It was a poetry feast last night as Leela Soma gave GWC members plenty to chew over with her informative talk on the poetic arts. Originally from Madras in India, Leela moved to Scotland in 1969 where she worked as a Modern Studies teacher before spreading her wings as a poet, novelist and creative writing teacher.
Leela began by reminding us that it was the 100 year anniversary of two Scottish poets Edwin Morgan and George Mackay Brown – well worth catching up on if you’re not familiar with them. Her autumnal themed talk then gave us a flavour of Indian poetry with Noble prize winner Kalidasa and Tagore’s ‘Shiuli Blossom’ along with Robert Frost’s lament on Autumn – ‘Nothing can stay’.
From Madras to Milngavie was the start of Leela’s poetic journey and the name of her first collection of poems. Leela believes poetry comes from a different place in your brain, her best lines sometimes come to her when she is half awake. So as poets always try and be ready to respond to the world around you. Despite another collection of poems ‘Tartan and Tumeric’ and three novels and a few collections of short stories Leela still does not feel confident in her abilities. I guess it reflects both her own humility and her desire to grow as an artist, useful qualities for any writer.
Leela then talked about writing pandemic poetry and also about climate change. Incidently she will be at a fringe poetry reading at Cop26 in Glasgow. Her method is as follows:
Get an idea.
Scribble – don’t worry about form.
She tends to write free verse.
Leela’s advice to anyone submitting a free verse piece to a publication is to read their back issues first to get a feel for what flavour of free verse they are looking for. She then went on to discuss the difference between prose poems and free verse poetry, the emphasis of the latter is on the line i.e. it is more about the line than the sentence. A prose poem reaches the right hand margin. The line of free verse poetry is more focused, unique and intense.
Leela’s advice for aspiring poets:
Read a lot of poems.
Listen to a lot of poems.
Make use of a thesaurus and rhyming dictionary.
Insert imagery, metaphors and allegory into your work.
Story-telling is useful.
Paint your words.
Should your work be opaque or accessible? You must find your own voice.
Connect with other poets online or in a writing group.
For those would be poets who prefer not to go commando (free verse) there was a brief discussion of the poetic forms (listed below). One of my favourites was the concrete where Leela talked about a poem about murrmurations that was actually shaped like a starling!
Poetry Forms: Haiku, Sonnet, Couplet, Villanelle, Elegy, Epigram, Limerick, Ekphrastic, Concrete, Arcostic and Sestina
Leela touched briefly on Insta Poetry, but only briefly before leaving some useful sources:
The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry.
A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver.
The Norton Anthology of Poetry.
A Poem A Day.
Wislawa Szymborska (Polish poet), Kei Miller (Jamaican poet).
Hannah Lavely (Scottish poet), Janette Ayachi (Scottish-Algerian).
After tea-break we did a writing exercise (set by Leela) where we all came up with a few autumnal words and phrases. Then we were free to put them together in a collaborative effort. All in all a nice way to round off a pleasant, pertinent, poetry, pageant. Used my rhyming dictionary for that last bit.
Next meeting is on 27th October – A GWC Social night. The theme is Halloween so try writing something along those lines and those who wish can read them out on the night. Though to be honest if you have an autumnal poem or indeed anything else that’ll be fine to. It’s a very informal night.
Ho Hum, onwards and upwards.