The Art: “Have Mercy” by Eryn Allen Kane (Music/ Film)
Some Thoughts:
Go ahead and give this song a couple listens, if you have time. It’s often fruitful to try a variety of perspectives. Maybe you listen with your eyes closed the first time, then watch the video on second listen. After each listen, take a moment to reflect on how you’re feeling and what struck you about the piece.
For me, a not particularly religious person, the refrain "have mercy" lands particularly hard right now. While I'm not sure who, or what, I'd be appealing to with that phrase, I do know the world could use a little mercy right now. This song might bring up totally different thoughts and feelings for you and, if so, that’s great! Ultimately, tapping into our personal experiences with art in all their particularity and intimacy is what this class is about.
And while some of this week’s prompts will be very open, for day one, we’re going to start with lots of structure. We’re drafting a list poem, an agnostic benediction!
The Writing Exercise:
After listening/ viewing a couple times, take about five minutes to write a list of names of people you care about. The list doesn’t need to be super long or comprehensive, just try to call each person to mind as you write down their name. Maybe say their name out loud, picture their face or remember the sound of their voice or laugh.
Recall a good time you had with each person, a fond memory. Next to their name, write down an object that symbolizes that experience. For example, on my list I wrote down the name of a dear friend, “Armando”. One particularly fun night we had together was dancing exuberant tango in a hall in Buenos Aires. We were in a renovated church, actually, with a humongous, anatomically-correct paper mache heart hanging from the ceiling rafters. So, next to Mando’s name I wrote, “the paper mache heart the size of a car”. The only rule is that the thing representing each good time together needs to be, well, a thing — a specific, physical object.
Like Kane’s song, this next draft of our list poem is going to make use of the direct address and the imperative in the phrase, have mercy. So we’ll start our poems with the first line "Have mercy on:" with each subsequent line being one of the memorable objects from step two. When you’re done, you’ll have a first draft of your poem. Here’s how mine came out: Have mercy on the cloudy/ lit-up honey in mason jar the horsehair in the wall plaster the extremely sharp pencil the cricket carving/ totem the bell (but only when it is ringing) the paper mache heart the size of a car
Now that you know how the poem will be structured and how it will begin, you may find that you want to change your approach to a line, or change the order of the lines. Maybe a description should be shorter and more concise. Maybe you like the sound of a different phrasing or you want to add more sensory detail. Go for it! Here’s what I came up with after a little tinkering: Have mercy on the extremely sharp pencil the horsehair holding up the plaster the bell (bright, bronze and ringing) the carved cricket the honey in a glass jar the car-sized paper heart, with all its proper valves
As you can see, on second run I decided that, actually, I wanted to work in some aspect of anatomical correctness into that image of the heart. I also decided to squish things down a bit through the use of alliteration (all those Bs... bell, bright, bronze). This are classic revision moves -- bring stuff back, slightly changed, from an old draft and push the language closer to music/ song by attending more closely to how it sounds. Try giving your poem a read aloud and see if any changes present themselves. Give yourself a few minutes to play with revisions, but don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good here!
Please share your work, if you’re comfortable doing so. Did you end up somewhere totally different? If this song got you writing down another path, never fear — that’s why we’re here! Please feel free to share whatever came up for you in the comments below:
This assignment felt odd to me. I haven’t given much thought to “mercy” before, but I realized I related mercy to people/animals that need support, not objects that bring memories of joy. The structure of this assignment helped me think about it differently.
Have mercy on the ball-wet and slimy
on the bell-small and tinkling a warning
those pink shoes-worn and comfortable
and newspaper clippings-collected and sent to me with love.
Dear Paige, I'm so glad you push through, too! Big feelings are always a little tricky to deal with (and scary to bring into work we share) but it's where all art comes from! I loved this piece, especially the detail of leaves tangled in hair (calls to mind such a specific sound and sensation for those of us with long hair!) as well as nice contrast between the light hearted gas card and the lyric antlers and all they signify. Thank you for sharing and for taking the class!
This exercise brought up a lot of unexpected emotions for me. I almost avoided it because sometimes the good memories hurt the most. But I'm glad I pushed through- it reminded how lucky I am to have so many good memories. Definitely made me feel grateful.
Have mercy on the dried leaves tangled in dark hair
The painstakingly repaired Christmas ornament
The feather with the soft, curly wisps
The star shine tarot cards spun through warm hands
The Citgo gas card that made us laugh so hard
The antlers spun of hope and growth
Have mercy on
The yellow bubble wand in the backpack’s depths
The airborne flour specks above the Papa John’s visor
The illegible scrawls behind the immaculate etching
The pin-sized perforation in the spiraling shell
The pallid candles a top the twinkie mound
The mysterious fabric of the Midnight Duster
The cross-hatched hilt on the generously bladed knife
The 33 coasters flashing through the air
Have mercy on the fruitbats,
popping open like black umbrellas
on the parrot pillows, the painted eggs,
the first communion dresses.
Have mercy on that opera of jugglers
beating Philip Glass’ drum.
Then explain it to her in a letter
written on rice paper,
a water-color wash as backdrop
to soften the edges.
Merciless Tea
Have mercy on the red robed mini monks earnestly ladling milky chai into the hundreds of empty metal cups beckoning fulfillment
the drinking glass containing an alchemy of lemon-ginger-honey meant to soothe the Westerners digestive whirlwind of dissonance
the Ayurvedic herbs simmering sensually in a steady steam of seduction for the easily seduced
the sweet songs of Rising Appalacia as the heart hiccups from an indetectable inhale of rare Livingtea - demystifying the mystery
the Legendary Cacao calling out it’s comfort amongst the discomfort in the post cold plunge primal pulsing
the forgiving fragrance in Sweet Tulsi Rose Tea lacking nothing in nurturing
the smokey Lapsang Souchong’s drunken delicacy on an island devoid of whales wanting of worth
and finally, have mercy on the thickest of mugs surrendering to daily soft slow sips at sunrise - until the words low tide emerge while the fragrance of Jasmine dissipates and the day descends into a tyranny of distraction.
Seth, I really like the contrasts you set up here -- the strong and weak tree, the gentle turtle and the vibrant firecracker, and the joy of the beer and the mournful sound of the ship at night. Beautiful.
Have Mercy on the Mighty Oak
whose trunk is strong and limbs are weak
Have Mercy on the gentle sea turtle tossed in the waves
The fire cracker that bangs and whistles
The auburn craft beer drank with joyful cheer
Have Mercy on the ship whose bell tolls into the night.
Have mercy on the freckled hand,
frogs sequined in algae, and
creaking rowboat oars.
Have mercy on pinball machines,
locket with the mug shot, and
boots with pointed toes.
Have mercy on the laundry basket,
plastic geodome, and
that tired old limo flashing through sun-cast shadow.
Have mercy
and more mercy
and more mercy on us all.
I grew up without art and then went to nursing school; I don't know the vocabulary of poetry or its forms. So this is pretty basic:
Have mercy on the old red chair facing the wall for privacy
the perfect pickle slices
boxcars carrying giraffes
the happy concrete organ grinder
the juniper berries dancing in Ireland
The song was beautiful and it brought out some sorrow for me - a feeling that no matter how much we have in our lives to be grateful for, there's so much beyond on our control in the greater world that is heartbreaking. But the writing prompt was an uplifting antidote to that, so thank you Tessa!
Here's the poem:
Have mercy on the canary yellow swing that creaked us to sleep,
on the balding pinecones, the shriveled red berries, the withered gold leaves,
on the too small dingy in the too big waves,
on the trekking poles that didn’t save her knees,
and the hiking boots that didn’t save his.
Have mercy on the wrinkled scarf with its days-old scent,
on the sparkling wine among the cooing sheep
on the chorus of bicycle bells clanging us along, ca-cling, ca-clank, ca-cling.
Here's what showed up for me. I listened to the song several times through, and actually did my writing while I was listening, because I was curious to see if it would affect the rhythm of my piece.
have mercy on the lupine in Palo Colorado
flat yellow fields spinning by
salty fish and chips in crackly paper packets
bikes on the bridge over
the railroad tracks
blue-green water off Mackinac, smooth stones
in my palm
cupcakes with sugar roses, a yellowed cross-
word puzzle book
the light like in an old photo the day we didn't
make it to North Carolina
This is so wonderful, Maddie, thank you for sharing! I love that rhyming couplets surfaced for you and that there's a pretty regular meter to these lines emerging as well. The combination is delightful and gives this little poem the feeling of a spell. The specifics of each line are also doing great work -- from your mother's hanbok, which says so much about you and her and your lineage, to the unkillable houseplants, which seem a kind of promise that the world surprises us with its goodness. Lovely. Thank you!
I enjoyed that song a lot! Also, that huge paper mache heart sounds amazing!
The people that came to mind for me during this exercise were my fiance, my parents, my siblings, my best friend from high school, and my college roommate. I was not expecting my poem to take the form of rhyming couplets, but once I started rearranging the objects I chose, I noticed that a few of them rhymed (or partially rhymed... "mugs" and "stubs"), so I just went with it.
Here's what I came up with: have mercy on the wedding ring my mother's hanbok in the spring
the empty beer bottles & coffee mugs
the unwanted concert ticket stubs
the eyeliner smudged dollar bill
& the houseplants that we couldn't kill