VCFA Puerto Rico Residency Day 4

[Posts from my Vermont College of Fine Arts winter residency]

The music around us has changed. We’ve gone from the happy band sound of the Three Kings celebrations in old San Juan (think the Fiesta Trio from Dora the Explorer) to a chorus of crickets and coqui singing to us from the depths of the El Yunque rain forest. The coqui is a tiny tree frog named after its own persistent chirping sound. In the city I only heard one and he seemed to be in the same tree each evening. Here we get the harmonic effect of a multitude.

We’re staying at Casa Cubuy, a little resort lodge perched on the side of a mountain. While there are tourists here they are few in number–I admit I’m relieved after the crowds in the city. I also like the food they are feeding us here: authentic dishes of fish, rice & beans, sweet plantains, avocado salad, and a gorgeous chicken soup with yummy balls of carrot and potato so soft they melted deliciously on the tongue. Outside, plants that I’m used to seeing in nursery pots in Connecticut grow wild and large in their natural tropical habitat–coleus and poinsettia as tall as a small child.

After arriving and getting settled our schedule today was simple: lunch, workshop, dinner, then readings by faculty members Richard McCann and Mary Ruefle and our coordinator/graduate assistant Pam Taylor.

By the way, it does rain in the rain forest but not in the way I thought it would. I thought we would have one or two rainy days. In fact we have 6 or 7 rainy intervals throughout the day lasting about 10 minutes each. It’s like a cloud arrives, wrings itself out over us, then moves on and the sun returns. As we held workshop on a terrace a grand rainbow arched over the forest below us. Mary took it as a good sign.

And now that we’ve come to Mary, here are today’s workshop tidbits:

“You want to find a stanzaic order that cannot be shifted without something being lost.”

“The parts of the poem don’t talk to the reader. They talk to each other. If you can get the parts to talk to each other, the poem will talk to the reader. ”

“A poem is words, punctuation, and space on the page.”

“Sometimes your worst enemy is being conscious that you’re writing a poem.”

“When you write seriously you’re committed to growing.”

That’s all for now. Tonight I’m tired and looking forward to a good long sleep. I’ll let you know if the crickets and coqui keep me awake.

Sophfronia