Workshop: Contrapuntal

Write 2 distinct memories as premises, and when joined together, portraying a state of emotion in the present. https://youtu.be/LeHs9oQo2zA?si=5WS4IggRmRbvKiD4

WORKSHOP PREP ✍️
(treat it as a station game)

Introduction (max 5 min)

Explaining the form
Possibility of expanding and breaking the form

Worksheets prepared (at least 3 worksheets)

Should be specific to the form (for them to bring home)

1 interactive game/activity utilising the form

For example: sharing their work when they’re done
Prompts can be part of the game

To print

Examples
Workshops

🖋️Ghazals (Ayman, Kareem)

Introduction

Poetic form that contains couplets
A refrain has to be used in the first two couplets and and used in the second couplet of succeeding stanzas
Playful; stanza’s ideas can vary from one another

Worksheet:

Print worksheets that contain basic explanations of the ghazal. Print examples of ghazals. Print a worksheet with blank lines that end in a word chosen by us (banana).

Interactive game

Think of a word that you use every day and make a ghazal out of it
Pick a partner and exchange words. Write a new ghazal out of that new word.

🏆Graphological🏆 (Faith, Taaruz)

Intro:

A poetic form that has many faces, styles, and manner of presentation.
Talk about intent, why this form is chosen.
Examples (printed out—Taaruz)

Worksheet:

Print an image prompt with keywords, focusing on line, space, shape. (Faith)

Graphology: How poems are visually presented on the page.

Draw here:

Choose your keywords:

Interactive game:

a box of paraphernalia (Faith + Taaruz bring)
A box of magnetic words to arrange into simple poems (faith)

✨Contrapuntal✨ (Nicole, Lynn)

Intro:

A poetic form which contains two poems combined into one, in order to create a third poem - has to have three distinct readings.
Talk about how the poems can contradict each other to form a third, very interesting poem.
Examples (print out)

Worksheet:

Print two images as a prompt (Eg: water and a cup).
Can also give a prompt in terms of suggesting an abstract topic (Eg: politics).

Interactive game:

Spin the wheel on who gets the image prompt or the abstract subject prompt.
Pick a partner who has the same category of prompt as you, then each partner writes one poem. Then they will figure out how to make it into one contrapuntal poem.

Form:

Interweaves two individual poems, usually side by side, to create a third new poem. (fun fact! it gets its name from contrapuntal music, which features more than one melody playing simultaneously.)

Read in three distinct ways: 1st individual poem, 2nd individual poem, and 3rd combined poem out of the previous 2.

Characteristics:

Both individual poems have relation to each other.

Each line is crafted so that the third poem produced out of the combination is legible.

Each reading should produce a different/distinct meaning.

ONE

A car ride back home from the airport

silence after slicing a finger under the running water red

Sweltering heat, goosebumps in a bus-stop full of strangers

Realising that he will never again be there to cut my hair.

When her songs weakened, dulled, and ceased.

When my breathing stopped, stolen I could not take in air,

and my worth dropped from the price of one to none,

Love only shown on the dinner table— if my mouth could water, my heart would too.

When eyes once alive turn rheumy to darkness, denied of healing hugs

Touch-starved unquenchable hurt in an acquaintance’s embrace

My legs gnarled by swimming pool water, mocking clouds.

No one to sit with during class trips.

Memories of a greyscale childhood.

Again and again, I'm the only one drawing castles in the sky.

When finally, there are people telling me “Happy Birthday” unprompted.

A trolleybus, foreign voices, foreign buildings - the start of something new.

Eyes that smile when they see me.

Hurdled together in a thin blanket, it's the stranger's kindness that warms me.

I stand among a sea of strangers, walking against the current.

I walk among golden wheat fields away from the dark forest, towards grey skies.

TWO

Line and Space

A lone cab ride to an empty home from the airport. A trolleybus, foreign voices, foreign buildings - the start of something new.

silence after slicing a finger under the running water red. My legs gnarled by swimming pool water, mocking clouds.

Sweltering heat, goosebumps in a bus-stop full of strangers. No one to sit with during class trips.

Realisation that he will never again be there to cut my hair. Memories of a grey scale childhood.

When her songs weakened, dulled, and ceased. Eyes that smile when they see me.

When my breathing stopped, stolen I could not take in air. Hurdled together in a thin blanket, it's the stranger's kindness that warms me.

and my worth dropped from the price of one to none. Again and again, I'm the only one drawing castles in the sky.

Love only shown on the dinner table— if my mouth could water, my heart would too. When finally, there are people telling me “Happy Birthday” unprompted.

When eyes once alive turn rheumy to darkness, denied healing hugs. I walk among golden wheat fields away from the dark forest, towards grey skies.

Touch-starved unquenchable hurt in an acquaintance’s embrace. I stand among a sea of strangers, walking against the current.

THREE

lone cab ride empty home airport. I laugh with new clouds under the same sky.

silence after slicing a finger under the running water red. Gnarled by swimming pool water as the clouds mock me,