The Poetry Stash: 15Feb2024

Language by Camille T. Dungy

Today’s poem is “Language” by Camille T. Dungy from the collection, What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison. The book is available for purchase here.

Language by Camille T. Dungy

Silence is one part of speech, the war cry
of wind down a mountain pass another.
A stranger’s voice echoing through lonely
valleys, a lover’s voice rising so close
it’s your own tongue: these are keys to cipher,
the way the high hawk’s key unlocks the throat
of the sky and the coyote’s yip knocks
it shut, the way aspens’ bells conform
to the breeze while the rapid’s drums define
resistance. Sage speaks with one voice, pinyon
with another. Rock, wind her hand, water
her brush, spells and then scatters her demands.
Some notes tear and pebble our paths. Some notes
gather: the bank we map our lives around.

Prompts:

1.	Begin with “these are keys…”
2.	Begin with “define resistance…”
3.	Give yourself 10 minutes: Make a list of all the sounds you hear. Imagine a dialogue between the sounds and the silence. Who is speaking? Who is listening?
4.	Sometimes nouns can be used as verbs, and verbs can be used as nouns. There are several examples of this literary device in the poem including “cry of wind”, “yip knocks”, “pebble our paths”. Make a list of nouns and another of verbs. Switch them up and use them to draft a poem.
5.	The poem’s lines play with opposites and contrast: silence/war cry, stranger/lover, key unlocks/yip knocks it shut, bells conform/drums define resistance, notes tear/notes gather. Write 14 lines (a sonnet) where one line makes a statement and the next counters it.

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