Write a poem with your heart.
Deep within the body, protected by skin and bone, the heart beats. It is the source of movement and warmth, the pulse that keeps the body alive. Unlike bones, which hold the structure, the heart moves constantly, carrying life through every hidden passage. In a poem, the heart is what gives breath to the body you have built. It is not concerned with gaps or structure, but with rhythm, impulse, and truth.
Your Task (20 minutes)
- What is your heart (3 minutes): Now I want you to think of your mother tongue. Is it there where the heart of the poem beats? Or is it perhaps a different language that makes your blood flow? Out of these three anatomical parts, the heart is the most essential one. Skin and bones may break and fix, but a failure in the heart can bring us death. Pick a language that feels as important as your heart or your soul. It will also be the heart of your poem. It can be a language you have already worked with in this session. In my case, this language would be my mother tongue: Spanish. I encourage you to take a minute or two to feel the connection with that language, feel it beating inside you, moving your thoughts the same way your heart moves the blood inside your veins.
- Write again (15 minutes): Take the third of your pieces of translucent paper and lay it on top of the other two. Following the same lines as before, write once again, but using your heart language. Feel free to rewrite the same poem or let your heart decide.
- Hold your body (2 minutes): Take two minutes to look at your body. Re-arrange the poem in different ways, lay it out as: Heart, Bones, Skin and observe it; read it to yourself. What do you feel?. Lay it out as: Skin, Heart, Bones and do the same. Then as Bones, Heart, Skin. How does the corporeal nature of your poem represent your real life experience of your languages? How does the writing of this exercise as a whole make you appreciate the languages that make you you? How did this exercise modify your view on the limitations and freedom of your spoken languages?