Poetry News

New York School Poem Ingredients

By Harriet Staff

Over at J2, Thom Donovan has the recipe for writing a New York School poem. This stems from an exercise he uses in a course he teaches at School of Visual Arts.

Here are ten of the twenty-three ingredients. Make the jump for the rest:

1. at least one addressee (to which you may or may not wish to dedicate your poem)
2. use of specific place names and dates (time, day, month, year)--especially the names of places in and around New York City
3. prolific use of proper names
4. at least one reminiscence, aside, digression, or anecdote
5. one or more quotations, especially from things people have said in conversation or through the media
6. a moment where you call into question at least one thing you have said or proposed throughout your poem so far
7. something that sounds amazing even if it doesn’t make any sense to you
8. pop cultural references
9. consumer goods/services
10. mention of natural phenomena (in which natural phenomena do not appear ‘natural’)

Originally Published: February 20th, 2012