Here’s a common poetry prompt, taught in workshops and classes. It’s commonly called a copy-change. You simply take a few lines of poetry that move or inspire you, and use the structure of that poem like a template into which you insert your own words, kind of like a Mad Lib. And in this form of poetry, you must always give credit to the original poet. It’s called copy-change because you are copying the style or structure or voice of a poet, and changing it into your own piece.
George Ella Lyon made it a favorite of US English Language teachers after she published her poem “Where I’m From” and realized that teachers were using her format as a template for teaching the writing of poetry as a form of self-exploration. She created a template of her poem with missing words, encouraging students and writers to insert words that described their own lives. Or, if they want, they can just use her poem as inspiration and write whatever they want. Click this link to go to her page.
The Astrologer Rob Brezsny has created a similar exercise using a stanza from a Rainer Maria Rilke poem, which encourages his social media followers to explore symbols of their inner life. He suggests using the second stanza of this poem:
Widening Circles
by Rainer Maria Rilke
(translated by Joanna Macy)
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
Here’s my copy-change of stanza 2, formatted as I would format the poem in order to be sure that I am giving credit for the original. I used Rilke’s first stanza verbatim, so I italicized it, to add another signal that this part is not mine:
Deepening Spirals
by Elizabeth Weaver-Kreider
after by Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Joanna Macy)
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it. (Rilke)
I spiral into the Goddess, toward the center of Earth.
I’ve been descending for a thousand lifetimes
and I still don’t understand: am I a snake,
a labyrinth, or a wild dance?
This exercise has various benefits for the beginning or blooming or stuck poet: It gets you past the freeze that sometimes happens with the blank page. It’s a super low-stakes poem–because it’s “just an exercise,” you don’t have to perform on the page, and so you can break more rules and boundaries, and let go of the control of your brain for a little while. I especially love that it’s a Voice experiment–you get to try on different poets’ voices, see how they fit, feel the way someone else’s words and phrases inform yours. And as a reader, it gets you into the poet’s head and helps you to make sense of their diction and lyricism.
Here is your challenge: Visit Lyon’s page to write a “Where I’m From” poem, or use Brezsny’s Rilke prompt. Or go seeking a short piece of poetry that inspires you and create your own copy-change poem. Don’t forget to credit both yourself and the author. Share it with someone!
Gratitude List:
1. My wise and tender and compassionate friends. I often wonder how I got so lucky.
2. Daily grounding and centering. And other rhythms of grounding–the yearly reunion with my college friends is an incredibly powerful reset and re-centering for me.
3. The nibling-weddings! Because family celebrations!
4. The several delightful years we got to spend with our marvelous vampire cat, Erebus.
5. My school community.
May we walk in Beauty!
“Be wary of any influence in your environment which dismisses or judges your enthusiasm. Without it, we would become anaesthetised to life itself. Anyone who demands this smallness of you is in danger themselves and may have contracted this insidious, deadening monotone. Enthusiasm is the vitality of spirit expressing itself through us and its grace in our voice should be welcomed and cherished. The word originates in the early 17th century, from the Greek enthousiasmos meaning ‘possessed by god.’ Now, more than ever, the world needs your enlargement, your weirdness, your fiery crescendos of rebellion from boring.” —Toko-pa Turner
“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” —Ray Bradbury
“How do you think you’ll ever see the fairy underneath the flowers, if you never stop to notice the flowers themselves?” —Marie Winger, storyteller
“I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing Light of your Being.” —Hafiz
“We do not become healers. We came as healers. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are. We do not become storytellers. We came as carriers of the stories we and our ancestors actually lived. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
“We do not become artists. We came as artists. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
“We do not become writers, dancers, musicians, helpers, peacemakers. We came as such. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
“We do not learn to love in this sense. We came as Love. We are Love. Some of us are still catching up to who we truly are.”
—Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.”
—Desmond Tutu
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
—Dalai Lama
“You were wild once. Don’t let them tame you.”
—Isadora Duncan
“If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.”
—Meister Eckhart
“We keep each other alive with our stories. We need to share them, as much as we need to share food. We also require for our health the presence of good companions. One of the most extraordinary things about the land is that it knows this—and it compels language from some of us so that as a community we may converse about this or that place, and speak of the need.” —Barry Lopez
Mockingbird Chronicles 