► SPECIALIZED SEED WORDS/GREAT POETS SOULSPEAK
There is a specialized way of developing seed words that revolves around a version of SOULSPEAK for children, called: Great Poets SOULSPEAK. It works well with middle and elementary school students. The idea is to bring every child in the class immediately into the world of poetry, and that means every child and immediately. This is done using the SOULSPEAK process along with seed words taken from a great poem.
The poems of Robert Frost are an excellent source because they are simple in vocabulary, narrative in form, and (although they are truly great poems) they can be understood on some level at almost any age. Generally, the children write their speakings (in stream of consciousness form) because the objective is to use the SOULSPEAK process to bring them into the great world of written poetry. After they have created their SOULSPEAK poems, they are shown the Frost poem from which the seed words were taken. It brings them into the big leagues immediately. They know how to ride the bike. Maybe they don’t know how it works, what the brakes are for, or the gear changer, but they know how to ride. When they are shown the Frost poem they see what he did with the same words, or the feelings represented by the seed words.
You should see the intensity on their faces as they read the Frost poem. They learn more about great poetry in those few moments than they could ever learn by more didactic methods. The Frost poem is then used to illustrate the mechanics of written poetry, i.e. the rules for line break, stanza break, and so on. The children rewrite their written, stream of consciousness speakings to conform with these rules. What makes it so powerful is that the poems created by the SOULSPEAK process are not trivial poems. Frost would be proud of them. And the kids know it. Their bodies know it.
► VISUAL CATALYSTS
At the current time, three forms of visual catalysts are used in the SOULSPEAK process: masks, paintings, and videos. The masks and paintings are used to create a set of seed words through a specialized extraction technique. These seed words are then used to create a speaking that is related to the mask or painting. In the video technique, the speaking is created spontaneously from the changing images, which are particularly powerful catalysts. They also allow you to marry your speaking (as a soundtrack) to the video image.
► Soulmasks
A mask is created (or a picture of an actual primitive mask is chosen) by the potential speaker. The speaker then asks the following questions of the mask and writes down the answers:
• What season of the year is this mask worn?
• What color in the mask is most appealing?
• Who does this mask remind you of besides yourself?
• What is the main emotion the mask is feeling?
• What is the opposite of that emotion?
• Where is this mask worn?
• What animal does the mask remind you of?
You will wind up with a good set of seven seed words close in composition to the Seven Categories Rule. You then create a spontaneous speaking, not as yourself, but as the persona of the mask, i.e., you speak as the mask would. I call this process SOULMASK. There is an imaginative freedom resulting from the speaker becoming the mask. I’ve had sixth grade children create poetry of such a complex texture you’d swear it came from adults.
► Paintings
Use a painting or photograph by the potential speaker, or chosen by the speaker. The painting or picture should be narrative and not abstract in any way. It should revolve around a figure or figures. If the picture has been made by the speaker, quality is not important. Otherwise, the painting (or picture) should be a masterpiece. This process is called SOULART. The questions asked are as follows:
Which color is the most appealing to you?
What emotion is the main figure feeling?
What is the opposite of that emotion?
Who (member of your family—including yourself) does the main figure remind you of?
What time of day is the painting taking place?
What thing or object in the painting is the most appealing to you?
Where is this painting taking place?
When you have a good set of seven seed words, create the speaking in the persona of the main figure.
► Videos
The following technique is best used with a narrative painting or collage that is extremely dense in construction. If the artist who made the visual is available, ask them to create a video of it at extremely close range so as to reveal only one or two elements at a time as the camera travels slowly through the work. Otherwise, do it yourself. How the camera travels through the work is up to the cameraman, but the idea is to create a new work of art, one that reveals itself in a river of time. When the video is finished, play it back and create a soundtrack speaking using the images as “seed words.” This process is called SOULVIDEO.
NOTE: In our studio, we do this all at once, improvisationaLly, adding the cameraman/artist as a fifth member to our normal four-person SOULSPEAK group, MANY VOICES. This way the cameraman can react to what the four other members are doing and vice versa. Try this after you have mastered all the other catalyst techniques. It is extremely powerful, directly stimulating the right brain as you speak.
You now have a variety of CATALYSTS to get you speaking. All of them are easily accomplished.
As you can also easily create a video that includes both the visual and audio portions of the various visual forms of SOULSPEAK, you can create an album of visual speakings of extraordinary beauty. We have also found that is a good way to introduce others to SOULSPEAK. After all, we live in a highly visual culture. One of the problems I’ve experienced in introducing people to SOULSPEAK is that they want something to look at. They find it difficult to just listen, which, by the way, becomes much easier once you start to do SOULSPEAK. Still, why fight traffic? Since the visual forms of SOULSPEAK offer a convenient doorway through which strangers can experience its beauty, why not use it? And what makes it particularly intriguing is that the visuals are so intimately related to the speakings. When you view or create a SOULSPEAK piece using visual catalysts, you begin to sense what tribal man experienced in his multi-faceted portrayals of the soul. I consider SOULSPEAK to be an evolving art form that can be used by anyone, and I literally mean anyone. What forms it may take and to what ends it may be used are up to those who learn it. I do know this: SOULSPEAK will change your life if you let it. By this I mean once you create a speaking, and most especially a speaking with others, a door will open within you. You may choose to close that door forever or walk through it, but, either way, you will never be the same.
16. SOULSPEAK as an Aid to Writing Poetry
The self makes verse; the soul makes poetry.
This chapter is intended for those who are writing poetry but having difficulty composing their poems. SOULSPEAK can be of immense help if your poems are coming in little bursts, or pieces—like static-filled, incomplete radio broadcasts that you then try to stitch together. This happens to all poets in the very beginning. But quite soon, if they are poets of genius (or after many years of work if they’re not), a breakthrough occurs and the poems begin to come quite easily—almost completely formed. This happens when you stop bouncing between the self and the soul as the poem comes to you. You stay in the zone of the soul and forget what the self is saying to you. The self always wants to play it safe. It gets scared and wants to pull you up from the deep dive of the soul. What you wind up with then is little bursts of poetry between big slices of self. Nobody wants that sandwich.
Another way of describing that eventual breakthrough is to say that the channel between self and soul somehow changes from an on again/off again dirt road to a four-lane highway. Once that happens, it’s hard to go wrong. As shown in workshops conducted for developing poets of all ages, the SOULSPEAK process can affect that breakthrough in a matter of hours. All you need is the courage to throw away everything you know about writing poetry for a few hours and create some speakings. The act of speaking automatically creates a very wide channel between the self and the soul—re-opening a buried channel. The feeling associated with being on this new, wide channel will remind you to stay off the dirt road when you return to writing poetry. You’ll know what it feels like to be on the expressway. When you go back to writing, not only will your poems begin to form quite easily, but also an alarm will go off whenever you start to slip off the expressway. You’ll feel it.
The reason poets get stuck initially on the dirt road is due to the “Lorenz factor.” When you write your first poems, you’re very much like the newly hatched goslings the naturalist Hans Lorenz observed attaching themselves to the first moving body they saw. In Lorenz’s experiments, he made himself the first body his newly hatched goslings saw, so that they immediately (and permanently) locked on to him as if he were their real mother. They followed him around everywhere, despite his lack of feathers. Similarly, when our very first poems come to us, we unconsciously (and perhaps consciously) assume many of the forms and poses and attitudes of the poet (or poets) who first awakened the spirit of poetry in us. It happens to everybody. Poets of genius soon slough that costume off and create their own. But everyone else has to work on it.
One of the reasons your poems may be coming to you incompletely is that you’re still trying to fit your soul into someone else’s costume. This may have worked for your first few poems (which are probably more Lorenz’s than yours anyway), but as you grew, the Lorenz costume became more and more in conflict with who you were becoming as a poet. Doing SOULSPEAK for a few hours is the easiest way to stop following Lorenz around. It requires you to (temporarily) forget everything you know about written poetry, and that automatically includes your Lorenz costume. This “unlocking” happens, because, compared to written poetry, SOULSPEAK is a relatively formless poetry. It contains none of the forms and poses and diction and attitudes associated with written poetry. When the speakings come to you they will use an entirely different route to get out—a route that bypasses the instinct to automatically follow Lorenz.
You will emerge not clothed in your Lorenz costume, but somewhat naked and very close to the real poetic you. (This will occur, by the way, only if you have followed the instructions about forgetting everything.) Once you’re naked, you can begin writing your poetry again, but this time you won’t be following Lorenz. If you listen to your body, something in you will retain the parts of your Lorenz costume that are still useful, and slough off the parts it no longer needs. You’re on your own after that, but you will have taken a tremendous jump. More importantly, your body will know what it feels like to be on a highway all the time as compared to those dirt roads. This body knowledge
is important because you’ll have a tendency to get on those dirt roads again when the ferocity of the expressway starts to scare you. But this time around, your body will signal you, like an alarm. The trick is to stay on the highway (no matter how scary) and not take those dirt roads where the poem bounces between the self and the soul. This is why your poems have been so uneven. Let the soul make the poem, no matter what the self thinks you should be doing. The self makes verse; the soul makes poetry. Get rid of the self. Of course, once you’ve tasted SOULSPEAK, you may find it so attractive you may begin to use both it and your usual written composition process. You may even give up writing poetry altogether. What will actually happen to you is up to the gods. At any rate, don’t worry about it. It won’t be a conscious decision anyway. Your soul will let you know the path to take.