Profession: Poet

Profession: Poet is a new monthly blog feature exploring craft and identity in poetry by Hanoch Guy, who writes poems in both English and Hebrew.

The Wings of Fantasy Brain

Before we delve into the fantastic right hemisphere, let’s explore the left hemisphere a little more. You have to decide how structured you want your poems to be. You can choose a very strict format or no format at all.

We consider again that the capacities that are offered in the list below are metaphors and brain activities are migrating and may be present in different areas of the brain. The faculties of each brain are not exclusive to that particular brain. According to researchers, reading poetry stimulates the right hemisphere.

The Julian Jaynes Society views poetry as right hemispheric language.

Among the many aptitudes of the right brain are:

Creativity

  • Imagination & fantasy

  • Intuition

  • Holistic thinking

  • Art & color

  • Visualization

  • Drawing

  • Rhythm

  • Memory 

  • Daydreaming 

  • Emotions

  • Spatial intelligence

  • Exploration

  • Pretense

  • Association

  • Figurative devices such as metaphor, image, simile, and symbol

This list is partially based on The Human Memory website.

Below are a few prompts you can play with:

I imagine…..

My dog is….

Sea colors are….

Earthworms remind me of…

Morning feelings are…..

My daydreams…

You turn right and left, and you get…

I like to draw…

You can also review your poems and become familiar with ones that uses a great deal of right hemisphere devices.

The next blog will offer ways to write poetry of fantasy and dreams.

Hanoch Guy Ph.D, Ed.D spent his childhood and youth in Israel. He is a bilingual poet in Hebrew and English. Hanoch has taught Jewish Hebrew literature at Temple University and poetry and mentoring at the Muse House Center. He won awards in the Mad Poets Society, Phila Poets, Poetry Super Highway and first prize in the Better than Starbucks haiku contest. His book, Terra Treblinka, is a finalist in the North Book Contest. Hanoch published poems in England, Wales, Israel, the U.S., and Greece. He is the author of nine poetry collections in English and one Hebrew book.