; everyone’s affected
the little languages will not survive unprotected.
So hold your own, but get a firm hold of English
and every last one of us shall be a multilinguist:
sing it!
Shampoo juggernaut moolah hullabaloo
ad infinitum, pow-wow, kudos, déjà vu
Won ton, billabong, beef, potato, hobo, dream
Wha gwan with the wigwam boogie
mr Chimpanzee?
Welcome to the twenty-first century flux
for now, English is the language of choice
And when it dies, as every tongue eventually must
let it be said you added your voice
The professor said, “Pif! What language is this?
Degenerate slang isn’t standard English!
We at the top must establish limits.”
I said “Prof! Language is the people that live it.”
Get loose, give it some vision and foresight
and juice; we can fling the dictionary door wide.
I live in a city where it seems like
every single idiom is intermingling stream-like,
Like streams, that know no barriers
No matter what dams and channels are established –
they are irrelevant. What matters is the message that is put across,
and the passion that’s invested in it. Nothing’s lost
it merely mutates, and lets the people speaking it
tweak it in new ways.
Meaning that meaning is whatever you say
Jilly, Jack, Hussain, in Iraq to the UK
to all corners; through all twists and bends
Six billion personal versions of events
It’s thrilling when you think of all the tongues on a jostle
to express their puzzle in the best words possible.
The more words we have, the more ways we have
to express the world we have to co-exist in.
And if the English language is the lingua franca of this planet,
never say that it should be a closed system.
Welcome to the twenty-first century flux
for now, English is the language of choice for the performers
But when it dies, as every tongue eventually must
let it be said you added your voice to the chorus
Cos English isn’t English; it’s an elastic patchwork
A fantastically insane confederation
a very strange tapestry of foreign vernaculars
borrowed from Norse kings, and fettered slavemen
So if language is linked to the land which it springs from
English is linked to the globe in entirety
With fragments of every language you’ll think of
Roots in every type of society:
Welsh, French, Jamaican, Indian, Italian
Dominican, Hispanic, Germanic, Norse, African,
Norman, Dutch, Latin, Greek, Japanese, Yiddish,
Native American, Antipodean and Finnish…
The list could continue till my tongue went blue;
what I’m saying is the owner is you.
It lives as it’s spoken, and it mirrors the truth
And there isn’t any owner but you…
Welcome to the twenty-first century flux
for now, English is the language of choice
But when it dies, as every tongue eventually must
let it be said you added your voice

written by Dizraeli

english-onlyEnglish, my English, if it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have had the best chances of my life. Gosh, grandma! Thanks grandma.  I do remember when you used to sing songs in English to me. I was th eapple of your eye.  I know why! You love the way I looked at you, mesmerized by your memories.  You were hooked to your bygone Canada, your dear father’s ashes scattered somewhere near Toronto. English was your vent. English was our "coded" language: just the two of us, no interferences, no eavesdropping.  English was your past.  English was the chest of your memories and you passed it down to me.  You infused me with a passion that it is here to stay.  I left for the country you filled my imagination with.  A country you cherished from deep down in your heart.  I studied there because of you, it was you who disclosed Canada to me.  If it had not been for your memories, Canada would have remained a far away country, too far to reach.  There I met people who change my life, helped me become a better person.  I discovered the potentials in me, I discovered the ME I wanted to be.  Then the Fulbright scholarship took me to Canada’s neighbouring country.  Vast wilderness filled with English words.  Oh English, my sweetest delight. Shakespeare, Joyce, Eliot, Wilde, Woolf, Plath, Roth and so on, how could I interact with your worlds if it were not for you ENGLISH!

NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT

WHAT’S A POEM NOT

A poem is not the pillory

but it can hurt you to death if it is about something you run away from or hide from yourself.

A poem is not meant for the bastards

but unfortunately it can be abused by them.

A poem is not a banana skin

you can throw away

but you can give it as a present

A poem is not a weapon

but it can be a blunt remark you want to make about your existence

A poem is not a duvet

but as soon as you read it you feel warm inside, as soon as you write it you feel you are sharing your warmth with others.

A poem is not a book

but it can encompass the world just in a few lines.

A poem is not a watch

but it marks the tick-tacking of time.

A poem is not a butterfly

but it soars up in the sky.

A poem is not an eagle

but it can get at you as an easy prey.

A poem is nota computer

but it oozes the feelings and scents a machine cannot contain.

A poem is notthe peak of a mountain

but it can make you see skies invisible and unknown to the human eye.

 

Thanks for all the emotions your are giving me.

Cristiana

8 Replies to “Creative Writing Workshop Two”

  1. A poem is not a person,
    but it can be moody.
    A poem is not a tree,
    but you can rest under it.
    A poem is not your school,
    but you could learn something.
    A poem is not your student,
    but you may have something to teach.
    A poem is not a joke,
    but it’s able to make you laugh.
    A poem is not pain,
    but you could cry, reading it.
    A poem is not a drem,
    but it can make you fly.
    A poem is not just "black words on a white paper",
    but it’s always much more than what it seems.
    A poem is not an argument,
    but it can make you say what you really think.
    A poem is not the Internet,
    but you can find whatever you want in it.
    A poem is not a jungle,
    but you may be afraid of it.
    A poem is not a pair of shoes,
    but you can walk along with it.
    A poem is not a lot of things,
    but you can find it wherever.

    …Silvia

  2. WHAT POEM’S NOT?
    A poem isn’t an art
    but it can be coloured
    a poem isn’t a mixture of letters
    but it’s a mix of deep emotions
    a poem isn’t a waste of time
    but it’s your freedom
    a poem isn’t a stupid way of saying something
    but it represents yourself, the way you’d like to be
    a poem isn’t the product of a writer
    but it’s the only thing that reminds us of our feelings
    a poem isn’t a page of a diary full of homework
    but it’s something that contains some of our happiest moments
    A poem isn’t ink on a white sheet of paper
    but it’s like a monsoon
    a poem isn’t a storm
    but it’s life
    a poem isn’t a film
    but it’s your life
    a poem isn’t rubbish
    but it’s your Bible

  3. A poem is not an ocean
    but it is often very deep.

    A poem is not a season,
    But it can change colours.

    A poem is not a plane,
    but it can teke you very high.

    A poem is not a flower,
    but it’s beautiful.

    A poem is not a mountain,
    but it can be hard to conquer.

    A poem is not a shoe,
    but it takes you far.

    A poem is not ice,
    but it can make you shiver.

    A poem is not a hand,
    but it can help you understand.

    A poem is not a chair,
    but you can get compfortable with it.

    A poem is not an alarm clock
    but it can wake you up.

    A poem is not a smile,
    but it definitively draws one on your face.

        Veronica

  4. A poem is not a Dream
    but it can be dreamy
    A poem is not a Person
    but you can give vent to your feelings
    A poem is not You
    but it can express your feelings
    A poem is not a Diamond
    but it can sparkle
    A poem is not a Clown
    but it can make you laugh
    A poem is not your Best Friend
    but it can reassure you
    A poem is not Air
    but people live thanks to it
    A poem is not Life
    but it can change yours
    A poem is not a Song
    but you can sing it
    A poem is not an Angel
    but it can protect you
    A poem is not a Pair of Wings
    but it can help you feel like touching the sky.

    …Giovanna

  5. A poem is not a rose,
    but it could hurt like a thorn…

    A poem is not a butterfly,
    but it’s kinda light…

    A poem is not a fruit,
    but it has its juice…

    A poem is not love,
    but sometimes it makes you feel it…

    A poem is not a crystal,
    but it is multifaceted…

    A poem is not a poison,
    but it could make you feel bad…

    A poem is not a song,
    but you can hear its music…

    A poem is not a window,
    but you can see through it…

    A poem is not wind,
    but it blows clearly…

    A poem is not food,
    but you can use it to feed your soul…

    A poem is not a wing,
    but you can fly with you imagination…

    A poem is not a cloud,
    but it could have a hidden meaning…

    Alessandro

  6. A poem is not shoe
    but it is useful for life

    A poem is not a pen
    but you should have it to write a poem

    A poem is not an eye
    but it sees you

    A poem is not a bottle
    but it is all the things inside a coke

    A poem is not a teddy bear
    but it is a big animal

    A poem is not a hand
    but it is your strong will

    A poem is not a person
    but it is a friend

    A poem is not a flower
    but you can find a lot of colour in it

    A poem is not a song
    but it is a lot of sounds, ready to be heard

                                                                                                     ….Elena

  7. A poem is not a costume but it could change…
    A poem is not a shoe but sometimes it could stink…
    A poem is not a napkin but it could help you when you’re unhappy…
    A poem is not the moon but it can be mysterious just like it…
    A poem is not a roof but it can protect you from undesired facts…
    A poem is not a mask but it can help you hide from something…
    A poem is not  a dish of lasagna but it can have the same wonderful taste…
    A poem is not the sun but you can feel its warmth….
    A poem is not an eye but somethimes it could be blind.

    Rossana

  8. LIFE,
    love
    interests
    family
    education.
    Every day we face problems
    and we make choices.
    We have a lot of things to do
    we are all in the same place,same situation
    but sometimes it does not depend on us:
    people judge,insult;
    they find whatever pretext to do it
    and they base their judgement only on apparence
    they do not know your story and your past.
    This shallow attitude is reinforced by mass-media
    they impose ideas,beliefs,trends.
    It is hard,but the choice is ours,
    we have only one life
    so we have to live it at our best.
    Yuo always meet people who do not like you
    or who judge you,
    but you have to try to not too much importance
    to what they say,also if it is difficult.
    Do what makes you feel happy,
    say what you think
    and remember it is worth it in the end.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.