Next Saturday at a leadership conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C. I get the delightful duty of providing "dinner entertainment." Though most of the 60-70 educators from around the U.S. and Canada in attendance will be familiar with the term "sound poetry," I'd be surprised if any of 'em have composed a sound poem. Time to change that. The directions follow:
Makin’ the Myrtle Beach Sound Poem
A sound poem foregrounds the sound of the words rather than their denotations and connotations. The meaning of a sound poem is carried through letters, phonemes, words, phrases, chanting, rubbing against each other, sound bypassing logic…
Make a sound poem using the words listed below. You may use one, two, ten, or one hundred, and you may use other words. Let the sound move you so that it moves us!
How to start? One possibility: choose a group of words (e.g. all one syllable words, or words starting with the same sound). Compose them in a pattern that pleases the ear. Repeat the pattern or start a new line with new words. Set up a contrasting pattern… Let your ear guide you!
surf sand driftwood tide
current riptide sneaker wave wave
crest breakers surge Palmetto Palm
Pecan Tree Pitcher Plant Resurrection Fern
Sago Palm Shrub Verbena
swell ripple inlet bay
strand ocean coast estuary
lagoon plankton coral Long-Billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit Ruddy Turnstone Common Snipe
Greater Shearwater Magnificent Frigatebird atoll
salt spray mollusks sounding
sponge mast ship wake
gull shell intracoastal treasure
dune sea star beachcomber mermaid necklaces
whelk periwinkle scallop conch cockle
coquina kitten’s paws sand dollar seaweed
sea horse lettered olive Great blue heron
laughing gull snowy egret clapper rail
oystercatcher eastern brown pelican woodstorks
wood ducks fledgling royal terns Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs Spotted Redshank Solitary Sandpiper
Willet Whimbrel Double-Crested cormorant
Ring-billed gull Gluacous gull Sandwich tern
striped bass swamp marsh scrub pine
Almond Bald Cypress Confederate Jasmine Confederate Rose
Crape Myrtle Fig Ivy Flowering Dogwood Tree Kudzu vine
"Glory Bush" Live Oak Mimosa Muhly Grass
Sweetgrass Sweet Gum Tree Tea Olive Tupelo Tree
Venus Flytrap