Hi, and thanks for reading! Today is Monday, so we’re going to talk about poetry.
If you want to go directly to the poetry exercise, and skip all this “recipe blog” backstory, scroll to the next subhead.
This post was GOING to be a normal poetry post, chock full of smart, inventive, insightful ideas. But then…Southwest cancelled my flight to New York, rescheduling my Sunday morning trip to Tuesday afternoon! Which, hey, I maybe deserve after the frantic December debacle with the very same airline. Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me twice? Well, nice job, asshole, you did it again!
I don’t trust Southwest anymore so Sophia and I requested a refund for our rescheduled (and ill-timed) Tuesday flights, then booked a new one on American Airlines for tonight. And, no, Southwest did not reimburse us for the last-minute new-flight purchase. When I’m done with work for the day I’m going to clock out, hop in the car and cross my fingers that there are no delays/cancellations and that our layover is easy-peasy. I hope I can sleep the whole flight since I get into NYC at (checks notes) 11:15pm.
So, a really brief poetry post for you. Do you know about the packing list Joan Didion kept taped inside her closet? Well, if not, click that Smithsonian link, get lightly familiar, and then move on.
Exercise: The Packing List
This one is so short I’m not even making you set a timer. You’re going to be writing five short lists, then harvesting them for a list poem.
List ten things you always pack when you travel.
List the ten best souvenirs you ever bought (or were given as a gift).
List ten objects in your home which possess a secret significance.
List ten things you have lost, but still think about and have tried to find or replace.
List ten pieces of media – books, albums, magazines, Great Courses lectures on audio tape – you have fond memories of.
Pick three items from each of those lists (so, a total of fifteen). Arrange them, as you see fit, under two headings: “To Pack” and “To Carry.” Do not offer any explanation or context for what these items are, why they belong where you placed them, or their relation to one another.