Late August into early September are undoubtedly moments of beginnings and endings. Equinoxes, and the weeks leading up to them are moments to pause and prepare for the next portion of the year. During the time of the harvest, the grapes and leaves which hang heavy on the trees can feel both intoxicating and tragic as the end of summer approaches. Anticipation has more bite than action, in that it’s a kind of lock that turns the key of the jaw tight with the force of those wild predators that do still live and do still hunt with the sacredness of all the earth. But instead of surrendering to the maw, listen, it is the harvest, and there is work to be done.
So in honor of abundance, here is a lesson about what it’s like to be at the lush tipping point into true frosts and cool:
Define abundance, find images and clips to depict the word.
Read poem (here are only some ideas):
Discuss: how does this poem make you feel?
- Does it feel like abundance?
- What is the poet trying to say about abundance – where in the poem (or how in the poem do they say it?) – this can be as loose or as technical as it needs to be and can include: “repetition” “the images it uses” “the story/stories it tells” “sounds” “the format”
Activity:
Choose a partner and exchange stories of when you felt abundant.
Free associate:
Based on your story and your partner’s story, write words, images, and memories that make you think of abundance.
helpful hints: How did your body feel?
How did time feel?
What was the season?
What are their opposites? Write an opposite for each story or image you have (or have a partner write an opposite for each).
Write a poem using all of the words. Don’t worry if this poem gets long. It should be rambling, it should trip over itself, it should feel maybe even grasping, overflowing. It’s abundant after all.
Play with the line breaks, or lack of, or spaces, or lack of.
Activity:
Read it quickly, read it slowly.
Read it yelling the last word in the line out.
Read it happy, read it creepy.
Questions to ask:
Does this poem make you think differently of abundance?
How does your partner think of abundance?
Bending Tree Education 