Hi Poetry Pals welcome back to another
video I've got some really exciting
things coming up next week we're
actually whilst this video is coming out
I will be at the hip yack poetry school
learning all about how to step my game
up in terms of making a career as a poet
and I will be vlogging that experience
and sharing that with you Simba please
make sure you subscribe to make sure you
catch that video but this week I am
writing a reverse poem and I am going to
teach you how to do it this is the first
time I've done a request and the request
was forgiven to be by Malaika Malaika
kagebi who is a Bristol based poet and
event producer I am open to requests I
do have another request which is to do
how to write a Sistina that is coming
the sistine is really hard and I'm
having to do a lot of research into how
to do that so please bear with from now
we are going to do a reverse poem a
reverse poem is a poem that you can read
top to bottom and it means one thing and
then you read it backwards and it means
another thing a great example of this is
Jonathan Reid's lost generation which if
you read the right way through from top
to bottom has a pretty pessimistic view
of the world and what life is like and
then you get to the bottom and it tells
you to choose to reverse it and if you
read it backwards it gives you an
entirely different outlook far more
optimistic to read a reverse poem is a
poem that you can read forwards and
backwards and it makes sense but also
means two different things
yeah so you get it it's hard without
further ado let's get into it
step one you've got to come up with an
idea now obviously is our idea is we're
going to write a reverse poem but you
kind of need to know what you're talking
about anyway
you could go for something quite big and
political and you know defining our
generation like Jonathan reads poem Lost
Generation you could write it about your
school friends or is worth saying that I
spent a lot of time researching this and
the most useful article I found is pen
and the pad and you should definitely
check that out and I'll leave a link in
the description below my idea is coming
from a poetry prompt group that I am a
part of and my prompt was the smell of
the season and so I'm going to think
about the ways that I can it doesn't
have to be opposing views but make it
different the next step after you've got
your idea is finding a space to write
and I am back on my living room floor I
would love to be somewhere else but
currently my house is being redone and
that's not happening
so back on my living room floor and I'm
ready to go
I'm actually really thirsty so make sure
your space to write is well fed and
watered I will be right back
the next step is to actually read a
reverse poem I feel like this is good
advice for any form that you're trying
to write is actually read the poems that
you are trying to emulate um this is a
good point that I haven't included in
any of my videos before and it wasn't
until I was reading pen and the page and
they were like how about you read the
poem you read a format the poem you're
gonna write and I'm saying wow that's a
good idea
thank you pen and the page so go out and
read a poem that is a reversed poem I
hand some recommend Jonathan Reed's Lost
Generation Death
a good one and when you're reading that
poem have a little look at how it's
constructed you might find that some
every other line
is a generic line that hasn't got to do
with the subject matter of the poem I
tell you this it doesn't mean that is
better than things like that what I keep
trying to call connected like connective
lines this is really important to like
understand so go and read the poem oh
the poem that I'm talking about is
available online - all chuckle link in
the description below for you to have a
go now we're gonna move on to our mind
map and I am going to start with the
center of my mind map being sound of the
season on one side I want to start
listing complete phrases of about my
subject both positive and negative or
whichever turn you're trying to be I am
going to go for a bit more of an easier
positive and negative vibe and just
write down those phrases so I don't know
if spring is better than winter or that
sort of thing okay so mind map come up
with completely phrases related to the
subject and mark where you could use in
John Berman enjoyment is when a line
break happens partway through a sentence
or clause so when you're coming up with
these complete phrases do a dash or
something to mark where you could break
them up and then come up with your
connecting lines as well and come up
with all of your possibilities and
really take your mind of time on this
mind map because it's gonna really help
in a bit okay let's go
okay once you have completed your my map
I am feeling very nervous because I
don't think I've done enough but we'll
see this is the bit the most useful bit
what you need to do then is having
marked your moments of in John Berman
then you can write your lines on test
bits of paper you scrap paper because
come on let's be sustainable and then
instead of stitching from a free write
with stitching using these bits of paper
to play around with it and have a go so
that's what I'm going to do I'm going to
write some of my lines on here and see
if I can come up with a poem out of it
okay so once you've written your poem
your lines on the sheets you then want
to lay them out and trying to arrange
them into a poem and then make sure it
makes sense going backwards as it does
forwards and so I thought I would share
with you my first draft of this poem
please forgive me it is a first draft
and I wanted to keep it quite simple for
myself so this is not the most
revolutionary reverse poem I'll be
honest with you so here it is as green
shoots peek through long dead earth we
hold on to each other
lying in fresh fields of new life we are
all surrounded by the smell of
possibility so that's one way to
surrounded by the smell of possibility
we are all in fresh fields of new life
lying to each other we hold on through
dead earth as green shoots peak so I'll
be honest with you it didn't quite end
up being as you know uniquely positive
and then uniquely negative mainly
because I found myself and I've been
reading all of these reverse poems and
they started feeling really obvious to
me that that was like you cannot say
that and stuff like that so I wanted to
do one that just flowed in both
directions and I think that manages it
and I think it has some sort of ominous
vibe to it so the next steps as you
would do would be to write it out neat
and then to tweak and edit ask yourself
have you said it in the best way you can
not just the first way that comes to
mind but have you come up with the best
way of saying that piece you can then
move on to the next steps of revising it
editing it and workshopping it reading
it out loud
I think reverse poems would be a really
interesting thing to do live in front of
an audience to see if people notice that
yes the reverse poem there you go have a
go at it if you want to leave your
version of your poem in the comments
down below I look forward to reading
them and or seeing them online or
putting them wherever you put them I'm
looking forward to hearing it so that's
it for this week thank you so much for
watching please make sure you like this
video and subscribe to my channel and do
all of the usual YouTube things as I
said next week I will be at the hip yack
poetry school and I will be vlogging my
experiences so you can catch up on that
next week let me know in the comments
down below if there is a particular form
of poetry that you would like me to do a
video on or anything surrounding poetry
or anything that you would like me to
make a how-to video on and I will try my
best
thanks very much for watching I'll see
you all next week thanks very much bye
