“Spit to Soot” is inspired by Charles Ghigna’s (“Father Goose”) poem found in Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres.
Ghigna’s poem is an mentor/model text that demonstrates how a writer might “Mirror a Cycle of Time.”
Caterpillar Dreams
In the emerald dew of morning,
the plump caterpillar
nibbles her final leaf,
reaches a hollow twig,
hangs upside down,
a tiny acrobat.
In the crystal quiet
August afternoon,
she spins her silky cocoon
and weaves her evening dreams
into a satin quilt
of silver wings.
This approach is a part of Writers Structure Text. The structure of Ghigna’s poem includes (but is not limited to):
- Four stanzas that are divided into two tercets enjambed to create a singular sentence
- Tercets 1 and 2 enjamb to create a sentence reflecting the morning.
- Tercets 1 and 2 employ a list of three activities followed by a sort of predicate nominative of caterpillar.
- Tercets 3 and 4 enjamb to create a sentence reflecting the afternoon.
- Each sentence begins with a metaphorical space that emulate a jewel or a gem to describe the moment.
- Two sentences shrink a day into two distinct moments demonstrating poetry’s ability to present even time in a succinct manner that highlights the hour without losing the reader to each minute.
- Ghigna builds in alliteration and assonance within the stanzas to give a poetic feel without giving way to the poetic form (this invites the reader after the fact to look a little more closely at how the poet achieves huge effect in such short space.
And, now, here is our James Castle themed poem.
“Soot to Spit”
In another wax-cartoned morning,
a curious artist awakes
and makes ready for the day
the scrape-away that will
now become a face
or a space.
In the darkened, drawn-sun sky
of day now gone-by,
the artist hangs another piece
upon a crowded, slab wood wall
to join the homemade body
of his work.