Creative workshop: Multilingual poems by Elizabeth Gibson

 Hello!

 This is Elizabeth, and I have a workshop for you on multilingual poetry. Do you need to be multilingual to take part? No! If you speak just one language you can still join in.

 I speak several languages, and have long incorporated them in my work. See this poem which is based around the Mandarin Chinese names for planets.

 For me, comparing words in different languages is fascinating. The last thing I would think to call Mercury is Water Star, yet I find the name beautiful and apt.

 The Mandarin Chinese for water is "Shui", pronounced "Shway", which always seemed just right to me, though I couldn't put my finger on why. In trying to suss out why I like it, I wrote this poem.

 And it doesn't have to be Mandarin! I also speak French, Spanish, Catalan and bits and pieces of other languages. I find the relationship between the foreign (to me) languages and English, and between each other, can provide the basis for some powerful writing.

 So, how do you get started writing a language poem?


If you speak more than one language

 If you speak more than one language, ask yourself some questions. How do the two languages differ, and how are they the same? Do you speak them in different circumstances (with your friends, with your family, at school) and does that affect your relationship with the languages?

 How does each language feel in your mouth, in your ear, in your heart? How does it look written down? The answers to all of these questions can provide the basis for a poem.

 An exercise you could do if you speak at least three languages is choose an object, state its name in each language you speak, and then discuss what you think about the variation in the names, and what it might tell you about the culture the name comes from.


If you speak one language

 If you speak only one language, you can still write multilingual poetry. Choose a word or phrase and look it up on a reliable dictionary or translator in another language. Focus on that one foreign word and think what is means to you. Read it, listen to it if possible, say it aloud. Then write a poem.

 If you are monolingual and are reading this, statistically the odds are high that your language is English. English is made up of so many other languages: French, Latin, German and more. Why not choose an English word and find out its origins, and write about it?


 I really hope you enjoyed this workshop and found it useful. Why not send your multilingual poems to Miracle? The information can be found on the submissions tab at the top of the page.

 Please bare in mind that poems sent to us must be principally in English, though of course you can include some foreign words, as that is the point of this workshop! However, please make it clear what they mean.

 Thank you, and we look forward to hearing from you!

 Elizabeth Gibson
 Blog Editor and Fiction Editor at Miracle

Creative workshop: Combining poem and image by Elizabeth Gibson

 Hello, Miracle readers!

 My name is Elizabeth and I am Blog Editor and also Fiction Editor at Miracle Magazine. I also create what I call "poem-photos", a combination of a poem and an image, which I post on my own blog and on my Facebook page.

 I really enjoy pairing poems with photographs and vice-versa. Mainly the photographs are taken by me, though recently I have been collaborating with a friend; he has sent me some photos and I have set poems to them. (I use the word setting deliberately, because for me there are definite parallels between setting a poem to a photo and setting words to music.)

 To me, the pairing of poem and image makes perfect sense. Both photos and poems are ways of capturing one moment as well as possible, so that people who weren't there can know what it was like. If a poem and a photograph were written about the same moment, the image is even stronger. 

 However, I find it more interesting to match a poem with a photo that does not represent the same moment, but a different one. This challenges the viewer to find their own links between the poem and the image, and you can make connections you never imagined you could.

 Here is a photo-poem of mine where the poem was written about the photo. I looked at this ladybird on his leaf, fresh from his cocoon, and just wrote.

 Here is an example of the other type of poem-photo I do: one where the photo and poem were created separately and then combined: 

 The photograph was taken in Manchester one evening when the sky was really beautiful. The poem had been written in Wales several months previously. But when the time came to find a photo for the poem, this one called out to me. Why? The why is the beauty of it. I can't tell you exactly. But my subconscious immediately connected the two. 

 I prefer to feel connections rather than explicitly state them, but for the sake of explanation here are some I found: the poem has an "end of the world" kind of feel, as does the photo. Both feature birds. I wrote the poem at dusk, and the image clearly depicts the sunset. For me both poem and photo have a feeling of calm and reflection.

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 So, I have hopefully shown why I love this particular art form. I am now going to give a brief masterclass in setting poems to photos and vice versa.

 Firstly, don't worry if you do not see yourself as a photographer or as a poet. Either you could work in collaboration, or you could give it a go yourself - and I am sure you will succeed. I believe anyone can be a photographer, and anyone can be a poet. It doesn't matter if you don't have a good camera; it is the feeling behind the image that matters here, not the quality.

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Taking an image of a poem

 If you are matching an image to a poem, try to do it on as deep a level as you can. If the poem is about the sea, for example, don't just take a picture of the sea. Take a picture of the sky, perhaps, or a smaller body of water. This will allow both you and your viewers to make new connections.

 If you are taking the image first and then matching a poem to it, take photos of either some thing that is important to you, or, if you are struggling, something generic like the sky, flowers or trees. These shouldn't be too hard to find words for. When you are more used to combining photos and poetry, you can be more adventurous with your photos.

Writing a poem about an image

 I love writing poems about pictures; I find it a really creative and enjoyable way of writing. My way is simply to look at the image and write whatever comes into my head in a long flow of thoughts, and then edit it until I end up with something I like. 

 If you like to write in a more structured way, I recommend making a list or a mind map of words you associate with the image and then work them into poem. Think about the moment you took the photograph; what happened before and after, how you felt, what you were thinking. Alternatively, you could match it to another moment; a picture of flowers could remind you of someone you love; an image of the sky or water could remind you of a time you travelled. Here is a poem about a friend that I was easily able to match to a flower photo I had taken:

Putting the two together

 How you combine poem and image is up to you. I layer the writing over the poem but you could also display them side by side or you could perform the poem with the image behind you. It's a matter of what suits your style as a creative and as a person.

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 I hope you enjoyed this workshop and I wish you every success with the unique art form of the poem-photo. Here are a few of mine to finish. Thanks for reading,

 Elizabeth Gibson

 Blog Editor and Fiction Editor at Miracle Magazine

If you would like to see more of my work or contact me, check out my blog and Facebook page:

http://elizabethgibsonwriter.blogspot.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethGibsonWriterPoet