ANN KLAIMAN
Some of my writing becomes poetry. Writing poetry probably won’t make me rich (or you, either), but it might keep me sane (you, too), and- fur sur– writing poetry helps hone skills for writing of all sorts.
The poem below began as note taking. After a laid back and pleasant afternoon talking about Hamlet, I sat down to capture various points of the group’s discussion, intending to fold and file them inside the back cover of the play. Persistently, though, what I wrote down came out as quotes, and they began shaping themselves on the page as a poem. At first, I stuck to what actually had been said, but soon I found it interesting to invent lines. The final result springs from, but no longer resembles, the original discussion. The final draft benefitted from a Members’ Critique session at a Denver Branch meeting.
Past Offices Held with Denver Branch: Layout and design of Poetry in Motion, 2002, and Poetry to Go, 2005; Vice President 2004-2006; Hospitality Co-Chair 2004-2006; Program Co-Chair 2004-2006; Directory Chair 2006-2008; Secretary, 2006-2010; Vice President 2010-2012.
Past Work Published/Exhibited/Performed: Anthologized in Poet’s Showcase, The Poetry Society of Colorado, 2010-2012; Book reviews, The Mountain Mail, Salida, ’01-05; interviews for KHEN-106.9fm, Salida, ’03-present; “A Living Legend: Louise,” Wash. Park Profile, ’04; Publishing the Literary Magazine, National Textbook Co. (1st printing), McGraw-Hill (2nd printing). Recognitions/Awards: Highest Award (1985) and Superior Awards (1986 – 1991), NCTC Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines. Professional Memberships: NEA; CEA; JCEA (retired). Interests/Hobbies: Bicycling, hiking, fly fishing, reading, yoga, drumming.
The Sunday Afternoon Discussion Group Considers Hamlet
“I hate Gertrude”
“Show me your Kindle”
“Teachers wrecked this for us in high school”
“So Hamlet’s just a teenager?”
“Wait, go back: Is the ghost real? And who’s the ghost supposed to be?”
“All these famous lines…” “Hamlet’s about thirty“
”Yeah, he’s like Prince Charles, waiting to be king”
“I’ve always liked Prince Charles, but—“
“This is really flowery, like there’s lots of different flowers mentioned”
“I don’t like message hunting” “In my garden, my flowers—“
“Poor Polonius, and he gives such good advice”
“Ophelia’s pregnant? How could that even happen” “But Hamlet wants her in a nunnery…”
“Remember Laurence Olivier? It’s black and white and still really good”
“Have you seen A Midwinter’s Tale?” “Didn’t you love Shakespeare in Love?”
“I really hate Gertrude”
“In Act Three, let’s read the play within a play” “There’s one of those in The Taming of—“
“What about that new movie, Anonymous?”
“Where maybe the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays?”
“What scene are we looking at?” “—or Christopher Marlowe?”
“Maybe a group of people wrote all his different plays– group authorship”
“I didn’t expect to like this play, but I think I do” “—or maybe Mary Sidney?”
“Yeah, there’s people hiding, swordfights, acting crazy —some good adventure stuff”
“No, it’s a mystery”
“Well, to you, maybe”
“Nothing Polonius says makes any real sense” “—or even Sir Francis Bacon?”
“I don’t even care who wrote it” “—or a new possibility: Amelia Bassano?”
“This is a really long play” “Yeah, it’s his longest” “So what?”
“Is that why only six of us showed up today?”
“Horatio’s, like, the only normal person in the whole play”
“So, how do you pronounce F-i-e?”
“There are all these references to ears” “I hate message hunting”
“My Kindle shows 26 uses of the word ear” “I still like the feel of a real, paper book”
“Oh great, electronic message hunting”
“Kenneth Branagh… he’s so wonderful…”
“All this poison. All this conniving. All this hatred.”
“Don’t you love it?”
Ann Klaiman, all rights reserved