Incendiary Lit

I was flipping through the 2005 Best American Poetry today and I stumbled upon a page marked with a lottery ticket from November 2006. Like a year after I’d bought the book, so apparently I’ve previously revisited the anthology. Although there’re poems that sacrifice substance entirely for wit, which are cute, (Best?) but there are quite a few really good poems. This one, Jessica Goodheart’s “Advice for a Stegosaurus” was funny, but also carried a cool message. Also it has something of a formula, which is like writing a poem in a formal structure, so let’s see the poem, and how to write your own “Advice” poem

Advice for a Stegosaurus

Never mind the asteroid,
the hot throat of the volcano,
a sun that daily drops into the void.

Comb the drying riverbed for drink.
Strut your bird-hipped body.
Practice a lizard grin. Don’t think.

Stretch out your tail. Walk as you must,
in a slow deliberate gait.
Don’t look back, Dinosaur. Dust is dust.

You’ll leave your bones, your fossil feet
and armored eye-lids.
Put your chin to the wind. Eat what you eat.

——–

Take either an animal (or perhaps person) and give it advice structured like the poem. As in:

“Never mind ____,
(another thing to not think about)
(another)

(Instruct to do something simple)
(and another thing.)
(One more short thing,) Don’t _____.

(another simple, everyday instruction)
(another instruction)
Don’t look (direction), _____. Dust is dust.

You’ll leave (insert a personal item or memento)
(another item)
Put your _____ to the wind. ______ what you ______

————–
Now, obviously you’ll be tweaking the form here and there, which is good, but use the form as a firestarter for the mammoth flames of your genius. Word. Oh, by the way, the poem originally appeared The Antioch Review, a fabulous magazine which is carrying on despite Antioch (OH) College closing. Then it was picked by the new New Yorker poetry editor for the 2005 Best American poetry (the red one). Enjoy.

Posted: Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Category: Poems, Exercises, Uncategorized.