Six Nails (poem)

six Nails
because it needed more than five
six nails
to hold the wood in place
six nails
surrounded by chipping paint
a layer of peach
light green barely peeking out below
sky blue even further down
only visable in a few spotted places
dents of trauma
gashes in the woods flesh
six nails
for repair
six nails
in a very abstract pattern
seven nails would be a crowd
each nail plugging barely into the larger wood behind the wood
six nails
in different states of rust
one brown
one spotted brown
one freckled with rust
two rustless
the younger brothers
the newest pair to save the family
if only father would stay around
to keep all six in place
otherwise mother will keep falling

William Hessian

This was my 7 minute poem.

Yesterday I spent the day in Fargo, ND at an artist to artist workshop. I met a lot of very talented artists/teachers and learned a lot about the craft of education. One of the lessons during the workshop was a poetry lesson taught by Becca. At the end of the lesson we had 7 minutes to write a poem, Six Nails was my attempt.

The entire workshop made me realize how much I miss the college atmosphere with peers sharing work with peers. Critical reflections on work, and valuable discussions. During the poetry section I was reminded of taking a few poetry classes at Winona state University with my friend Jesse Valley. Together we wrote some very interesting poems, and really had a blast reading and critiquing each others' work. I miss writing poetry, and is something I do not do enough. The WSU poetry classes were my favorite classes outside of the art department. The classes inspired my 'skewer' mini book (which i just learned helped me get my first artist-in-residency).

I plan to write more about the Artist to Artist workshop and what I learned there. This is just a preview focusing on the poem I got to write. What a fun day of learning.