Note: the future Lighthouse Creative Curator Dan Manzanares reports from David J. Rothman's Scansion Blast Lit Fest course.
Blog: The Occulting Light
Author: Dan Manzanares
Topic: Lit Fest: Scansion Blast; Instructor: David Rothman
My mind is blasted. It’s been a while since the purity of syllables enlivened my synapses. I’m picking up the illuminated pieces, enjoying remembering how syllables feel against my consciousness. As a novelist, I’m mostly focusing on what words say instead of what they do. This
course, held in the Ferril House living room, instructed by Dave Rothman, was all about the latter. There are patterns to be discovered, words to measure, equivalences to be created. The meaning of verse is not what it says but what it does.To be done in by words is why I started this journey in the first place. This course reminded me of that fact. To be taken from the chaos and remade into a bright pattern, to count lines, to be cracked open into
greater imagination is wild living.We were given five minutes at the end to write four lines. Rules: 4 strong stresses per line, 3 of the 4 stresses must alliterate perfectly, fourth stress can do anything, All vowels alliterate.
This is what I came up with. It’s wrong. The last two lines don’t alliterate on the correct stresses. Still, it’s what I did in five minutes for the first time in my life:
dropping the dread draught of wine
mouthing the muse in Monday’s hall
together forever tomorrow toothless
wine for wisdom crackers with holding“I’m just trying to write one great line and hope the muse shows up,” Dave said. I think it’s the same type of challenge for all writers. Or can be if we slow down a bit. One line, inspiration, 90,000 words, inspiration, stresses, syllables, inspiration.
The glowing edge of evolution arrives. Do meaning, it tells me. Do it.
--Dan Manzanares
