Sounding Out

Read Douglas Kearney’s poem “Every Hard Rapper’s Father Ever: Father of the Year.” Then, listen to the poet reading this poem out loud at least once. A few questions you might consider, either in writing or in conversation with others:

• What do you notice about how the poem looks on the page?
• What do you notice when Kearney reads the poem?
• How do the two experiences (the visual experience of the text on the page and the auditory experience of listening to the poem be read) expand your experience of the poem? Are there places the two seemed to veer apart? Reaffirm? Complicate or deepen?

Poetry Writing Prompt:

This exercise asks that we experiment and play with sound. As much as possible, do not worry about what you are writing “says” or “means.” Allow the sound of your language to lead you.

Pick one word that is significant to you in some way. It could be a word that comes up often in your writing, your favorite word, a word someone used to describe you, or a word connected to something important in your life. Start your poem as Kearney does, by listing out words that rhyme with your seed word. As you move through your list, you can start to incorporate other sonic resonances, like alliteration, assonance, or consonance. Find your way to your poem through words that are different, but sound, in part, the same.

After you have exhausted all the words you can think of, rewrite your poem using a different medium or technology. If you were writing with a pen on paper, type your poem on your computer, or with a typewriter, or by creating a voice memo on your phone. When you get to the ending point of the first draft, start repeating the lines, phrases, and words of your poem, allowing the text or audio to overlap until the words transform, become illegible. Then, write one line on the other side of the tangle, whatever first comes to your mind. What has survived, been transformed?