| PoetryPoetry Workshop |  |
The Clarifying Poem
Charlie examines poetry
as a way to help clarify one's thought processes. Confronted with a road trip lasting many weeks,
Charlie tries to select the accompanying soundtrack.
For the the full explanation of this exercise, listen to Charlie at the following links:
stream or file download.
Below is Charlie's sample poem.
Selecting Tunes for the Roadtrip
The trick is to anticipate yourself
a thousand miles from now
on a gravel road in North Dakota
or under wide Montana skies.
where all you'll want
is to enhance the mood.
For this, choose older blues,
acoustic bass to suit the two lanes,
Asian flute and Native drumming,
folk tunes and rare oldies
that tell tales
familiar, like old friends
who lead you
back to yourself, to that place
you strive for, that place
you live for, that place
where the music in you
is all you need.--Charlie Rossiter
rejected middle stanzas
nothing urban
except maybe a little mellow Miles
for after sunsetsnothing current
that would feel too much
like normal lifenothing cerebral
why mess with all those alpha waves
kicked up by the vastness
