Kaveh Akbar: Links from Marjorie's Table 18th June
Recording and poem links, warm up words and the final prompt from today's creative writing session using the work of Kaveh Akbar
Good morning writers! We had 33 at Marjorie’s Table again today, though at least as many writers are writing to the recordings of these workshops in their own time instead. (If you’re not a paid subscriber and would like to try writing to a recording, DM me for the link to today’s workshop.)
Today we looked at three poems by Kaveh Akbar, and Iranian-American poet and prose writer. As usual, some of our warm up words and the links to the poems from today’s session, including our take-away prompt are below.
Warm Up - here are few gifted words from today’s live writers: disappeared, raucous, boom, choke, strain, swan, eardrum, swallow, ripple, button, clang - feel free to steal these words for use in your own writing.
Poems - we started with Kaveh’s “My Father’s Accent” (the end of which is above), and discussed craft before writing in response. We then listened to Kaveh read “River of Milk”, noting how space is used in the poem before writing to a second prompt. Finally, we read “Pilgrim Bell” and I gave the takeaway prompt to write about the ringing of a bell (and even to try and use the full-stop in the way Kaveh does in this poem). As I mentioned during the session, a love poem of Kaveh’s, “Love Poem with Tumor and Petrified Dog” was published this week by the Academy of American Poets.
The link to the recording of today’s workshop is beyond the paywall below, but I’m very happy to send it to anyone who would like to try out Marjorie’s Table - just drop me a DM. If you’re not a regular subscriber and would like to join us for weekly workshops - or use the recordings of the workshops in your own time - please upgrade to a paid subscription (currently £5 for four workshops each month).
The next Marjorie’s Table session is from 7:30-8am on Wednesday 25th June, with login details emailed out on Monday 23rd of June.
Happy writing, Marjorie