Category Archives: Blog

Day 17 Poetry Challenge

17 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

After two days of yard and garden work, I am ready to sit…and write a poem. For today’s poem, we will write an epistolary poem, or a letter poem. An epistolary poem can come in any form and be about any matter. I am pulled to write a letter to a younger version of myself, but perhaps you will be moved to write one to a future version of yourself. What would you say to yor 12-year-old self? Your 21-year-old self? Your 45-year old self? You 101-year-old self? What would the you today, right here &now, say to yourself on the day you graduated from college? Married? Decided not to have children? Anchor the you that you address in an event or an age in general.

Let the writing begin!

Day 16 Poetry Challenge

17 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

It’s not called a chalenge for nothing. Yesterday’s beautiful spring weather captured me and I spent the entire day outside in the yard and garden. As a result, our sixteenth prompt slipped down on my priority list which included cutting back an enormous holly bush on our property, clearing leaves from the base of plants, and weeding. Now that these chores are done, let’s write!

For some reason, maybe the spring weather and all the imaginings of what the new garden will look like, I’ve been wanting to invent a new poetry form. So, let’s do it. For this prompt, create a new poetry form. You can focus on rhyme as does the sonnet, repetition of words or lines as do the pantoum and sestina, or subject matter as does the elegy.

Invent the form and then write the poem.

Day 15 Poetry Challenge

15 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

We have arrived at the halfway point!

Today, let’s make a list of as many cliches as you can think of and at their halfway point, mix and match them.For example:

A penny for your thoughts.

Good day to be alive.

Hip to the scene.

Grass is always greener on the other side.

 

A penny to be alive.

Hip to the other side.

The grass is always greener for your thoughts.

Good day to the scene.

 

Once you have a new list, revise them into a poem paying attention to either sound or image, or both.

 

Write on!

Day 14 Poetry Challenge

14 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

This is one of our favorite prompts and one Rob and I utilize often. Choose 4-5 books about varying things–a collection or two of poetry, an autobiography, a book about stones, a novel. Pick up a book, randomnly open to a page, glacne down. The phrase your eyes catch: write it down. Pick up another book and repeat the process 10 times. Then, see what you have and revise it into a poem. You will be amazed at the way the universe’s synchronicity manifests itself in such an approach.

Day 12 Poetry Challenge

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Be a Flâneur! As Bijan Stephen writes on the Paris Review blog:

“The figure of the flâneur—the stroller, the passionate wanderer emblematic of nineteenth-century French literary culture—has always been essentially timeless; he removes himself from the world while he stands astride its heart…the flâneur heralded an incisive analysis of modernity, perhaps because of his connotations: “[the flâneur] was a figure of the modern artist-poet, a figure keenly aware of the bustle of modern life, an amateur detective and investigator of the city, but also a sign of the alienation of the city and of capitalism,” as a 2004 article in the American Historical Review put it. ”

Channel your Walt Whitman and hit the streets observing people and interactions, noting birds and animals, jotting it all down in a notebook to become a poem. If you’re feeling really inspired, truly engage your Whitman and skip out of work after your lunch break to engage your senses on the sidewalk. Here’s a section from “Song of Myself” for inspiration:

12
The butcher-boy puts off his killing-clothes, or sharpens his knife at the stall in the market,
I loiter enjoying his repartee and his shuffle and break-down.

 

Blacksmiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the anvil,
Each has his main-sledge, they are all out, there is a great heat in the fire.

 

From the cinder-strew’d threshold I follow their movements,
The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms,
Overhand the hammers swing, overhand so slow, overhand so sure,
They do not hasten, each man hits in his place.

 

 

 

 

Day 11 Poetry Challenge

11 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Today’s prompt comes from my memory of an excercise used by the poet Christopher Howell in one of his classes. It is a twist on the translation poem. The twist: you shouldn’t know the language. The point is to read/listen to the poem in its original language and, by tone, sound, feel, mood–every way beside knowing what the words mean–translate the poem. As you guessed, this is not about who can translate from one language to another the best.

Poetry International Rotterdam has a smorgasborg of poets writing in a smorgasborg of languages. Some are recorded and you can listen as in these three poems by the Czech poet Miroslav Holub. Other poems appear only in English. Others, in their original language. Remember, the point is to not understand the words, but to feel them.

Napiš to!

Michelle

Day 10 Poetry Challenge

10 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Today, apparently, is National Sibling Day, a holiday that was introduced into the Congressional record in 2005 (according to Wikipedia). So, happy sibling day, and happy 11th anniversary, sibling day!

For today’s prompt, guess what we’re going to do? …you know it! Let’s write a poem about our sibling/s. If you do not have any, write a poem in which the persona does. This perona can be you take or give, and you can invent a memory you and your imaginary sibling shared.

For those of you with a sibling, spark that sisterly/brotherly love engine by digging out an old photo. Begin writing a poem about that moment, that image. Decribe it. Give it context.Recreate your world like you used to when you were younger.

April 9th Poetry Challenge

09 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

This past week I watched a few episodes of Naked and Afraid (no judgements here!) just to see what a show with that title can be about. I also love survival themes and any type of wilderness and, ya know, sometimes you just have to watch a reality show to remind you why you should be reading instead.

For today’s prompt write a poem with a title that follows the same format as Naked and Afraid, so:

(Physical) Adjective conjunction (Mental/ Emotional) Adjective

For example, here are few I came up with:

Hairy and Courageous

Sick and Contageous

Feeble but Nimble

For an added challenge, make sure your two adjectives share the same assonance as the A sound does in Naked and Afraid.

 

 

 

 

Day Eight Poetry Challenge

08 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

I am inspired today by a post by Richard Peabody, editor of Gargoyle Magazine, who regularly posts unusual and fascinating images on his facebook page. The longer I moved through my day, the more I found myself pleasantly haunted by George Leonnec’s “Centaur Kiss”

For day eight’s prompt, let’s write an ekphrastic poem in which you reflect on Leonnec’s image and describe or narrate it adding more dimension to the work. Check out the image via the link and write a poem inspired by it. For a full definition of ekphrastic poem, click on the link above.

Happy writing!