Afflatus or Projacking

[Tinker]

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry
Invented Forms

Afflatus and/or Projack

• Afflatus is defined as "the act of blowing or breathing on" and also "overmastering impulse". As a poetic genre, it is the response to an existing poem by another poet in spirit, construction, theme etc inspiring one's own creation.. Afflatus is taking inspiration from another poem, when using the same structure it is the same as Projacking.
   
• Projacking is an exercise in writing learned from a poetry workshop on-line. Basically it means writing a poem using the frame or structure from a published nonce poem written by another.  All of the recognized verse forms were "projacked" at one time or another. The very first sonnet was projacked by someone who imitated the sonnet frame using their own words and thoughts. Now there are many variations of sonnets, all because someone imitated or copied the structure of another's poem.
  
  I am pretty sure William Carlos Williams, writing the Red Wheelbarrow did not think he was creating a new verse form. But we know from Donald Hall's "How to Read a Poem", the frame of the poem is duplicated in an exercise directed by the text, there must be hundreds maybe thousands of "wheelbarrows" out there somewhere. The "wheelbarrow" isn't in the New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics or most other verse form books, but it has been projacked and the form is developing a following. 
  
  So if you see a poem you particularly admire, give projacking a try. You might discover something about writing you didn't know before and it might even remove some inhibitions you may have, it did me. The first poem I chose to projack was homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton. Honestly when I put my own words and thoughts to the frame created by Ms. Clifton I wrote something that I probably would never have written without following her lead. I learned a great deal about writing from this simple exercise.
  1. Find a published poem you enjoy.
  2. Do a thorough explication of the poem. Study the content, the intent, opening, progression, and conclusion, the poetic devices used, line count and length, stanza separation, figurative speech used, alliteration, assonance, enjambment, caesura, rhyme scheme, etc. What makes this poem special?
  3. Imitate the frame or structure of the poem using your own thoughts and words.
  4. With your poem, you should recognize the poet and poem that inspired your work.
     
     leg-acy by Judi Van Gorder (projacked from homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton)
     
     these legs are long legs
     they need room to
     stretch and flex.
     they do not scrunch up into tight
     quarters, these legs
     are boundless
     they won't break stride.
     these legs have trudged up mountains,
     they carry the weight of a family
     they have run the race of survival
     these legs are strong legs
     these legs are dancer's legs.
     i have been known to bare them
     to draw his eyes
     and bring him to his knees!

[Tinker]

I consider this poem unfinished and I am posting it here to work on it.

There was a recent email that included a poem I had never seen before by A.A. Milne. I loved it. No way could I capture that genius in a projacked poem but I'm giving it a shot anyway. Market Square Well a short shot, I'm just writing the first 2 stanzas. I may come back and try to add to it but the poem Market Square is cleverly constructed from beginning to end and a monster to imitate in full and make any sense. Here is a feeble attempt. I loved the repetition, the rhythm and the clever construction of a tale from beginning to the end.

Genius in Simple Verse Projacked from A.A. Milne's Market Square

I purchased a ribbon
a silky yellow ribbon
and I tied that ribbon
to a leather purse.
I found a marble
a small blue marble
and I saved that marble
to capture in verse.

So I sat at my desk where I pen my thoughts
Well I tried to write down my fleeting thoughts
But marbles and ribbons scrambled those thoughts
It's Milne's genius I try to capture in verse.
                             ~~Judi Van Gorder 

[Tinker]

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