Writing poetry

I'd love to be a famous poet someday, or at least to write one or two decent poems - that would do. This has been on my mind for years. Trouble is, I've hardly written a poem for a long, long time. But I've been working up to it in all sorts of ways. I'd tell you about it but you might laugh. Anyway in the last week I've written a few of the suckers and I think I might finally be able to start chugging away. Here is what I think the tricks might be, at least for me:

1. Learn to write truely about things. Not all the time, but at least on occasions. You must (I think) have the capacity to do this, or there is no point proceeding. You have to be able to write about something, read it back and realise that you conveyed that thing just as it is (not in its entirety, but in its essence or in the detail you were concentrating on), and that no word is either lacking or superfluous.
2. One of the things I've done is to look at the content of poems written by poets I respect. In the lyric poetry that is apparently in vogue at the moment1 the poets seem to focus on one event or scene. They describe it in some detail and draw out associations, which they may also go into in detail. So you have to milk one thing for all it's worth. The trouble with my old poems is that I took the one thing and wrote about it briefly - which was nice and all but unsatisfying to read. You need something that you can get your teeth into, but that is different from a novel's narrative. I think that reading a poem should be an exercise in looking at the world carefully and pausing awhile on one thing.
3. If you're having trouble getting started, start by talking about one true thing.2 It can be something very small and humble. But make sure it is leading towards your main subject, otherwise you will have an o'er pithy poem.
4. While I do want to examine my subject in some detail, I also need to know when to stop. In the past I've started writing with a vision of what I want to get across, the feeling I want people to leave with. I think a better approach is to have an idea of the sort of direction you want to go in, but have no particular expectations of what you will say. Then you can just go with what is working and stop when you have said enough. If this means you neglected to mention an important part of the experience, then so be it. Better to say some things truely and consideredly than to include everything and say it badly.
5. Because I approach the world with an analytic, overviewy, self-aware sort of style, my natural inclination is to write in horrendous abstracted, psychological language - telling rather than showing.3 I suspect that for me, the way out of this is not to try and ape an orthodox method, but rather to focus on the outcome. I need to make sure that I include sensory description. I don't really care how I do this, just that it is there (and is true).

Best wishes for any fellow wannabe writers out there. May you also write one or two decent pieces before you die.

1 B Emery, "Fiction and Prose: Thin Partitions do their Bounds Divide," in JS Batts, M Bradstock, JL Sheppard, T Thorpe, L Vellins (eds), Five Bells: Australian Poetry (Vol 16 No 4 2009), 38.

2 Paul Simon, in an interview I once heard.

3 Thanks to Mikey for helping me see this.

Black or White?

I got Benny to recommended me some recent books. I've loved Julius Winsome (by Gerard Donovan) and David Malouf's The Great World, been ho-hum about Robert Drewe (The Drowner), and really disliked The Lost Life (Steven Carroll). Benny assured me that the last book, Journey to the Stone Country (Alex Miller), would be a "like" and he was emphatically right about that.

The book's set in country Queensland. One thing I've noticed is that when introducing the various characters the author doesn't mention their race. This is what he writes when we first meet David Orlando and Bo Rennie:

The two men talking by the mine vehicle turned and watched the Pajero drive up.
One was wearing a white hardhat with an empty lampclip, a site ID clipped to the
pocket of his shirt. As he turned to watch them come up the plastic site ID
caught the sun. The other man wore a pale cowboy hat set back on his head, a
stripy shirt and blue jeans, his pointy-toed riding boots turned over at the
heels. Annabelle recognised in him the style of man who had worked for her
father; the itinerant stockmen who stayed a season, mustering the scrubs then
rode out with a polite goodbye and were not seen again, or who maybe reappeared
a year to two later to muster the scrubs again, greeting you as if they had not
been away and no time had passed. (Journey [Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2002], 17-18.)

Turns out David, the first man, is White and Bo, the second, is Aboriginal. I think most books would mention this straight-off, but it's not important here. Makes me wonder if we too often define people by their most striking physical characteristics and fail to notice other, perhaps more important, things.

Is that allowed!?

Since I left Crossroads two years ago to head up to Sydney, a couple of house churches have started up. I've been lucky enough to go along to one of them while down for Christmas. It's been a positive, encouraging experience, and I'm told that they've been great for fostering community, and for including people who, for a variety of reasons, would find it difficult to go to a regular church service. I think house churches provide a wonderful opportunity for us individualistic Westerners to share our lives with people and be hospitable. They haven't had a lot of visitors along though and I wonder if non-church goers would find going to a stranger's house a bit intimidating.

I'm wondering if meeting in a community hall might be a good way of making church more accessible for non-Christians but also keeping the intimacy. One of the problems with this is that people would no longer come to your actual home - so it would cease to be this natural thing of having people pop over midweek to visit you and then again on Sunday for church. But I think that meeting in a community hall could be a symbolic way of showing that churches are at the centre of our communities. I imagine that local church buildings used to communicate this, but these days people see churches as archane religious institutions. I wonder if meeting in the same hall where people come for yoga and dance classes, market garden fairs and weddings will convey this message anew - as well as providing a space that people are already comfortable to come into.

Pearls of some price

This time in Tassie I've been introduced to a couple of little known cafes. Cafe A Go Go is a tiny one-room cafe attached to the servo on the highway just outside Kettering. The outside walls are decorated with silhouetted skating ladies in various states of undress. Inside it's intimate and funky. It's the sort of place that you'd expect to find in the city, but somehow the fact that it's in the country makes it even cooler. A great place to pop in, chill out and have a chat.

The other is Culpeper's, a short walk along Sandy Bay Rd out of the Hobart CBD. The room you enter into is pretty uninspiring, but if you just walk through the doorway to your left and along the little hall, you'll come to a back room painted a delightful green, with lovely wooden detailing and a beautiful view down Montpelier Retreat and over some old Salamanca buildings. Culpeper's does a cheap, healthy and delicious burger.


H/T Dan, Zoe and David

Working class teenagers

Last night Toilet Block Tuesday (the nickname for Crossroads' Tuesday night service) held a fair in the park behind the Moonah Community Centre. Jake explained that we did it to show that the gospel's for everyone, not just for people who've grown up going to church or who have friends there. It was a fantastic event - lucky door hampers, guess the number of jelly beans, throw bits of wood at old plates, face painting, sausage sizzle, crafts for sale, free Christian books and Bibles, a band, a talk by Jimbo, footy, rugby and cricket. Some teenagers got to have a positive experience of Christians and Christian community, and a couple of ladies and some primary school kids got to hear the gospel.

I edged my way into the group of teenagers waiting to get their faces painted. I'd worn my Element skull and snakes t-shirt (because I didn't want to imply that Christianity's only for the middle class) and they were impressed. I joked around with them and shot questions at them. I didn't care when they smoked and swore, but I did care when a kid was never getting a go and when the guys said smutty things about their friend. It all made me wonder if perhaps the trick with teenagers is to launch yourself into their world and to be really honest and unpolished (and kind), while at the same time staying confident in your authority, so that when you need to tell them off you'll be listened to. I managed it for a short while - dunno how I'd go day-in day-out.

Beginning the journey

This is a cool part-Bible that has lots of easy to understand asides explaining foundational Christian concepts and doctrine. A good one to give to a new Christian or someone who's checking out Christianity.

We'll get a crown of dirty old thorns and stick it in his head

I lived in Dublin for nine months a few years ago. While I was there, I bought the Give Up Yer Aul Sins series. But back in Tassie I'm pretty sure a creepy man let himself into my flat and stole them. I'm delighted to find them on YouTube. Enjoy!

There's more where this one came from - The Story of Lazarus is particularly endearing.

A time to be silent and a time to speak

What should we do when we see a non-Christian friend of ours doing something we think is wrong? It depends a bit on where they're at - whether they would be glad of our advice or whether they are opposed to what we think's right. In either case, it might be nice to say something in the hope that it will help them out. Or so that they might see that what they're doing is not on - in the hope that, at the right time, they will realise their need for forgiveness. Or it may be better to keep our mouth shut to avoid implying that if they would only act this way it would make them a good Christian like us, and that if they refuse we will be judging them. Whatever it is we decide to do, we need to be careful not to become self-righteous. It's not like we're these perfect beings - and it's only because of the Son that we can have confidence before the Father. We need to keep imitating the surprising mercy, patience and graciousness that he has shown to us sinners.

Womens' events

I don’t always like womens' events. I think that's because people often don't seem to be themselves. Everyone tries really hard to be polite and friendly and the topics of conversation are kept to what is safe and shared (raising children, clothes, husbands, common bungles or annoyances). I think this happens because we want everyone to feel included and the event to be harmonious. We also fear the opinions of other women. Just stepping into a room full of women can make us feel either insecure and unconfident, or competitive and self-promotional. This is made worse when we don’t know all the women at the event, because we really want these strangers to like us and we don’t want to embarrass ourselves or our host.

We end up trying way too hard. We need to relax, stop worrying about what the other women think of us, and be sincerely respectful, interested and caring. Women in charge of running events can create a helpful atmosphere by conveying their acceptance of everyone (perhaps by dressing down, being laid-back about protocol and acting the clown). They can also put on calm, happy music, provide yummy food and drink and make sure that women who don’t know anyone are looked after. The running of the event or the layout of the room can be engineered so that more intimate conversations are encouraged. It can also help to let people know what will take place, what will be expected of them and assure them that they won’t be asked to do anything embarrassing.

WWJD

Richard Hibbert, the head of the Missions department at SMBC, concluded the Project Fair by saying that what the students had been doing was finding out what pleases the Lord (Eph 5:10). I hadn't thought of that before - how cool.

Masculinity

Brian asked 'What would Paul say to a Salaryman? Exploring the implications of masculinity in the New Testament for Japanese working men'. Brian observed that to a Japanese Christian man, it is the "man" bit in which he is most likely to unthinkingly transmit an Australian, rather than a Christian perspective. This was an interesting observation - even if we are aware of our culture, I think we're often unaware of how our culture defines our masculinity/femininity.

When Paul is explaining how people are to live, he starts with Christ and then appropriates helpful cultural ideas. But some Christian books about masculinity (eg Wild at Heart) will start with cultural ideas and then appropriate the Bible.

Brian had lots of other interesting things to say, but I'll stop there.

Scantily clad women and sex scenes

Kathryn's paper was 'An evaluation of the effect of western media on Muslims' views of Christianity'. She said that Muslims interpret America's support of Israel as a holy war intent on bringing western (read Hollywood) values/Christianity to the Middle East. Culture and religion is seen as all of a piece.

Work

Andrew's paper was called 'Don't give up on your day job: Toward a theology of work'. I took fairly comprehensive notes which I'm a little hesitant to write down in case I got something wrong. But I don't think I did. Andrew said that the Bible speaks about work in five significant ways:

1. Ontological. God is a worker. We are by nature workers. Work is about making order from chaos. When we work: we do a good thing; we honour God by imitating him and we bear witness about the sort of God that he is.
2. Instrumental. Work can be used to achieve good things.
3. Relational. Work can bring justice and mercy to people.
4. Arena for worship. In this new covenent age, we are God's temple, and wherever we are (including at work) can be a place for worship.
5. Arena for receiving gifts. Ecclesiates says that working to gain things for yourself is very toilsome. However working to receive gifts is enjoyable and not as toilsome. [I can't fully recall this last point.]

How not to screw people round

The problem with churches getting involved in social action is that they don't always have the resources or experience to do a good job of it. An antidote to this is for a church to employ a social worker. Of course!


H/T Fiona

In his hands

Jill looked at Job too. She observed that for non-Christians, grief can eventually resolve into acceptance. Christians, however, do not have to 'merely' accept the reality of what has happened and move on. They have a personal, powerful God who is present in the midst of grief and in whom they can find trust and hope.

Right confusion

Roger's topic was something about Calvin's interpretation of Job. I'm only going to mention a few side issues.

The Job narrative adds some nuance to the view of man as the centre of all creation (Genesis 1-2). In Job we read that God "cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it" (38:25-26). God's care for the earth, even when people are absent, should humble us.

The creatures called Leviathan and Behemoth (40:15-34) show the world to be chaotic and evil. It is partly because this is a crazy, complex world that God acts with unfathomable wisdom.

The book of Job presents three reasons why we cannot understand (all of) God's will. The first is our creatureliness (above); the second is because God hides his will; and the third, because we are sinful (we are, but Job isn't).

Oh sorry was I being ambiguous?

After exams the students who did projects held a 'Project Fair'. I'll share some of their findings and reflections with you over the next few posts.

Derek looked at 'Deliberate ambiguity in the Solomon narrative'. He noted that scholars who commentate on 1 Kings decide from the outset if Solomon's being portrayed as a good or bad man. Their decision influences their interpretation of various passages throughout the book. However Derek argued that the writer of 1 Kings is deliberately employing ambiguity to make the reader ask questions and become engaged in the story. Passages are supposed to remain ambiguous, until the climax is reached and ambiguity resolved in 11:4-6.