The Cliché
This past spring, Cassandra Szmajda and Janna Tanner, college graduates and representatives of the International Library of Poetry, returned to high school. It was not a dreaded Calculus problem that drew them back, nor was it a discovered transcript error. Instead, they were formally invited to Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore, Maryland to lecture for the school’s eleventh grade Creative Writing class. The theme of the lecture was difficult to decide. The students had been studying and writing poetry for many months now, and our representatives wanted to focus on something new and challenging. Therefore, the subject of the lecture became the dreaded cliché. The dictionary defines a cliché as a phrase, an expression, or an idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty. Many authorities feel that the appearance of cliché in writing or speech can indicate a lack of creativity, innovation, or sincerity on the part of the author/orator.
The Clichés Must Die workshop, as it was called, was an intense challenge. And here’s why: each student picked a slip of paper with a cliché printed on it out of a hat; he or she would then write a poem about it, all the while trying to reinvent the cliché so that it seemed brand new and unique to his or her life experiences. It’s really not as easy as it sounds. Before tackling this, the ILP representatives wanted to demonstrate how cliches could be broken through humor.
To start the ILP lecture, Janna and Cassandra brought in local spoken word poet, Chris August, who previously assisted them at Graceland Park Elementary School in 2005, to perform his poem “the next time i am a teenager” for the fifteen-student class:
the next time i am a teenager
i will have some perspective
and be more appreciative of the people with whom i live
and not be so quick to run off
with temporary friends,
nor will i refer to not being in classes
with said temporary friends
as “a time of personal hell for me”
(which, sadly, i did)
the next time i am a teenager
i will learn when to open my mouth
and not my cheek
i will be more bold
and trust myself
and realize that the things i stand for
are worth being stood for
and that when you speak up
everyone else backs down
‘cause they know they aren’t brave enough
to do it themselves
the next time i am a teenager
i will wear less black
and not listen to as much depressing music
or write as many angst-ridden poems about my soul
(especially the ones that compare it to a thunderstorm)
the next time i am a teenager
i will not fall into any of the categories
that every teenager falls into
at sometime or another
i will not be the quiet one
because i would not be able to handle that
i will not be the loud one
because no one else would be able to handle that
i will not be the jock
or the debutante
or one of the desperate hangers on
who pray that the next
prom night
pep rally
or pre-existing group of friends
will this time mean identity
the next time i am a teenager
i will be different,
the exception
i will be the one who makes everyone
want to not be a typical teenager
the next time they get to be one
The poem focuses on the cliché of what makes the “typical teenager,” from being the jock, the debutante, the quiet one, or the loud one. It is about fitting into specific roles and categories “that every teenager falls into at sometime or another.” Clichés are addressed, dismantled, and reconstructed through humor. For example, the third stanza references “poems about the soul,” which mocks poems expressing common teenage angst. The angst-ridden teenage soul is mocked again with the comparison of one’s inner emotions to a thunderstorm. While some would say it is an interesting simile, it is a common comparative cliché, and the workshop theme dictated that all clichés must die. At its core, this poem breaks the cliché of being a teenager when the author states that he wants to be the teenager (when he next gets to be one) that “makes everyone not want to be a typical teenager the next time they get to be one.”
After the performance and examination of Chris’ poem as reinventing the cliché, Janna, Cassandra, Chris, each student, and their teacher, Mr. Gregory, picked a cliché out of the hat. Everyone had fifteen minutes to write a piece based on his or her cliché. As each person read the cliché they drew, groans of frustration were heard because it is not easy to write about a cliché such as “raining on my soul” and “life is like a box of chocolates” when you have to make it new and original. Clichés are so hard to work with because they tend to be so overused that they have almost lost all meaning or can only mean one thing in the consciousness of people everywhere. But after a lot of goading, support, and suggestions from the three workshop leaders, the students finally started to understand why it’s important to try to reinvent when one is on the path to becoming a writer.
The students discovered that they had made comparisons of a common cliché to their own unique lives. At the conclusion of the workshop, everyone was amazed at what they accomplished in the fifteen-minute time limit. Like a phoenix rising, common sayings were reborn anew in the creative mind of a writer. Brandy, one student who almost couldn’t complete the assignment because she preferred to write odes and had difficulty at first incorporating one required idea in an ode, rose to the challenge:
“Your stride is as high as the horse you can’t get off”
Her cliché was “get off your high horse,” and she used it in a simile with an original image. It brings about the idea that someone’s stride is so ridiculous and exorbitant that he can’t even get off his high horse and let go of his foolish pride. If a student can reinvent one simple idea and saying, then our readers can do it as well.
The Assignment, If You Choose to Accept It
You may be only reading this magazine, but you can participate in this workshop too. This isn’t mandatory like it was for the students of Milford Mill, but here is the assignment:
You will write a poem featuring your chosen cliché (see list below). You must incorporate the cliché somewhere in the poem. You can use the cliché wherever, however, and whenever you want. You don’t want to use the whole line as it is printed? Fine! All you need to do is reinvent the cliché. Write as if the idea is brand new to you. Make it brand new to others. Make bizarre comparisons to it. Compare it to your life. Compare it to someone else’s. Play around with it like cold mashed potatoes; experiment with it like it was your own private Frankenstein. Roll with it, take your time. Don’t be afraid to share your poem with others!
Common Clichés
when pigs fly
fall head over heels
rotten to the core
an uphill battle
he’s all thumbs
throw gasoline on the fire
a shot in the dark
get off your high horse
no guts, no glory
white as snow
pure as a dove
running on empty
tilting at windmills
a fish out of water
penny for your thoughts
love is like a rose
airing dirty laundry
in glass houses, don’t throw stones
through thick and thin
life is like a box of chocolates
thorn in your side
you’re either with us or against us
raining on my soul
you are my heart and soul
Have fun with this assignment and with rewriting old cliches. Good luck writing!