Wattpad Poetry Workshop

Workshop 1: Capturing a Moment

Written by: ChayAvalerias

Poems often communicate a story or an idea that resonates with the reader. They present powerful images and compelling thoughts which leave lasting impressions. Basically, poems capture moments in life, like a situation or an emotion.

So how do poets capture a moment?

Let's take a look at a poem written by Jill Bialosky, from her book The End of Desire.

Fathers in the Snow

~

After father died

the love was all through the house

untamed and sometimes violent.

When the dates came we went up to our rooms

and mother entertained.

Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night,"

the smell of Chanel No.5 in her hair and the laughter.

We sat crouched at the top of the stairs.

In the morning we found mother asleep on the couch

her hair messed, and the smell

of stale liquor in the room.

We knelt on the floor before her,

one by one touched our fingers

over the red flush in her face.

The chipped sunlight through the shutters.

It was a dark continent

we and mother shared;

it was sweet and lonesome,

the wake men left in our house.

In the poem above, the readers are left with this very sweet and sad scene where the speaker and her sibling kneel by their mother in the morning after her evening date.

This poem suggests some useful strategies for capturing a moment.

1) Use concrete imagery. Concrete images help the reader construct a mental image from the poem. For example, the first two lines,

"love was all through the house/untamed and sometimes violent,"

makes the reader imagine love floating about the house a sharp wind, "Untamed and sometimes violent."

Later, we get details like Chanel No. 5, crouched, hair messed, stale liquor, red flush, etc. Concrete images are essential to capturing a moment.

2) Build a story around the images. Can you see the story in this poem? Father died. Then these children are asked to go to bed while mother tries to have dates. Did you see the mother play the Sinatra music and put on perfume? And did you imagine the children sitting at the top of the stairs listening to the laughter?

3) Give the moment deeper meaning. At the end of the poem, the children are left watching over their mother.

"It was sweet and lonesome/the wake men left in our house."

I call this last stanza the "clincher." The goal of the clincher is to leave a lasting impression on the reader by evoking a larger theme about life that resonates with readers. (Of course not all poems have or even need a clincher, but it can really help make certain the moments more memorable.)

What if the moment you want to capture is more of a thought rather than a scene? Let's take a look at a favorite poem by Shel Silverstein

Whatif

~

Last night, while I lay thinking here,

Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear

And pranced and partied all night long

And sang their same old Whatif song:

Whatif I'm dumb in school?

Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?

Whatif I get beat up?

Whatif there's poison in my cup?

Whatif I start to cry?

Whatif I get sick and die?

Whatif I flunk that test?

Whatif green hair grows on my chest?

Whatif nobody likes me?

Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?

Whatif I don't grow taller?

Whatif my head starts getting smaller?

Whatif the fish won't bite?

Whatif the wind tears up my kite?

Whatif they start a war?

Whatif my parents get divorced?

Whatif the bus is late?

Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?

Whatif I tear my pants?

Whatif I never learn to dance?

Everything seems swell, and then

The nighttime Whatifs strike again!

In this poem above, can you see how Silverstein used imagery to make the thinking more concrete and real? Can you pick up on the story in the poem about the speaker getting ready for bed and then suddenly having these thoughts going through his mind? What about the clincher? Do those final lines give the poem just a little more substance and deeper meaning?

I hope you answered yes to these questions. I also hope you found these ideas useful.

Practice trying to capture a moment in your poetry this month.