{"id":99,"date":"2009-11-13T18:06:07","date_gmt":"2009-11-13T23:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lanternreview.com\/blog\/?p=99"},"modified":"2009-11-13T18:06:07","modified_gmt":"2009-11-13T23:06:07","slug":"weekly-prompt-directions-to-my-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/13\/weekly-prompt-directions-to-my-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Prompt: Directions to My Childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2008, Florida-based poet Nick Carbo<\/a> published the\u00a0poem\u00a0“Directions to My Imaginary Childhood” in the Norton anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry From the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond <\/em>(eds.\u00a0Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal, and Ravi Shankar). \u00a0“Directions” sweeps the reader through the bustling streets of Manila and then, in an eerily meta-textual moment, onto the page itself (“open the door and enter\/ this page and look me in the eye”). \u00a0It also offers a set of instructions, directions, and pithy observations on the people and places of the speaker’s childhood; this, for me, was an access point into writing some childhood directions of my own.<\/p>\n

As, in a sense, all homelands are a kind of fiction (for more, see Chapter One of Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands<\/a><\/em>), write a poem exploring the sights, smells, and idiosyncrasies of your childhood homeland<\/strong>, whatever your conception of that that space\/time may be. \u00a0Frame your exploration as a set of instructions: tips, insights, observations on how to best navigate the tricky terms of not only childhood in general, but your childhood in particular.<\/p>\n

Here is an excerpt from my version of “Directions to My Childhood.”<\/p>\n

If the meat lady catches you lingering by the catfish,<\/p>\n

Goggle-eying the eels, she\u2019ll pinch; better to watch<\/p>\n

From behind mother\u2019s grocery bag.<\/p>\n

\n

Watch for the sacred beam when you enter.<\/p>\n

You may think Buddha is in tranquil meditation<\/p>\n

But a careless foot will cost you.<\/p>\n

\n

A crumpled owl found at the bottom of the cage<\/em><\/p>\n

Fits perfectly in my palm.\u00a0 The backyard fills with parrots,<\/em><\/p>\n

Slow lorises, spotted turtledoves, and the cold forms<\/em><\/p>\n

Of a rabbit and her progeny.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

A can is not a good place to bury a bird.<\/p>\n

You may think a lid will preserve it from decay<\/p>\n

But when you see the sodden remains\u2014<\/p>\n

Though a “Directions” poem will generally operate in the instructional mode, you are of course welcome to explore alternative ways of framing your narrative. \u00a0Take seriously the notion that all homelands are–or quickly become–imagined spaces, and allow this to authorize creative moves you might not otherwise consider in a poem. \u00a0Have fun with this, and good luck! \u00a0Please consider posting an excerpt or entire poem here for the Lantern Review blog community to read–we would love to see your responses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2008, Florida-based poet Nick Carbo published the\u00a0poem\u00a0“Directions to My Imaginary Childhood” in the Norton anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry From the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (eds.\u00a0Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal, and Ravi Shankar). \u00a0“Directions” sweeps the reader through the bustling streets of Manila and then, in an eerily meta-textual moment, onto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[13],"tags":[62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}