Kenn: The Poet

One of the nice things about classes at Oxford is that the classes are all pretty small. Usually between eight to ten people are in each course. That makes things really close and personal. During the time you spend with your groups you have a chance to get to know a little about each of them as well as the tutor.

Most of the people talking these classes are American, however there is a pretty good representivation from Australia and New Zealand as well. There is a sprinkling from other countries and even a few English, though not as many as you would have thought.

My creative writing class was a hot group of people that I really liked and there started to be a nice bonding developed in a short period of time. That bonding was based on the work that each of us brought to class, and the kind of work that we were interested in doing.

In many classes where creativity is at the core, the atmosphere can become charged with jealousies and competition. A “my play is better than your play” type thing can quickly develop. A situsation which should be nurturing can turn into open warfair.

In this class this was not the case. In fact, there was a lot of mutual support and a lot of constructive criticism. You can spend much of your life trying to find people with those qualities.

While there were all styles of writing represented most of the class shared a love for poetry. That was really a stretch for me. To date my understanding and love of poetry begins and ends with Ogden Nash.

Who could ever forget?

The Eel

I don’t mind eels
Except as meals.

Or the always timely;

Reflection on a Wicked World

Purity
Is obscurity.

And, of course, the classic;

The Cow

The cow is of the bovine ilk:
On end is moo, the other, milk.

Now my friends, that is poetry. The man, in such a few words, gets to the true of the matter. However, as much as I loved my classmates, I stood alone on the “Nash Plinth of Truth and Beauty in Poetry.”

But, in the class I made my first attempt at writing a poem. The assignment was to do a four-line poem based on other work that we had done the day before. I turned in my four lines that next day and it was agreed by everybody that I had, in fact written, three pretty decent lines, but needed to work on the fourth one. Now, to tell the truth, I couldn’t really see the difference between any of them. But, as I said, my classmates were kind.

As the class was coming to the end, and it was clear that this was a good group of people that was supportive of each other and the work. I though that it would be a shame if we just broke up and went back to our respective parts of the world. Five of us came from the states, one from England, one from New Zealand, and one from Dubai. That really is a broad range of culture and experience.

So I suggested a Blog to keep our group going and to keep the work going with people who would be supportive and look at the work and comment on it. That went down well, so now we have a writer’s group on line.

One of the people suggested that not only do we put up our own work, but also it might be a good idea to do “class” assignments. This would keep us working in a focused direction. So as our first assignment we have to write a poem, which ends on a certain assigned line.

An aside: That line came out of a poem that was written in class.

Kenn is faced with the task of finishing a complete poem. And it must be done and up on the Blog in a couple of weeks. Okay, this will be a challenge. I will also share it with you on my Blog. I want to spread the pain.

Now we have Kenn the Poet.

I guess I had better write a poem.