Poetry Performance 101: Tools for Self-Expression

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Pranjulaa Singh, course instructor for Poetry performance 101, tools for self expression. I have written about 800 poems and audiobook, for Storytel and two poetry books. One is called Sparkle, a Book of Positive Poetry. Another one is called romance with Lock Down, a poetry collection. I was born and brought up in India, the cultural city of Gwalior, a boarding school and Mumbai. I went on to do my masters in University of London. And I represented my country in Russia in 2019 under than being a poem, I am also an arts manager and a yoga instructor. In this course, I'm going to take you through a journey of poetry and expose you to the tools that I find myself using in my practice. You and I are going to explore rhyming and non writing poems. How to write a haiku, metaphors, what are mindmaps, and that's going to be a lot to fun in this journey. This course is important because it's going to, you connect to your emotions, think innovatively, write more creatively, and really add richness to your work. You're also going to learn how to become more camera friendly and to be able to perform your poem on a digital platform. Some skills that you can use across any profession. And so excited for us to grow together. Let's get ready for some creativity. Word play, and really get our hands dirty with poetry. I will see you in the class. 2. Project: Hi, and welcome to your goals poetry performance 101. Do it for self-expression as named goals. Before we get into the tools of writing poetry, let me give you a brief about the project that you'll be undertaking throughout your course. You have to write a volume using metaphors and mindmaps and then perform a digitally on a platform like Instagram or YouTube. This project would give you a hands-on experience into writing poetry and really get you to dive into the scene directly. It's going to be creatively in dance. Wendy, intimate activity that will make you go out of your comfort zone because it's a step-by-step guidance. It's a great place to start for beginners. And also the experts might pick up a trip, a trick, or two for their practice. Some of my suggestions for you to complete this project successfully is that B, close attention to the problems in each lesson. Do your regular exercises and the unsure you will have a smooth sail towards the end of the goals. And remember, poetry is a very intimate and personal experience. You have to double up empty and let yourself don't be under any constraints and try to lead guided by the induction. Just go with the flow. Before we started this course, make sure that you read a lot of poetry and you start watching poetry. Notice the mannerisms that they're using an app performance, and also the word choice in their poetry. I'm so excited that we are in this journey together. I'll see you in the next lesson. 3. Mind Map - Establishing a Theme: This is Pranjulaa Singh and you are taking the class of poetry performance 101, tools for self-expression. In your first lesson, we are going to talk about establishing a theme. We're going to do this via the tool of mind maps. Why mind-map? You must ask if there's no one around you to tell you what to write on. And you have to choose that what you should write on with all the freedom that you have in the world, you can use mind map as a great tool to do so. Mind map helps to really narrow down one particular topic for a poem. If you're confused about what to write a poem on, to start with, mind map will help you to really de-tangle your thought. This is an example of a mind map. To show you how to make a mind map via a step-by-step process. Step one. Write the first word that comes to your mind. Say for this exercise, we take the word 'cloud'. Step two. Now let your hand flow in the directions and write all the associated words that come to your head with the central word. It looks somewhat like a sun, but remember not to branch out more than four to five words. In step three, we will be putting out key associated words alone with the branched out words. So each branch will have keywords to it. Whatever's coming to your head, don't, don't overthink it. Don't spend too much time on it. Similarly, we are going to do for each branch that we have, you have to learn to follow your intuition. Don't over analyze what you are doing. One way that this can be easier and effective is that you time this activity, don't spend more than five minutes on this activity so that you can actually select a theme which is more intuition-based. So now that we have keywords associated with each branch, The last step, fourth step is to select the branch with the most number of keywords, or the branch that you feel most connected to by the end of this mind map. Now you have a central theme. This would establish our theme. You will select the whole branch covering the central word... We have now established starting theme. We've played with our mind and some words, Some key takeaways from this lecture: Top tip here is to time yourself. Don't spend more than five minutes on this activity so that you quickly follow your intuition. Let you hand, guide you and select a theme. This lesson plays with your mind, you realize that what has been going in your head since a long time, I would encourage you to try mind map and I want you to post this mind mapping in the project gallery so that I can see on what foot you are starting up poems. In the next lesson, we are going to look at how to add richness to our words, going to take a word and add a metaphor to it. See you in the next class. 4. Metaphores: Hi, and welcome to your class of poetry performance 101. tools for the self-expression. In this lesson, we are going to look at metaphores, Metaphors, help us bring quality to our words. And in this class, we will use it to layer up our poem. So before we get to actually structuring our work, let's try and do some quick exercises of how we can use metaphors. Take a sample of clouds. Yeah, I love the sky and the clouds and to write and talk about it. So we're gonna go back to taking the word cloud as an example. Try to think of all the feelings and words associated with clouds that come to your head right now. In my head I can think of silver lining, gliding. white, Blue, Soft, fluffy. These are some words which could be adjectives or could be idioms, phrases associated with clouds, let go and deeper and think of Feelings associated with cloud. This could be doubt, a cloudy day, it could be a day of hope with dreams coming in for farmers A cloudy day could be a very dull day where you don't feel like doing anything. So lethargic, lazy, some feelings associated when we think of , Clouds as a word. So now we're digging in deeper into the theme that we have. Similarly, if I say sun, so it could be Sunny, bright, Good vibe, Good day. Sea. Sea would be infinite, was ambitious, deep, thoughtful. So you. Get my idea of how I'm taking a word and associating feelings associated with it as well, and not just adjectives that you can think on a very surface-level, The trick to use metaphors is to try and understand the feelings behind the words that you choose. Now go back to your mind map and pick out the branch that you have selected. And try to put down as many metaphors that you can to, each word that you have as your keyword. Now, this class we've got one step closer to making your poem. Similarly, you can use metaphors with words like war, family, love anything under the sun. They help you brainstorm word associations and can be a very good tool in any sort of creative writing assignments that you're dealing with. Post your metaphors in the project gallery. So that I can have a look at what sort of creativity that you have got on going in the next class, we will go on with rhyming words. 5. Rhyming as a tool: Hi, and welcome to your third lesson of Poetry Performance 1.0.1, tools for self-expression. In this lesson, we are going to talk about a very common thing usually associated with poem, That is rhyming. People, often we think that the only kind of poetry valid is the kind, which has rhyming words in it. But that is actually a thing of the past. Now, most of the contemporary poems are not necessarily rhyming in their nature. The more you read, the more you realize that today's poems are not rhyming at all. But in this lesson, we are going to look at rhyming because it's easy and the sure shot, we fund a newbie to write a poem. To make this even more easier for you, we're going to start with listing down all the rhyming words associated with our existing set of words, the words that we used in our metaphor class. Remember the clouds. So say. Dark. All the rhyming words with dark would be dark, Bark, shark, ark, mark. Light, fight, delight, night, might. Gliding- Confiding. Blue. Due, sue. Cloud9- shine, mine, line, Silver lining- whining, shining, mining. A lot of words rhyming. Let's try and write a poem for it. So I wrote a poem which goes like: The clouds are dark, while the dog's bark, as the clouds glide, my heart wants to confide that there have been feeling a bit blue without having a clue about what next is due. Now while writing the rhyming words itself, you might have an idea for a poem coming to your head. That I have. written here, is using those rhyming words and placing it towards the end of each sentence to make sense. Another fun way to write a poem is word prompts. Get someone else to give you a word as a prompt and then list out all the rhyming words associated with it. If you don't want to use something called as mind map to establish a central theme. In this class, we learned the possible ways to write. Write a rhyming poem. I hope you enjoyed that in the next class we are going to go towards structure. Now that we have word prompts, metaphors, rhyming words, and mind-map that makes enough ingredients to write the poem. We're going to go, to another interesting way to write a poem without to using rhyming words. Before we move on to the next class, don't forget to put your rhymed poem in the project gallery so that I can have a look at your shot at creativity. 6. Introducing Structure - Haiku: Hi, welcome to this very exciting lesson where we're going to learn about haiku. Introducing structure with Haiku. Haiku is originally and traditionally a Japanese form of writing poetry structured in 17 syllables divided as five, seven and five. But In this lesson, while writing the haiku, we're going to use a simpler form of it, A more popular way to use Haiku today is to depict images as briefly as possible. We are going to try and at least create one image per line and to use haiku to really bring out the image. For example, going back to our clouds example, if we choose to to write three lines with the first line being of three words, five words, and then three words. We will write it as: Dark clouds Bark. Rain glides through the Light. Silver lining shines. We have structured the poem into three lines. Each line being of a specific count of words. These sort of exercises restricts our creative thinking into a frame work and it makes us easier to work for a client who wants to specific work to be done, a specific topic to be written, within certain constraints. Another example I would use with a structure of 5-7-5, which goes like: White clouds glide through the sky. My heart is heavy with your thoughts. Let the light fight my insides. Now, in this example, each line has an image clearly painted in front of your eyes. In the first image, the white clouds are gliding through the sky. In the second image, my heart is heavy with your thoughts. You can feel the heaviness of the heart because of the thoughts in the third image, I am asking the light to fight the insides. So there's fighting scene that you can imagine within my conflicting mind. So we have three images in this haiku That's a very important tip to write a Haiku. Each line should have an image, Some important points to keep in mind while writing a haiku are: 1. You have to keep in mind that each line has an image. 2. You have to be mindful of the word count of each line. 3. And you have to try and use as much metaphors as possible so that an image is developed. In this lesson, we learned about what does a haiku, how to write within a structure, the fact that a poem doesn't necessarily have to be rhyming To be a poem. And how sometimes writing for someone else or writing within a structure can help us prepare ourselves for client work or commissioned poetry. In the next lesson, we're going to jump to performance now that you must have written a rhyming poem and an un-ryhming poem, Before we move on to the next lesson. I want you to try on hand at Haiku and post it in the project gallery so that I can see how did it turn out. I'll see you in the next lesson. 7. Performance Basic and Exercises: And welcome back to your next stage of poetry performance. Well now we're going to focus on performance, basics and exercises, Video is a very strong platform to showcase your poetry on. Specially if that poetry video has your face speaking out your work. It brings authenticity and it leaves a very lasting impact. It's very important that before we get into your poem, we go over some basics of digital performance. Step One, it's important that you choose which platform you're going to speak on. Whether it's Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, using our platform will determine what kind of audience are you looking at, what should be the duration of your work and how would you be presenting your poetry? Step two is to make sure that your face and your hands are at the center of the frame and are clearly visible because these will compliment the words that you're speaking. For example, say Sea The word sea can be depicted like this. A window can be depicted like this. Flower, in this way. So there are different ways you can use your hands to support your word. Step three to just make sure that you're clearly audible and each word is clear, your face is clear. The video is of a good high resolution. And just the basic technicalities are in place. Okay. Now that you've cleared out the technicalities, here. Let's move on to the voice exercises that you need to prepare yourself before performing your final poetry. We are aware of vowels, AEIOU. These actually tongue twist our way in a way that we can practice, our voice. Observe, and repeat after me. Exaggerate and speak each letter of the vowel, A, E, I, O, U. Repeat this a couple of times. I know what, it'll feel funny to you. initially, but it really helps to open up your mouth so that you can speak Each would clearly. A second useful and Handy exercise that you can do is, breathe out with force. Open your mouth and breath in normally but breathe out with force. Put your hand in front and see that you feel in the breathe on your hand, try it in front of your middle. And just get used to it practice, practice, practice, practice. Practice is lots of fun when you are ready with a lot of practice, Share a couple of sample videos of your practice in the project gallery so that I can have a look at how your practice is going before the grand finale. In this class, we learned the things to keep in mind before going on floor. Secondly, we learned some quick handy performance basics, that you can constantly repeat AEIOU and forced breathing. Now that you've have your poem with you, lots of ways to write a poem, everything, and you have practiced your way to performing on a digital space, by now you should start thinking on which platform do you want to perform? In the next lesson, we are going to get down to final performance. See you then. 8. Personal Prep - Setting the Mood: Hi there and welcome to your grand finale of performing your digital poetry. This class is about personal prep and setting the mood of your poem and really getting into what you have written. Some very important things to keep in mind before you get onto recording your poem. For any platform, are: First thing that you have to keep in mind is the duration. If you are recording for a platform like Instagram. And you just want it to be on your page and not the IGTV, you have to make sure that your poem does not cross the time duration of one minute. If you are recording it for YouTube it should not cross more than 2.5 minutes. These suggestions, are purely based on the simple fact that the attention span of people scrolling through digital mediums is very short, And we want to appeal to as many people as possible and therefore these little basic tips will have a sorted through. Second thing that you should keep in mind before getting into your poem is that you must learn poem by heart so that you avoid the fumbling and tumbling And you've already clearly flowing through your words. Speak each word slowly, and focus on each word separately. The third thing to keep in mind is that you have to remember the mood of the poem. If the poem has a lot of excitement and vigor in it, then you are speaking a little faster. If the poem is mellow, it's about the weather or you're reflecting on it is if it has a very retrospect tone to it, then your words will also be slower and you will take your pauses deeper to leave higher impact. Remember these things. It's very important. Lastly, think of the authenticity of the poem. No matter what poem your speaking. Unless, unless you connect to the words, unless you connect to your poem, it will not show in your performance. And that in fact gets enhanced by the fact that you have written your own poem. You have felt through your words and done all those sizes. You pick up the poem which most feels right to you. And don't pick up something just for the sake of picking it up. An important tip is to really fall in love with your work. It will show! Believe me. Some takeaways from this session, that we learned, is that, you really connect to your work. Tailor it as per the medium. Learn your poem by heart, and really set the mood for the poem. I am really looking forward to, what do you have in store for me! I'll see you in the next lesson. 9. Final Thoughts: Hi there! You made it this far! Congratulations! In this course, we learned a handful of things related to poetry, performance, and lots of tools for self-expression. Some of these were Mind Maps, rhyming words, haiku, as a structural point, how to use metaphors to enrich your creative writing work, and basically how to perform for a digital space. If there is one thing that I hope you took away from the class, Is that, not to over analyze your work, try to let yourself flow with your writing. Let your intuition guide your hand. The word poetry itself means intense emotions. Without emotions, poetry is nothing. So make sure that you really feel your way through writing a poem step-by-step. Last but not the least, when you're done with your final performance and you think you are ready to upload it into your choice of social media. Before that, make sure you posted on the project gallery. If you want any feedbacks and if you'd like me to have a look. When you post it on your social media account, don't forget, to hashtag #poetrywithPranjulaa so that I get notified about it. And please do leave a review and follow my skill share profile if you like the class. Thanks again. See you next time. 10. Mind Maps 2: Since Brown July saying you're taking the class of poetry performance 101, duals for self-expression. And you'll first lesson, we are going to talk about establishing a team. We're going to do this via the tool of mind-map. Mind-map, you must ask if there's no one around you to tell you what to write on. And you have to choose that what you should write on with all the freedom that you have in the wild, you can use mindmap as a great tool to do so. Mind map helps to really narrow down one particular dog make for a poem if you're confused about what the right foil on this dot with my map will help you to D dangle. You're taught this is an example of a mindmap. And to show you how to make a mindmap via a step-by-step process. Step one. The first word that comes to your mind. Save for this exercise, we take the word cloud step to let your hand flow in the directions and write all the associated words that come to your head with the central word. It looks somewhat like the sun, but remember not to branch out more than four to five watts. In step three, we will be putting out key associated words alone without branch outwards. So each branch will have keyboards to it. Whatever is coming to your head. No wonder what thing KP don't spend too much time on one word. Similarly, we are going to do for each branch that we have, you have to learn to follow your intuition. Don't overanalyze what you doing. One way that this can be easier and effective is that fuse time, this activity don't spend more than five minutes on this activity so that you can actually select a team which is more intuition-based. So now that we have keywords associated with each brand, I last step of fourth step is to select the branch with the most number of keywords or the branch you feel most connected to by the end of this mind-map. Now you have a central theme to your point. This would establish our team. You will select the pool branch covering the central word. We have now established starting team to appoint. We've played with our mind and some, some key takeaways from this lecture. Adopted PR is to diagnose as don't spend more than five minutes on this activity so that you quickly follow your intuition. Let your hand guide you and select a team. This class leaves with your mind, you realize what has been going in your head since long dead. I would encourage you to try a mind map and I want you to pause this mine in the product gallery so that I can see on what foot Alice darting upwards. In the next class, we are going to look at how to add richness to our world. Going to take a word and a metaphor to you in the next class.