Join Dr. Caitlin Cowan for Writing Wednesday as she presents a creative writing lesson about the beau present.
Hi there! My name is Caitlin Cowan, and I’m the Director of International Tours at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. I’m also a published writer who has taught creative writing in universities, summer camps, and communities around the country, and I’m so excited to be talking to you about writing every week this summer for #WritingWednesdays from VirtualArts at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.
Are you feeling a little stir-crazy staying home all the time? Has it been tough on you having your choices limited when it comes to how you spend your time? I definitely understand. I can’t wait to see all my favorite people and visit my favorite places again! But did you know that having limited options, media, or choices (what we call “constraints”) can actually increase your creativity? One form of creative writing you can use to try out this idea is what’s known as a beau present (French for “beautiful gift”), which is a poem that is traditionally given to the person whose name appears in the title. But you can use any word, or the name of a place (like I have) to get started. Let’s think about how such a limiting form can make us consider new possibilities!
For this exercise, you’ll choose a name, word, or phrase to serve as your title. Try your own name! Then, write a poem about that person, place, or thing using only the letters that appear in those words. This means you’ll need to find anagrams in the title of your poem itself.
Need a refresher? An anagram is a word that is made from the letters in another word. For example, the word “post” contains the word “stop,” “pot,” “to,” etc. Feel free to use an online anagram generator to find usable words, or stretch your brain and sniff out the anagrams yourself on paper.
Here’s an example of a beau present I wrote for BLFAC! (This is also written in a poetic form called a tanka… I’ll talk about that more in a future #WritingWednesday exercise!)
BLUE LAKE FINE ARTS CAMP
In silent sun: pine.
Mute trees are leafier, calm—
all music, in time.
Rest till later—craft peaceful tunes
fine as maple sap, a balm.
Every word in the poem is a word whose letters appear in the phrase “Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.” Cool, right? Are you digging this poetic form? If so, research the following poems and books for more inspiration!
Chen Chen, “Chen [No Middle Name] Chen”
Dave Drayton, “A Toast to a Saint: Beau Present for Martin Harrison”
Sidney Wade, Straits & Narrows (2013)
Feel free to post your experiments and results in the comments or on social media with the hashtags #WritingWednesdays, #BlueLakeFineArtsCamp, and #VirtualArts
Thanks for reading this VirtualArts post brought to you by Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp!
Blue Lake Co-Director of Art, Geo Rutherford shows us how to create an Artist’s Book from unwanted artwork. If a piece doesn’t work for you, turn it into an Accordion Fold Artist’s Book!
<a class="vc-btn elementor-button" href=https://bluelake.org/summercamp/images/AccordianFold%20Instrustions.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Accordian Fold Instrustions</a>