The Daily Ode
- American Griot
- May 15, 2015
- 2 min read
Before leaving I encouraged students in all of my classes to visit me in France through this blog. I didn’t think the learning pertained only to me. Poetry can enhance any descriptive writing, whether they major in Criminal Justice, Communications or Business. And so, to those that were curious enough to take a look, there are 10 extra credit points for commenting here by Tuesday with an Ode…
In our first workshop in the lovely VCCA studio, Moulin Nef, we learned that Pablo Neruda wrote an ode every day of his life. Odes are praise poems. Imagine the change in perspective when you force yourself each day to find something to praise. It is so easy for us to find a reason to complain, and as I told my Oral Communications students, the trick to giving a confident performance, behind podium and in life, is to be able to take negative thoughts captive and move forward with confidence. Learning to praise, to be thankful, to see the positive things, could be the key to doing this. We listed all of the things we had seen our first hours in Auvillar that could be a subject of praise. Here is my original list:
Floaty fuzzies (cottonwood)
Cultural diversity
A blue-eyed black man
Chocolate
Dreads
The crouching boy.
Full hipped mother statues.
Multicolored macaroons.
We also listed those negative things that we could turn positive with an ode:
Line cutters
Airport security
Pinched nerves
People without deodorant
British bombardment of questions about Baltimore (Look Love, A Black American, what luck!)
Carefully, I chose my ode…it was a blend of my fascination with food and other sensual pleasures. I wrote my Ode to Macaroons.
I will share my ode with you, but here, in this space, I invite you to post your own list of things within the last 24 for hours that you could praise. (If you are in one of my classes, as I said before, I’ll give you extra credit points if you complete this before I return Tuesday.)
And now, Ode to Macaroons (first draft.)
Oh, Macaroon!
Gone too soon;
You tease
the senses!
Ironic, your shell–
Slight pressure and
It shatters,
flavor erupts,
cracks bloom slow
like fault lines.
Taste buds stand
Cool, sweet, silk sits
One yearns to
meet the other
for an instant
before you
slide away,
Leaving the tongue
Wet,
fumbling for
remnants.
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