Daniel Sluman’s 5-Day Writing Challenge – Day 4

Perspective

Some of the best contemporary poetry examines topics and experiences that in themselves seem to be well-worn material for poetry, but the way it looks at them completely changes our understanding of what we are seeing. As an example of this I have linked Robert Lowell’s Skunk Hour, to show you how Lowell’s state of mind is explored in the last section, as he watches a skunk looking through garbage for sustenance. In this week’s exercise I want you to consider that whatever you’re writing about can be made completely fresh, alien even, just by changing the vantage point from which you look at it. If I’m writing about the birth of my son, for example, I can certainly write it from my point of view, when he is safe in my wife’s arms, but if I look at it from the point of view of the nurse who is putting him in the incubator and checking his lips for their blueish hue, there maybe more scope for me to find the language and emotion to really bring this moment to life. Take an existing poem of yours that you haven’t been able to finish, or even one of our previous exercises, and put the poem in an imaginary space in your head. Now move around to find the angle or perspective to reimagine this piece entirely, whether that’s about taking a step back, changing to a very particular point of view, or zooming in to something precise.

To read Robert Lowell’s Skunk Hour, click here.