HAND JIVE
SYMBOLS OF YOUR LIFE, REAL & IMAGINED (Past, present, future) Maureen Hurley
OVERVIEW: We will trace our hands, fill them with symbols of
our lives (real and imagined), then color them in. We can turn them into
broadside posters, or make cards. I will show you all the steps first.
- With a pencil, lightly trace one or both hands on a piece of unlined paper. You can have them overlap or touching. You may need help tracing your non-writing hand. Then with a felt pen, trace over the pencil outline and fatten up your lines. It’s OK to change the outline. You can give yourself fingernails, jewellery, watches, etc. Try and make a bold, solid line. Hold a chisel felt pen sideways to the paper to get a thicker line.
- Fill your hands with symbols of your life. See the list below. You might want to use your right hand for your real life and your left hand for your imagined life. Your right hand could hold your imagined future. Your left could be you in an alternate universe or a time warp. You could be s superhero, a famous person, etc. But save that for later. If you want to start by using a pencil to sketch in some of your ideas, that’s fine. But remember, we’ll need to erase ALL pencil marks as we’re going to copy these hands and then color the copies.
- Create symbols from this LIST (No western alphabet or English writing allowed—Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Tigrinya, Hebrew, Greek, etc., is OK). I will also give you 2 handouts (4 sides) of Chinese, Japanese and Indian/Native American symbolic language sheets.
- What element are you? Air/wind Earth Fire Water Think about your personality & choose one or more. You can draw a picture of something that has your element in it. Fire: sun, stars. Water: clouds, river, rain, snow. Earth: mountains, trees, etc. Use your imagination or use my sheets to tell your story.
- You could also add your star sign, your Chinese birth sign. I am a Sagittarius so I could use an arrow or a bow and arrow. I’m born in the year of the Dragon so I could also add a dragon (or use Chinese character).
- What is your favorite: hobby, sport, foods (fruits & vegetables too), thing to do, place to be, etc.
- What wild animal do you most resemble or admire? You could have a totem animal or an animal helper. You could think of it as an animal guardian or spirit helper, the way Native Americans do. It could be a wolf, a coyote, an eagle, a ladybug.
- You could also have a special ceremonial object, a crown, a staff, a wand, a ring, a good luck charm, an amulet or a talisman as well. What special gift or superpower do you have or possess?
- What musical instrument do you play (or would you like to play)?
- What three jobs will you have in your lifetime? Think of symbols for them. A doctor could be a stethoscope, or a caudicus (that staff with the two snakes on it), a teacher could be an apple.
- Where do you want to live? Where do you want to travel to? What places have you already been?
- What about your family? How many brothers and sisters do you have? What about your future family when you grow up? How many kids will you have? Think about family traditions and customs too.
- For your other hand you can use these same questions, but you’ll need to add a historical element if you’re a historical figure, or a superpower if you’re a mythical being.
Now fill your hand drawings with symbols. This is sort of like getting your hands hennaed. Then, using the drawing, write your poem.
FOR THE POEM HERE ARE SOME STARTER LINES
FOR THE POEM HERE ARE SOME STARTER LINES
My hand` In my hand I hold
Inside my hand is/are
In the palm of my hand In the hollow of my hand
In the palm of my hand In the hollow of my hand
My hands hold My hands tell of, they speak to
In one
hand/palm In my other hand
I have the gift of
I have the (super)power of
I have the wisdom of
Once I was
I have been
I have been to
I have done
I have traveled
to I have journeyed
to
I dream
of
I carry my
ancestors’ dreams
hopes wishes
My hands
will (future)
Don’t forget to use the symbol questions above for inspiration as well: especially
musical instrument, animal, talisman, ceremonial object, jewellery.
Three model poems:
VERONICA'S FATHER, and MR RAUTIO'S HANDS — 2 poems
MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS
2000-2001? Not sure of the date, it evolved out of a CPITS poetry workshop that Veronica Cunningham taught in Bishop, we were all at The Winnedumah Hotel with its sagging beds. I mean, poets are used to sleeping it rough. But this was something else. The iron bedsprings dated back to WWII.
Ha! My poem, Equinox in Independence dates it. Sept. 22, 2000. So I was using the lesson in 2000, and 2001. I eventually wrote it up formally for Young Audiences. The last time the document was edited was 2007. But it was written way before that. Of course, the lesson developed over the years. But the impetus was September, 2000. I had to get it all onto one piece of paper, for teaching purposes. So it's a bit truncated. But I was serving as a role model as well.
Three model poems:
VERONICA'S FATHER, and MR RAUTIO'S HANDS — 2 poems
MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS
2000-2001? Not sure of the date, it evolved out of a CPITS poetry workshop that Veronica Cunningham taught in Bishop, we were all at The Winnedumah Hotel with its sagging beds. I mean, poets are used to sleeping it rough. But this was something else. The iron bedsprings dated back to WWII.
Ha! My poem, Equinox in Independence dates it. Sept. 22, 2000. So I was using the lesson in 2000, and 2001. I eventually wrote it up formally for Young Audiences. The last time the document was edited was 2007. But it was written way before that. Of course, the lesson developed over the years. But the impetus was September, 2000. I had to get it all onto one piece of paper, for teaching purposes. So it's a bit truncated. But I was serving as a role model as well.
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