Poetics 1

My object poem focused on a glass pendant that I hand-made. I adore this piece of jewelry and love looking at glass art. Needless to say, it was very easy for me to stare at the pendant for a long period of time. I literally sat down in the park and fixed my focus to the pendant. I started with my eyes closed; feeling its curves, the shape it took in my palm, and its smooth edges. I reminisced on how the pendant was made and the process that brings to life a completely organic, hand-made, piece of art. I opened my eyes and stared at the pendant's colors and tried to name them so that I could evoke some sort of warmth from the charm. I originally wrote the poem in lines, and then ran with the idea of a calligram, which shaped the poem as the leaf-like pendant. I did not find this confining, but rather saw it as an opportunity to use words that were full of meaning. I ended with the poem in a place where the pendant is worn, on a woman’s collar.