Day 5

Any morning that starts with desserts is surely a good one. Our last day of aTi certainly fit into that category. Lemon meringue pie had come up in conversation during the week, mainly because of one of Carolyn's poems. We discussed the sound of the word ---lovely sound, isn't it? We discussed the challenge and care that goes into making a lemon meringue pie. As someone who only makes Pillsbury Funfetti cupcakes, lemon meringue pie definitely intrigued me.

We came into our classroom on the last day of aTi and Cat surprised us with....lemon meringue pie!



For the record, the lemon meringue pie was phenomenal:)



During our morning session, we had a special guest with us, Cat's friend, poet Renee Ashley. I met Renee at last year's aTi sessions and also had a spring Dodge session with her. Cat lovingly refers to Renee as "the slasher" since Renee can edit a piece to contain only what it needs. I remember working with her last year. Even if you do not write similar to her genre, she doesn't critique your genre. She simply zones in on your word choice and intent.



I decided to share the piece I wrote in response to our games prompt: "Seven Minutes in Heaven." I was actually proud of myself because there was one line in stanza three that I wanted to completely omit; Renee agreed with me. There wasn't too much that was recommending for editing. As Renee said, "The piece does its job." In other words, I wrote this poem as a playful recollection of an adolescent game, I'm not making a political statement or toying with new genres or patterns. This certainly is not my best piece or the piece I am most proud of from this week, but it was the one I decided to share.



Each person got a poem critiqued by Renee on this final day. First, the "non-writer" would read the piece being critiqued. Then, the poet would read his/her piece. Cat and Renee had good points in that if the poem features anything awkward, the non-writer would be the one would stumble while reading. This is beneficial information to have, as it greatly helps guide the editing process.