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What Makes A Memorable Poem? | Allan Kolski Horwitz
Wed, 17 April 2024
Why do we write poetry?
For many, writing poems is a way of making sense of their everyday experience. But at some point, most of us want to find words that will move others by being strong enough to be memorable.
Allan Kolski Horwitz is a poet, editor and publisher. He has published collections of plays and short stories as well as several collections of poetry. In 2019, his poetry collection, The Colours of Our Flag, won the Olive Schreiner Prize. He is also the poetry editor of Botsotso Publishing (www.botsotso.org.za), one of the most reliable sources of fresh new voices in South African poetry.
We asked Allan to share his impressions of what makes for a memorable poem. Instead of sending a recipe or formula, he shared two powerful poems of his own. In the first, he offers his impressions of what it feels like to be deeply immersed in a memorable poem. In the second, taken from The Colours of Our Flag, he describes the process of editing and refining one’s poems once they are committed to the page or screen.
First poem:
What Makes a Memorable Poem?
When one is sucked into its ocean by a powerful wave
when the wave has a rich odour not unlike salt and rotting seaweed mixed with frangipani
when the tide rises and falls allowing for satisfying comprehension tinged with mystery…
What makes a poem memorable?
When the heart pumps filing the arteries and still provisioning the veins
when the blood is rich and lean even as it always sustains
when the music of the pump is in sync with a multitude of djembes…
In short, what makes a poem memorable?
When it seizes one’s imagination
when one is drawn in by the flow and richness of its language
when the concepts presented are thought-provoking
when the metaphors are apt, fresh and comprehensible
when gimmicks and pedantry are absent
when style is wedded to tone and content…
Second poem:
DO IT
First of all, do it; then once you’ve done it let the words spin out
a whirlpool dart in from the fringes allow the flow
of ragged cataracts to straighten into
deep channels so that a state of swirl
subsides
becomes clear and still as the foaming vision of prophets
those truthful fantasies voices in rhythm
with the desert and the valley
machinery of the intellect
in hand with the rolling tongue telling drama
an ancient space one to honour
as you
shape and re-shape
read your neighbour’s palms
then love your fresh page
and make your own
script/scrawl of the living
island and mainland visited in
daylight and darkness
delivering merciful judgement recording
revelation
you do this because you need to follow and leave
traces in the sand
beside the raging river
Allan adds, “However mysterious it seems, a good poem is something radically everyday and always at hand. It is possible to ask what makes for a memorable poem in the same way that we ask what makes a memorable stew or pizza, wedding or funeral or dance step.”
In the coming days, identify a powerful poem that has left tracks beside the raging river of your own life. Then enter into a conversation with that poem by writing one of your own. Just write down the first words and see where the tracks lead.
The AVBOB Poetry Competition reopens its doors on 1 August 2024. Please visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za to familiarise yourself with the competition rules and to read some winning poems from previous years.
For many, writing poems is a way of making sense of their everyday experience. But at some point, most of us want to find words that will move others by being strong enough to be memorable.
Allan Kolski Horwitz is a poet, editor and publisher. He has published collections of plays and short stories as well as several collections of poetry. In 2019, his poetry collection, The Colours of Our Flag, won the Olive Schreiner Prize. He is also the poetry editor of Botsotso Publishing (www.botsotso.org.za), one of the most reliable sources of fresh new voices in South African poetry.
We asked Allan to share his impressions of what makes for a memorable poem. Instead of sending a recipe or formula, he shared two powerful poems of his own. In the first, he offers his impressions of what it feels like to be deeply immersed in a memorable poem. In the second, taken from The Colours of Our Flag, he describes the process of editing and refining one’s poems once they are committed to the page or screen.
First poem:
What Makes a Memorable Poem?
When one is sucked into its ocean by a powerful wave
when the wave has a rich odour not unlike salt and rotting seaweed mixed with frangipani
when the tide rises and falls allowing for satisfying comprehension tinged with mystery…
What makes a poem memorable?
When the heart pumps filing the arteries and still provisioning the veins
when the blood is rich and lean even as it always sustains
when the music of the pump is in sync with a multitude of djembes…
In short, what makes a poem memorable?
When it seizes one’s imagination
when one is drawn in by the flow and richness of its language
when the concepts presented are thought-provoking
when the metaphors are apt, fresh and comprehensible
when gimmicks and pedantry are absent
when style is wedded to tone and content…
Second poem:
DO IT
First of all, do it; then once you’ve done it let the words spin out
a whirlpool dart in from the fringes allow the flow
of ragged cataracts to straighten into
deep channels so that a state of swirl
subsides
becomes clear and still as the foaming vision of prophets
those truthful fantasies voices in rhythm
with the desert and the valley
machinery of the intellect
in hand with the rolling tongue telling drama
an ancient space one to honour
as you
shape and re-shape
read your neighbour’s palms
then love your fresh page
and make your own
script/scrawl of the living
island and mainland visited in
daylight and darkness
delivering merciful judgement recording
revelation
you do this because you need to follow and leave
traces in the sand
beside the raging river
Allan adds, “However mysterious it seems, a good poem is something radically everyday and always at hand. It is possible to ask what makes for a memorable poem in the same way that we ask what makes a memorable stew or pizza, wedding or funeral or dance step.”
In the coming days, identify a powerful poem that has left tracks beside the raging river of your own life. Then enter into a conversation with that poem by writing one of your own. Just write down the first words and see where the tracks lead.
The AVBOB Poetry Competition reopens its doors on 1 August 2024. Please visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za to familiarise yourself with the competition rules and to read some winning poems from previous years.
