Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Vibraphone

One of my favorite things to do when teaching a poetry writing class is to have the class (as a unit) decide on a poem title that they will all use when writing a new poem. Each student comes up with three, we write 'em all up on the board and then vote it down until we get one. I got the idea from Nance Van Winckel back when I was getting my MFA and it has served me well since. Previous titles in my classes have included "Flattened Penny Trainwreck" and "Reindeer Fury" (which was chosen at a time that was really not that close to Christmas, by the way).

So this semester, my advanced poetry class has come up with "Vibraphone" (which edged out "Damn Drunks"). Anyone want to give it a shot too? A poem with "Vibraphone" as a title. How tough can it be? I've been working on one too -- whether or not it has anything to do with this guy, I won't say:

The image “http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/2/26/250px-Vibraphone.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Say what you will about him. He's got an impressive instrument.

And, yeah, if anybody wants to share their Vibraphone poems, post 'em on the comments.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In high school Katie Hunn—
who one student suggested
should be called Katie the Hun,
except Katie was too pretty
to be Katie the Hun and that student
was never heard from again—
played the vibraphone in jazz band.

I always got good vibes
from Katie, perfect, blonde,
unassuming as the way her mallets brushed the vibes,
peppermint bubble gum, junior to my sophomore,
swim team, smile that cracked like a bug zapper,
powder blue, headband, dating the first alto sax,
Katie Hunn.

If I tilted my head just right,
like the tailing end of an eighth note,
I could see Katie between Holly
the piano player and the piano,
holding the mallets in multiples of two,
counting the rests with her mouth,
her vibes still ringing from seventeen counts ago.

You could only see her from the second alto chair
and that’s why I threw my audition.
With her eyes down, focused on connecting the chords,
she looked bored, and maybe she was,
but I liked to imagine her deep in concentration,
wondering what frequency would make the vibraphone
change from silver to gold.

Defunct Books said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Defunct Books said...

Oh, I was just going to mention that you stole that photo from Wikipedia, as you don't like to give credit for your heists.

Amanderpanderer said...

1. Drz...stick to playwriting.
2. credit schmedit.
3. who rang my dang doorbell, boyz?
4.
http://www.insanelygreattees.com/news/?p=27

(You are very welcome for the link. I expect to see these in use by Wednesday.)