Literary Mileage
Writing a Curse Poem

I Curse the Speed of Time…

After attending the Key West Literary Seminar that took place from January 7-10 (talked about in my previous two posts), I stayed on for a four-day poetry workshop. My instructor, E.J. Miller Laino, a refugee from wintry Boston, and now full time Key West resident, teaches creative writing at Florida Keys Community College. She spun magic from a group of eleven strangers by creating a safe (I might say sacred) space for us to write and share our poetry. Rather than a feedback workshop—what I’m most familiar with—she prefers a generating workshop format.

E.J.'s Laureates

She helped us ‘generate’ loads of new poetry by giving us homework, with brilliant examples for each assignment. Our first one was to make a list of all the memorable events in our lives—both large and small. Then write a poem about one of the items, with the boost of an opening line, “I am from….” Another day our assignment was to write a food poem, another a curse poem, a thank you poem, and so on. With thanks to E.J. for her extraordinary talent as a poet and a teacher, here’s my homework:

I Curse the Speed of Time

I curse the speed of time and the rooster

that announces it every day.

Time so fast

I walked Chris to kindergarten one morning

and picked him up from college that afternoon.

Time so fast

I read Kevin The Little Engine that Could on Tuesday

And read his son Goodnight Moon on Wednesday.

Time so fast

I gobble up years earning a modest living

for longevity that may be in short supply.

Time so fast

my collection of memories is in the express lane

while the chance to make more of them evaporates.

The example E.J. gave us was Martin Espada’s “For the Jim Crow Mexican Restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts Where My Cousin Esteban Was Forbidden to Wait Tables Because He Wears Dreadlocks.” The long poem becomes a rich litany of things the poet hopes will happen to the restaurant and the people in it. You can read more about Espada and his poetry at: http://www.martinespada.net/Poems.htm.