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 sunsets

nothing current that would feel too much

like normal life

nothing cerebral why mess with all those alpha waves

kicked up by the vastness

Back to the vault.