Shared from the 1/6/2020 The Providence Journal eEdition

Collage poetry taps inner creativity

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Grady Hazlett, 12, produced a collage flower, left, and a goose at the event on Sunday. [THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL PHOTOS / DONITA NAYLOR]

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Finnigan Hazlett, 8, browses a magazine for words and photos that will help her compose a poetry collage. The workshop was part of the Providence Public Library’s Family Learning Sunday.

PROVIDENCE — Even if kidnappers didn’t write them, collage poems have the look of ransom notes — the words are cut from magazines and glued to construction paper.

Rachel Rosekind — who grew up in Providence, lives and works in California as a writing coach and art instructor and returns twice a year to Rhode Island — transformed a Sunday School room at Grace Episcopal Church, 127 Mathewson St., into an art studio for 90 minutes.

Some of her collage and cross-out poems hung from clothespins, and supplies were heaped in the center of a table. The class arrived — it was all one family from Barrington, who rarely miss a Family Learning Sunday at the Providence Public Library. Until construction at the library is finished, the once-a-month class has been meeting at Grace Church.

Kneeling so she could address her students around a table sized for kindergartners, Rosekind briefed Grady Hazlett, 12, and his sisters, Catherine, 10, and Finnigan, 8, about “Lost and Found” poetry. Flip through these magazines, she said, and cut out any words or pictures you like. After a while, you’ll get an idea, and you can start gluing down the elements.

Or, find a story or poem that someone else has written and cross out all the words except those you want in your poem.

Rosekind’s daughter, Eden, 7, who had been coloring quietly at one end of the table, joined in. Everyone, including the adults, wielded little scissors with rounded tips.

Finnigan chose a magazine photo spread of insects made from flower petals, and she cut out her favorites, along with the words “We are all...” Fortunately, her poem did not conclude that we are all insects, but that we are all peace.

Grady helped himself to a petal-butterfly half, cut it into a single large teardrop and arranged it with other teardrops into a big tree or flower.

Catherine flipped through a feature about dogs, resisting every puppy with big eyes. When she did cut, she cut carefully, very close to a photo’s edge. She selected several word groups, including one that summarized the whole exercise: “See what others can’t.”

Grady started on his second piece, cutting two shapes from plain text. He held them up together and asked if anyone could guess what they were. Hint: it started with a G, he said. Rachel guessed grasshopper. All became clear when an orange beak appeared at the end of a graceful neck — a goose!

Meanwhile, their father, David, who they said paints at home using beeswax as a resist, was hunched over an article from a news magazine, circling some words and drawing straight black lines through the rest. If you weren't close enough to read the circled words, a lovely textured background emerged.

Rosekind said collage poetry helps people silence their inner critic. Her advice to writers, or any artist seeking their way, is: "Something's going to work. You don't know what it is. Try different things."

Bonnie Lilienthal, the senior children's librarian, said her parents read to her in the crib, and she was exposed to the arts "at a young age," by being taken to libraries, museums, concerts. "If you instill those things in very young children," she said, "they will have joy and beauty in their whole life." dnaylor@ providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @donita22

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