Rough Draft for Radio Show Script
Introduction: Hi everyone and welcome to my poetry podcast. My name is Brienn and I am an English major with a minor in film studies here at Siena College. As an English major, I am surrounded by reading and writing constantly and it is something that has become a big part of my life. What I find the most interesting through having taken this poetry class is that I have learned how poets also share their stories with the world. Through this poetry class, I have learned about a different form of storytelling and it has broadened my perspective even more. Sharing stories with one another helps us to relate to each other’s experiences and situations. While it also helps to evoke emotions. For this podcast, I will be focusing on a poetic form known as organic form and the poet George Oppen. Specifically how he took his life experiences and shared them with the world through the organic form of poetry. Organic poetry holds a uniqueness as its main focus is on telling stories. Denise Levertov’s essay “Some Notes On Organic Form” describes it like this, “There must be an experience, a sequence of perceptions, felt by the poet intensely enough that he is brought to speech”. This is what makes the organic form so unique as it is referred to as “occurring naturally” as it relies on the author's life and experiences to then be brought to life itself. It grows from the artist through the fulfillment the experience brings that turns into a story worth telling. The organic form is described as a very natural poetic form as it refers to the concept of living and/or growing things. Organic Poetry has a way of exemplifying creativity and the creative process. Through the organic form, writers obtain the idea that art derives from nature, rather than from other works of art, specifically other works of poetry. Through this take on organic form, we are going to be learning about George Oppen, an American poet from the 20th century. We will learn about his use of Organic poetry through his collection of poems from This In Which. In the two organic poems, we will be focusing on how Oppen’s life experiences were shared with the world.
An Introduction to Organic Form: In order to begin the breakdown of this creative process that is the Organic form, we must first highlight some key concepts this form withholds. The organic form holds a uniqueness that many people seem to overlook. For one thing, the form itself is dictated by its specific content, not some other pre-determined or mechanic system. With this said the organic form is natural-yes going back to the concept of this form being natural-what does that mean? Well, I’m going to get there. Like I said before, the organic form refers to living or growing things. I interpret this idea in a way that the “creative process” is what the living thing is referred to as in this context. In a way, the creative process and the imagination itself is somewhat like a living organism. It learns and grows and develops ideas and channels creativity from these things. Overall, it is something that develops naturally from within. All of this of course indicates a metaphor as the term organic means the interrelationship between parts of a work. The metaphor from nature helping to describe the organic form means that there is an “organic relation” or “organic connection”. This means that things in nature seem to occur naturally instead of “artificially”. Much like the organic form itself. — -
Denise Levertov’s description of the organic form was first published in Poetry in 1965: Another grasp of organic form can be understood from the description of it that Denise Levertov has written about in her organic form essay from 1965. In 1965, Denise Levertov first published her essay titled, “Some Notes on Organic Form”. This essay contains some very interesting viewpoints of the Organic form and how poets use this form. Let’s dive into what Levertov has to say about this unique poetic form. For starters, she views the form as “a method of apperception, i.e., of recognizing what we perceive, and is based on an intuition of an order, a form beyond forms, in which forms partake, and of which man’s creative works are analogies, resemblances, natural allegories.” This is a lot to unpack here, but from my interpretation, Levertov is stating how the organic form of poetry starts from personal moments and experiences. One must have to experience something or an event in order to write, at least in this case, organically. The creativity behind what you make of the experience will instill in you the work that you will do for the poem itself. Now, this seems a little generic, like isn’t this what all poets and writers do? Do they derive from the experience? Yes, in most cases they do. Again, the experience has happened, or the experience is perceived forcing the poet to want to talk about it and write it down. The poet wants to tell a story of this experience and this is what organic form is all about! Letting the experience lead him through the world of the poem, its unique inscape revealing itself as he goes. Levertov also describes two terms that are very much discussed in the poetry world known as “inscape” and “instress”. She notes the influence on her ideas of Gerard Manley Hopkins, who coined the term “inscape,” meaning the essential form of individual objects and their relation to each other. And “instress,” which marks the act of perceiving inscape. — -explain more about inscape and instress, these are very confusing.
Understanding why poets use this form helps to make a connection between the importance of sharing experiences and stories. These stories were strong for the poets themselves to want to tell them, but in more of an interpretative type of way, this is what makes the organic form and poetry in general so different from other types of writing. It is so interesting how poetry differs from other forms of writing as it is a form that is open to interpretation. Poetry makes you feel all different kinds of emotions and the way Oppen wrote with Organic form expressed to his readers his experiences but in a way that his readers can relate. Specifically his poems “The Forms of Love” and “Redhook: December” are very open to the reader interpreting them the way they want to and also being able to dive into that experience with Oppen and experience it as their own.
An Introduction to George Oppen: The focus of my discussion of organic form is narrowed down to one specific poet. The American poet I will be discussing that wrote in organic form is George Oppen who lived from 1908–1984. Oppen was a part of the Objectivist group of poets, this consisted of poetry emphasizing simplicity and clarity over formal structure and rhyme. George Oppen attended Oregon State Agricultural College in 1926 where he met his bride to be Mary Colby. They both got into trouble with the school so they left Oregon, got married, and began a sailing and hitchhiking trip from the West Coast to New York City. They moved to France in 1929. He began working with Louis Zukofsky who was an editor on the press To Publications where he published works by Zukofsky, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound. He later returned to the United States in 1932 where he formed the Objectivist Press alongside, Zukofsky, Williams, and Charles Reznikoff. Oppen’s first book Discrete Series was published by Objectivist Press in 1934. During the Great Depression, George and Mary became social activists. At the time some of Oppen’s poems appeared in journals such as Active Anthology, Poetry, and Hound and Horn. Unfortunately, he soon gave up writing until after he served in World War Ⅱ reviving his poetic career in 1958. Later, Oppen published another collection of poetry which was This In Which consisting of Organic poems in 1965. In This In Which Oppen wrote about many experiences and things, he saw throughout his lifetime. He put them into the organic form of poetry to convey his story to his readers. Oppen’s work is highly regarded because of its “singularity of things”, meaning he focuses on one experience, one topic, and turns it into a poem. From the poems I will be reviewing shortly, you will be able to grasp an understanding of these experiences he works to describe. (Maybe find an interview for this, look more into his experiences, talk about his life and his poetry).
Reading, Discussing, and Analyzing George Oppen’s poems: George Oppen provided many poems in Organic form that were very interesting to read, filled with emotion, and overall a bigger picture as to what message he was trying to get across. Two poems, in particular, stood out to me though, as they highlighted one particular event that Oppen was able to make a story out of. These were filled with emotion as he expressed these events. From the poetry book This In Which I will be sharing the poem “The Forms of Love”. This poem describes a love story, so in order to get into that mode, you can think about a first date or someone you love or a friend. Just think about spending a really nice evening with them. Here is a recording by George Oppen himself, -insert the recording MP3.
This poem consists of some very interesting slant rhymes with the words “remember” and “together”, and “us” and “rose”. Also, straight rhymes with “bright” and “light”. (Could “wonder” and “whether” be one?) There is a lot of imagery used in this poem as well through which Oppen tells the story of this outing he had with his wife Mary. The visual imagery of the moon rising, the white grass, the light that the moon gave off, the stars in the sky, ends with the possibility of water. The tone displayed in the first stanza of the poem is very loving and reminiscent of this memory/experience. He then goes on to describe the journey they took in the next line still holding true to this loving tone. The final stanza is where the journey ends but the reader is left with this love that Oppen conveys throughout the poem. This poem describes Oppen’s first date, as it is described in the poetry foundation article “Mary Oppen meaning a life”. On this date, they sat and talked, made love, and continued talking until morning. The poem, “The Forms of Love” offers forms constrain through which this experience is described using rhyme, imagery, and tone.
The second George Oppen organic poem I will be reviewing is “Red Hook: December” also from the collection of This In Which. Immediately in the title, we are introduced to the month of December. The ideas that stem from this revolve around the holidays and giving and warmth family love. I will now be reading the poem, — -
But what is interesting about Oppen’s poem is that although he describes these things there is a bit of a sad undertone at the end of the poem. There is a lot of repetition of the word “street” or “streets”. There is the repetition in the last line, “with wealth, the shining wealth”.-describing the lights that have been put up. “It” and “lit” internal rhyme. “Into distance down the cross streets” “are almost awed”-alliteration. “And one can be at peace” and “in this city on a shore”-euphony. “Ring electronically”-satire? There is visual imagery displayed in this poem as well through the description of the Christmas lights on the houses that light up the street. There is also auditory imagery with the bells ringing that “ring in the new year” which is also a metaphor, and Oppen uses this line in both ways, to describe the ringing, and then because the new year is approaching to also “ring in the new year”. This poem has a very uplifting tone, at first, Oppen wrote how this was all very unexpected, almost shock and surprise. As the poem goes on the beauty of the Christmas season (and Christmas lights) shines through to the experience of this poem and the Christmas time. It is very joyfully described. This also adheres to forms constrain because of all of these examples. This also adheres to forms differ through the use of imagery and rhyme. This poem ultimately describes the feeling behind this moment of experiencing the Christmas lights during the Christmas season, it is quite magical. Through this Oppen uses these experiences to convey stories to his audience about personal experiences. His work comes from within and it was the “living” experience he had that made these poems what they are, as they are not fueled by other works of art but rather derived from personal experience. This experience occurred naturally to Oppen and therefore he was able to write about it. (maybe describe inscape and instress in this part?)
Outro: Later, Oppen moved to San Francisco in the 1960s where he, unfortunately, began to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. He lived in California until he passed away in 1984 due to pneumonia and complications from Alzheimer’s. His work continues to live on even after his passing as it is very influential and a great representation of the organic form. He created works of art from his life experiences and shared them with the world. Where his readers were able to learn about his experiences and relate them to their own. Today we have learned the importance of the organic form and we discussed George Oppen’s life and work through his own use of organic poetry. Experiences are what make writing, our ideas are derived from our experiences (not in every case) but this is why organic poetry is so different! There is fulfillment from these experiences that help to make these stories/poems and the ability to share them with an audience is very rewarding and important. As an English major, I write a lot and when I write for fun I write about my life. What goes on, how I am doing, friend family, and so on. Writing is done to evoke emotion from the reader, but what makes poetry that much more special is that it is so open to interpretation. It engages its readers and listeners for a brief moment in time to step away from reality and listen to the beauty that lies beneath the stanzas of a poem. Thank you for listening to this podcast and I hope you were reminded how storytelling will forever hold an important purpose in our lives as it provides a connection between us as human beings.
