30 Habits of Highly Effective Poets #23: Kathy Figueroa on Chores

Kathy Figueroa is one of the many wonderful poets I've met through the 100,000 Poets for Change initiative. She lives in Ontario, Canada.

Kathy has a series of poems about chores. What a great way to turn housework into a source of joy -- by writing about it. It's a new angle on whistle while you work. (For another poet on this subject, check out Julia Alvarez.)

I have been working on simple odes with some fifth graders this week. They love the idea that a few juicy similes and hyperbole can make something as ordinary as masking tape sound amazing! (I even made on-the-spot masking tape art to prove the point.) It's the power of tone. Of course, we talked about Pablo Neruda's Odes to Common Things -- a category which Kathy's poem falls into.

Here is Kathy:

I wrote, 'Ode To Housework,' in practically no time at all because I felt tremendously inspired to sit down and write instead of getting directly to work tidying up the house. (I will say that my yard looks very nice, though.)

Ode To Housework
~by Kathy Figueroa

It's time to clean
This house
Though I'm allergic
To dust
Someone will
Be over soon
So tidying
Is a must
Let me think
Of this drudgery
As something
That's actually fun
Otherwise, it's going
To be awhile
Before I get this
Housework done
Let me delight in
Washing the floor
Instead of thinking
It's such a chore
The cat boxes
Will be fun to change
I'll whistle a tune
As I rearrange
The laundry will go
In the washing machine
The plants
Will be watered
So they stay green
Scrubbing the sink
Won't take as
Long as I think
And then, after I do
I'll polish the loo
Cobwebs can be swept
Away with a broom
Then I'll vacuum
The living room
(Note to myself:
Remember to take care
And make sure I get
All the dog and cat hair)
Yes, I guess
My house is a mess
I could do more
And procrastinate less
Then, in no time
This house
Would be clean
And I'd be
The happiest
Person you've seen

('Ode To Housework,' was first published in The Bancroft Times newspaper on January 5, 2012.)

The Bancroft Times included this illustration "originally made from engravings created, in large part, by renowned artisans, Thomas and John Bewick, date from prior to 1784!"

You can read more of Kathy's work -- including several more from her "housework" series, at her Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Kathy.Figueroa.Poetry

You can also find clips of Kathy reading her work on YouTube.

Poetry Friday: "Don't Go There" Odes

Happy Poetry Friday, Friends! I've got something for your high schoolers this week. It's not elementary-friendly.

I missed last week, but I have a doctor's note for the teacher.

It turns out that the pain on my lower right side is not a wonky appendix, but an ovarian cyst. I felt so ridiculous being gurney-wheeled past the ER nurse's station that I had to give them my best QEII Royal Wave. The nurses thought I had been given too much morphine. "No," I said, "I'm just naturally funny."

Little known fact: My middle name is Elizabeth, after the Queen.

There has been a trend in Poetryville over the last few years. I call it "Don't Go There" Odes. The trend has its roots in Pablo Neruda's Odes to Common Things -- socks, a tomato for lunch, laziness.

Lately, poets are taking the simple things to mean "things we don't like to talk about." At the last few Dodge Poetry Festivals, I have heard odes to television (Robert Pinsky), pork (Kevin Young), and toilets (Sharon Olds with a nod, I think, to Ferlinghetti's poem "Underwear").

Like an overbooked radiology lab, the Internet would not give up any information about ovarian odes. Nothing about blisters growing on that little jellyfish-head looking thingy on your insides. (Side note: my doc drew a lovely picture of the uterus and ovaries for me. It resembled an elephant wearing ovary earrings.)

The next best thing to an ovarian ode is Sharon Olds' "Ode to a Tampon." I happened to be at the Dodge Festival for this reading. You'll see her toilet ode first. Be prepared for some toilet-appropriate four-letter words. Or you can skip ahead to about 3:02 for "Ode to a Tampon." I've got a prompt after the video, so stay put!



WRITING PROMPT (HS and up):


So, brave educators. Do you dare to go there with your high schoolers? Pablo Neruda used the ode form -- not to write about grand emotions like love, or monuments (isn't there an ode to limestone) or Grecian Urns -- but to draw our attention to everyday things.

The natural next step in the life of this form is to draw our attention to so-called unmentionables and show why they are worth mentioning, even celebrating. (Odes are a great place to practice hyperbole, BTW.)

In these poems, television is a channel (!) to the past and a window to memory, we can talk about where meat comes from and why we love it, toilets and tampons -- where would we be without them?

I challenge you to write a "Don't Go There" Ode today. Maybe my cysty ovary and I will join you.

Myra at Gathering Books is our host today. Do go there, to Gathering Books, for more Poetry Friday.