One of the poetry techniques that I’ve come to love – to look for, to lean on is repetition. Repetition comes in many forms and has many uses. Sometimes it’s about emphasis, sometimes it’s about a foggy, dreamy wistfulness or melancholy tone. Sometimes it takes the form of an incantation, a recitation that wants to call something into being, or it can be about music and rhythm—like the chorus of your favorite song, how it can become familiar so quickly, something that stays with you. I could go on. My mantel, always and whether I like it or not, has to do with finding parallels between poetry and the rest of life. So, naturally, while working on Melody or Witchcraft, I discovered not just that certain things—namely themes guests came around to during our conversations—repeated, but how fruitful that repetition was in helping me understand what we were doing and in contributing to the enjoyment of what we were up to. The conversations of Season One touch on topics you might anticipate a poetry podcast to touch on, like epistolary (letter) poetry, the trials of publishing, favorite mentors, and that perennial subject: the speaker of the poem. It also touches on topics you won’t have expected: the history of breast cancer surgery, wildlife in Indonesia, adoption, and Navajo creation stories. And through all those tributaries of dialogue and more, there are the most beautiful overlaps in subject matter, the repetitions. For example, one of the biggest to emerge is the importance of bringing the voices of women forward who did not have the opportunity to be heard in their lifetimes. I couldn’t have planned a more satisfying focal point to return to. Our starting point, Emily Dickinson, is intriguing for the ways in which she also wasn’t heard, and indeed for the ways she was—some of them interpreted far off-base from what her letters and other documents show to be the case. The second trailer for the show that I share with you here is on offer to give you another taste of the podcast before it debuts in just two weeks. Mondays beginning February 9th you’ll be able to find the full podcast episodes here and at other podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple. Check out @melodyorwitchcraft on Instagram as well as our webpage melodyorwitchcraft.com for more photos and info, and of course make sure you’re subscribed here at the Substack to get all the updates. Kelli Russell Agodon’s poem “Hunger” is below. The way repetition operates in this poem is a kind of two steps forward, one step back momentum in order to story the poem forward. A stutter, and yet, a momentum. Kelli will be a guest on the second season of the Melody or Witchcraft Podcast (which will be released over April & May). HungerKelli Russell Agodon If we never have enough love, we have more than most.We have lost dogs in our neighborhood and wild coyotes,and sometimes we can’t tell them apart. Sometimeswe don’t want to. Once I brought home a coyote and toldmy lover we had a new pet. Until it ate our chickens.Until it ate our chickens, our ducks, and our cat. Sometimeswe make mistakes and call them coincidences. We hold openthe door then wonder how the stranger ended up in our home.There is a woman on our block who thinks she is feeding bunnies,but they are large rats without tails. Remember the farmer’s wife?Remember the carving knife? We are all trying to changewhat we fear into something beautiful. But even rats need to eat.Even rats and coyotes and the bones on the trail could be the boneson our plates. I ordered Cornish hen. I ordered duck. Sometimeslove hurts. Sometimes the lost dog doesn’t want to be found. (Academy of American Poets, 2017) Prompt: Write the word “Sometimes” at the beginning of three different lines. Write the word “Remember” at the beginning of two more. Next, choose one abstract concept (love, anger, grief, compassion…) and two-three concrete nouns of things in your average or not-so-average day (coffee, traffic, books, rain…). Make this collection of abstract and the concrete words the core of what you talk (ostensibly) about—plan to use each of them at least three times in your draft. Using the first things that come to mind (no overthinking!) complete each of the Sometimes and Remember lines. Try out your new lines peppered with lines you write using your abstract/concrete word bank. Mix, match, and adjust as needed! Create and celebrate creative work—these are paths to resistance and redirecting energy into the world that we want. Thank you for your support! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe
