One reason I love teaching Creative Writing is that I never know what will come out of the class, not only for the students, but for myself as well.
The last time I taught this course a couple of years ago, one of my students held me accountable to the same maxim I applied to them: Writers Write. No excuses. This really helped to revitalize my creative energy, which ultimately led to the completion of The Most Educated Idiot I Know.
This semester my class is engaged in an interdisciplinary project with a painting class. My students wrote poems, which the painting students then used as inspiration to create visual art.
Once again, one of my students (McKenzie Evans) has involved me in the same process as the rest of the class. Below is a poem I had published a few years ago in a regional literary magazine. I showed it to the class as an example of the use of both imagery and alliteration. The student took it upon herself to use the poem to inspire her painting, which is shown below the poem.
The Prodigal Drosophila
The fruit fly,
a feckless, fecund
little fellow
like so many
owes his existence
to the
fermentation process.
Conceived on a
Saturday night
in an overripe
peach,
he is content to
wallow
his maggoty youth
in a brandied
hedonism until
there is nothing
left to consume.
From there, he
meanders away
and perches on a
sour mop
or falls
into a slimy
drain,
only to eke out
enough sludge
to sustain him for
the last days
of his only week of
life.
I absolutely love the fruit fly drinking from the straw and wearing a sombrero. This makes me want to go have a Margarita and chips and cheese at a local Mexican restaurant.
Thanks, McKenzie!