Concept, Theme, & Situation

Or, Filling in Blanks

My research into organizing a poetry collection started Saturday. A basic search found a few good articles—even a website called DIYMFA, for those who want to do their own graduate degree. But it didn’t take long for the articles to start repeating ideas.

The same words kept popping up too—concept, theme, and situation. Unfortunately, those terms don’t mean much to me. I’ve long struggled to identify theme. Just ask Donna—she had to explain it to me again last week! In my brain, that word’s a blank.

Enter Phillip Shabazz.

I read those articles to prepare for a chat with my beloved mentor. Three minutes in to our conversation, Phillip made those abstract terms concrete. That is to say, he filled in the blanks in my understanding. It was because he, of course, used metaphor.

Phillip said that when he plans a collection of poems (more on that below), he thinks about the concept as “what type of weather” he wants “the reader to stand in.” To him, tone is the field of pressure in that weather system. And he crafts poems to reinforce that weather where he’s mentally placing his audience.

He went on to define theme as what a poet’s trying to say about the concept. If the concept’s the aftermath of a hurricane, the theme could be survival, or repairing, or inheritance. (Not coincidentally, Phillip has a collection called “Hurricane Refugee” that I’m eager to read.)

Finally, Shabazz defines situation as circumstances. Phillip said, for instance, that in “Postcolonial Love Poem,” Natalie Diaz sticks with the situation of native Americans in her locale. Similarly, Leila Chatti stays with the situation of her chronic bleeding in “Deluge.” Personally, I prefer those types of collections, the ones that focus on a particular circumstance throughout the book.

Even more interesting was what Phillip told me next.

Phillip said he brainstorms *before* he starts to write a collection. Once he has the concept, where he’s going to stand his reader, Phillip makes a list of ideas for poems. For “Hurricane Refugee,” some of his ideas were funerals, displacement, speeches, mercenaries, and clean up.

He said that this list of brainstormed ideas gives him direction and clarity *before* he starts to write. He also said the list is not engraved in stone and that the ideas can change. At the same time, he strives to cover a situation from all angles.

Phillip said he aims at the situation/circumstance like a basketball player shooting from different areas of the court. Backward and forward and from the center out, he writes to fully explore his poetic ideas for his concept.

This method could also be used to reverse-engineer at book of poems. If one got clear on the poet’s concept, it would be easier to suss out the theme and the circumstance. I’m going to use this matrix from now on when I read other poet’s collections.

As a writer, I found Phillip’s idea of brainstorming *before* writing unique and appealing. I’m not sure how many other poets build their collections like this. It sounds more like plotting a novel than I imagined. And I’m going to give it a try.

Phillip’s pre-brainstorming routine won’t work for the collection I plan to organize at Wildacres. Those poems are written. Even though I was aware that I was working on a collection as I started writing them, I didn’t outline the ideas beforehand. In a sense, I’ll be working backward—finding the order afterward.

However, like Phillip, new ideas are all the time in my head, and I have thoughts about new, unwritten, collection. For those poems, I’ll use Phillip’s method. I’ll brainstorm *before* I write. I’ll slow down and aim my shots to cover the situation in the theme regarding the concept from all angles. Wow, that actually made sense to me!

This method intrigues me. I never would’ve thought of it on my own. And I grateful to Phillip for sharing it with me, and for allowing me to share it with you.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll be doing more interviews on organizing a poetry collection, and I plan to present what I learn here. Stay turned for that.

And thanks again for following along on my journey into print.

Phillip Shabazz — the most generous poet in the business.