Kalliope On Line Poetry Workshop Banner

 


Home

FAQ

Join Us

Exercises

Links

Members

Contact

Please sign our Guestbook

AnitraWeb

Si Se Puede!
Si Se Puede!

That's Spanish for "Yes we can!" It was one of the chants called out by a thousand marching apple workers in a labor demonstration I was part of August 10, 1999. Chants have long been a basic part of group demonstrations.

Chants are also a basic part of religious and tribal ritual. The act of all saying the same words together, words that all of you know, builds a feeling of unity. Repetition adds power.

Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy.
Christe Eleison. Christ have mercy.
Christe Eleison. Christ have mercy.
Christe Eleison. Christ have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy.

Repetition adds power. Repetition can give almost anything a feeling of power. Recently I attended a workshop on indigenous music and dance given by a local Native American teacher named Beaver Chief. After leading us all in a round dance while beating the drum and intoning a traditional local chant, Beaver Chief said he was going to teach us "one of the younger persons' chants." So we danced the round dance again, as he beat the drum in a faster pace and intoned,

"My Sweetie
has left me
because I
drink Pepsi."

Step, shuffle, step, shuffle... beat the drum ... group chant ...

"My Sweetie
has left me
because I
drink Pepsi."

It becomes inspirational. It lifts your spirits. Try it at your next local powwow.

Chants can become more complex than the examples so far, usually by extending the repetition in a formal pattern. One traditional Native American chant that became popular in the new Age culture was:

Now I walk in beauty.
Beauty is before me.
Beauty is behind me.
Beauty on my right hand.
Beauty on my left hand.
Beauty is above me.
Beauty is below me.
Now I walk in beauty.

In other Native American traditions, the pattern was of four basic colors, or four tribal totems, or other symbolic sets.

Many activist groups adapt certain chant patterns to specific situations.

What do we want?
 Justice!
When do we want it?
 Now!
Becomes in the debate over Seattle's downtown hygiene center:
What do we want?
 Bathrooms!
When do we want them?
 Now!

The form called "the list poem" has a chant quality because of the repetition, usually at the beginning of each line. To me the qualities that make a poem specifically a "chant" instead of a "list poem" or "refrain poem" are the qualities of simplicity, rhythm, pattern, and the emotional effect of binding a community and calling up power.

Exercise: Chants, Basic

1) Post a chant that you know and love: it may be a childhood skip-rope rhyme, or a bedtime ritual you chant with your children, a call-and-response from your church that affects you, or a tribal chant you have discovered in reading that you want to share.

2) Identify the elements in the chant that create its effect, for you.

Exercise: Chants, Intermediate

Create a simple chant.

Exercise: Chants, Advanced

Make your simple chant more complex by varying it in some pattern.
Once again --

Write On!
Anitra