Poem for Momma

Poem for Momma

 

            for the mother of George Floyd

 

Someone kneeled on the neck

of a man, and now the man

is gone. It’s an old story, flesh

muscling into flesh, the slim pipe

of the trachea opening a little

so hardly anything gets in or out,

but what does manage to escape

is his dead mother’s name.

 

I’m “Mom” to my sons, and I want

to be a good one. They’re white,

but kind, and the young one

doesn’t understand, but his brother

begins to, and so I beg them both,

the way all mothers should,

for George’s mom, whose name

I can’t find, but whom we all know

 

as “Momma”—for Momma, please,

be a witness. Be a witness.

    —Karen Craigo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKHwlFm_Pzw

Write-in? Right on!

Missouri Poet Laureate Karen Craigo invites poets and writers from Missouri and beyond to a morning write-in this Saturday, June 6, from 8 to 10 a.m.

We will meet via Zoom, and you are welcome to pop in and out as you wish. The plan is to write most of the time before ending with a brief period of discussion. There is no pressure to produce — just show up and do your thing.

If you would like to participate, please RSVP to Karen at campmopo@gmail.com, and she will send you an invitation. Hope to see you there!

Take an “Excavation Vacation”

Are you feeling a little cooped up, hemmed in, boxed up? Maybe what you need is a vacation.

Missouri Poet Laureate Karen Craigo invites you to take an “Excavation Vacation” 1-3 p.m. Sunday, June 14.

Join other poets from Missouri and the wider world as we talk poetry, try some prompts, and even meditate our way into deeper material for our writing. Poets of all ability levels are welcome to join us for a small escape that we hope will lead to exciting new work. The goal is to dig deep for ideas that can move us out of our suddenly too-small spaces and into the limitless realm of the imagination.

The Missouri Poet Laureate is supported by the Missouri Arts Council, and this is a free event. Non-Missourians who wish to participate are welcome, but we invite you to make a donation of any size to any Missouri arts organization, like the Springfield Art Museum, https://tinyurl.com/ycm338hv, to show your support. (We operate on the honor system, but we would love to know which organization you’re supporting!)

Write to Karen at campmopo@gmail.com to reserve a spot for this Zoom-based session. The deadline to let her know is June 13, but sooner is better.

Prompt: Really see the world

 

 

For this exercise, I invite you to get out in nature and observe the world close up.

Once I watched a butterfly very closely as it did its work, moving from blossom to blossom. But then it took off and flew straight up, higher and higher until it became a mere speck, and then, after, an imagined speck. I'm pretty sure I kept tracking it long after I actually lost it in the sky.

I was surprised that butterflies could go so high. Maybe something in your world will surprise you if you look at it long enough and study it closely enough.

That's your assignment, then: Observe something longer than you ever have before, and then tell us about it in a poem.

Prompt: Gardening

 

 

It's the time of year when a lot of people start to think about gardening. I don't know the first thing about the topic, aside from the fact that I've tried tomatoes year after year, only to have some unknown critter eat each ripening bulb shortly before I might pick it.

In this exercise, write about planting your own garden. What would you include, and why? Please feel free to be either practical or fanciful. You should plant the things you're hungriest for.

Prompt: Road trip

 

 

Wouldn't you love a road trip right about now?

Imagine you can drive anywhere you want. There are no limits to how you take off or where you go. You can take any companion you wish, or you can enjoy blissful solitude.

Write a poem in which you drive somewhere. How does it feel to be moving in a direction of your own choosing? What is the first thing you will do when you arrive in Memphis, in Kathmandu, on the moon?

Prompt: Party time

 

 

This exercise invites you to throw a dinner party.

Obviously, you shouldn't invite a half-dozen friends over for an actual meal, but there is no stay-at-home order in poetry. We can invite anyone we wish to the resplendent table of our imagination.

Choose as many guests as you wish. They can be living or dead. You can be alone with Ryan Reynolds, or you can pull up a chair at the Last Supper. 

 

Write a poem about a conversation overheard at your table. What do you have to say to Amelia Earhart, and what does she tell you? What joke does Grandma Moses tell Aristophanes? What recipe does Abraham Lincoln share with Gloria Steinem? There is no limit to the number of poems you can get out of this exercise, and as a bonus, you get to expand your conversations beyond your own all-too-familiar quarantine companions.

Prompt: Make a record

I write a lot about my own life. Often, my topic is the unusual, meaning something out-of-the-ordinary that has happened to me. But as many of us spend time in our homes, maybe this is a good occasion to celebrate ordinary days.

For this exercise, pinpoint an ordinary, unremarkable, often repeated part of your day. Make it something like peeling potatoes or washing a dish or sitting on your back porch for a quiet cup of coffee.

Pay exquisitely close attention to that dish — the circular motion the hand makes, the slickness of the suds, the way you work at a stubborn spot with your thumbnail. Record the washing of that dish as if future generations are fully dependent upon your record. Tell what it meant to be a person, alive, washing a dish in the pandemic of 2020.

Suggestion: Think small

So many of us are self-isolating right now — a perfect condition for writing, right?

Wrong. Almost every writer I know is telling me that writing is especially hard for them right now. Some are educating their children at home, and some are trying to juggle work life and home life in the same four walls.

Aside from this, many of us are preoccupied by the news and by concerns for loved ones. I feel like writing takes my whole heart — and my heart is on sister, who is a nurse on the front lines of the epidemic, and on my family, who I have to keep safe and comforted.

If I get a single sentence written down, I feel pretty good about it — and it occurs to me that this is the key to successfully writing through a pandemic.

Today, I challenge you to think small. Check in with yourself by writing a single sentence that expresses something essential about your day. Obviously, if you feel like writing more, go for it! String a few sentences together and you can really start to get somewhere — in prose or in poetry, for art’s sake or for your spirit’s.

If you like your one true sentence, make an appointment with yourself to write another one tomorrow. Maybe you’ll end up with a diary of sorts from this unusual time in our culture. Or maybe that sentence will be a launching pad for more writing to come. After all, getting started is the key to creating, and some days it feels like the hardest part.

Welcome, campers!

Welcome to Camp MoPo!

I’m Karen Craigo. As Poet Laureate of the State of Missouri, it is my privilege to promote Missouri poetry (MoPo) throughout my term, and I have a lot of neat things in mind to do so.

This website is home base for these activities. My original plan was to showcase place-based poetry from around the Show-Me State. I want to highlight all of the beautiful areas of our state, whether urban, rural, or sort of in between. There are some beautiful, historic, and just plain cool areas to promote and preserve, and it’s my goal to feature a poem highlighting each of Missouri’s 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis.

Are you a Missouri poet? Please consider writing or sending along a poem about a special place in your county. Together, we can share the beauty and wonder of Missouri to readers both inside and outside of our state.

Here are a few other projects to watch out for:

* Camping. We’re actually going to do some camping in the late summer and early fall, if health officials give us the go-ahead. Four campouts are planned for poets who would like to gather and write about the natural beauty of Missouri. More information will be posted as I solidify the details.

* Classroom enrichment. As a lot of classes have gone online, I’m making available educational capsules for teachers to use in their classroom, and I am also available for real-time online visits. If you are a teacher and you need any sort of poetry resource to facilitate online learning, please drop me a note.

* An anthology. Just in time for Missouri’s bicentennial in 2021, we’ll be compiling an anthology of Missouri poets writing about our state. Moon City Press at Missouri State University is our publisher. (Thanks, MSU!)

* Inspiration, motivation, and comfort. Keep an eye on this blog for prompts, poems, and some good, old-fashioned writing fun. Your guest posts are welcome as well.

I look forward to some creative fun with you in the coming days!