Week Three - Response to Brandy's Improv 2, Week 3

Hey, Brandy,

So, I really like that you tried this particular form, considering anaphora came up recently in our class (Erika Meitner mentioned it in Dr. Davidson's 3200 class, too). I think it's a really great way to reign yourself (I think that's what Parks told us about syllabics, too, which I love).

As for this particular peice, I think you should focus more on the format that Darwish used and less on his actual subject matter. What I mean is, I see that a lot of people for their Improvs are taking the poem and writing, essentially, about the same subject, just choosing their own words. In a way, that's a great method--because it allows you to simply focus on word play. However, in this particular case, the form is really important. Rather than replacing "words" with "sayings" (which seems to be funneling you in to larger, cliched terms like "figurative"), improv off of him by mimicing the format of "Repeated phrase + something new/ Response to repeated phrase." You might even use his "When."

An exercise Erika Meitner suggested was just writing down a huge list of things that she remembers; then you can pull it in using Dr. Davidson's suggestion of creating tension, and you may end up with something totally off the wall, which of course can be revised in to submission later. (She also had us write lists of things we're experts at and things we know nothing about, if you want some other idea to go off of).