Day 15 Poetry Challenge

15 Friday Apr 2016

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april poetry challenge, cliche, poem, Poetry, poetry challenge, poetry prompts, writer, Writing, writing prompts

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

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april poetry challenge, poem, Poetry, poetry challenge, poetry prompts, writer, Writing, writing prompts

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 13 Poetry Challenge

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

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poem, Poetry, poetry challenge, poetry prompts, recipe, writers, Writing, writing prompts

Some of us write in the morning. Some of write at night. For you night owls, this prompt will come right on time ;)

Write on a poem in the form of a recipe. This poem doesn’t have to be about food. Perhaps, title the poem an abstraction–love, pride, wealth–and write the recipe for it.

Bon appetit!

Day 12 Poetry Challenge

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

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april poetry challenge, bijan stephen, flaneur, paris review, poem, Poetry, poetry challenge, poetry prompts, song of myself, walt whitman, Writing, writing prompts

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:

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

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april poetry challenge, Miroslav Holub, poem, Poetry, poetry challenge, Poetry International, poetry prompts, translation poems, Writing, writing prompts

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

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april poetry challenge, national sibling day, poem, Poetry, poetry challenge, poetry prompts, Writing, writing prompts

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

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aprilpoetrychallenge, naked and afraid, poem, Poetry, poetry prompts, poetrychallenge, Writing, writing prompts

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

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april poetry challenge, ekphrastic, gargoyle magazine, leonnec, poem, Poetry, poetry prompts, richard peabody, Writing, writingprompt

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!

Day Seven Poetry Challenge

07 Thursday Apr 2016

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aprilppoetrychallenge, eatthispoem, hedonism, poem, Poetry, poetryprompt, romanticism, sensibility, wagyu, Writing, writingprompt

Today in my Humanties 101 class we talked about the rise of the novel, Romanticism and the Gothic. I introduced my students to the novel panic that took place in late 18th-century England when there was a general concern for the dangers that come with reading novels–bad posture, neglected duties, and an overindulgence of the senses, especially for women and their delicate sensibilities.Critics of the novel were concerned that women with their weaker minds and lack of reason would confuse reality and fiction and begin to develop unrealistic expectations from their stations in life.

For today’s prompt, write a poem that overindulgences the senses or focuses on something related. This past Valentine’s Day weekend I ate wagyu beef two nights in row. There is little reason in this except for pure pleasure There should be nothing useful in terms of improving morals, values, or intellect in your poems. This is not a poem to raise our understanding of human nature. Pure hedonistic verse for the simple pleasure of sensual indulgence. Write a poem that makes the reader faint from fear, blush from arousal, or look away in modesty or embarrassment. Write a poem so delicious that readers will forget it’s only a poem and shove it into their mouths. Overdo it. Yum!

Day Six Poetry Challenge

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

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aprilpoetrychallenge, domesticpoetry, fabulistpoetry, fiolet&wing, poem, Poetry, poetry prompts, poetrychallenge, Writing

The editors of Fiolet & Wing: An Anthology of Domestic Fabulist Poetry has recently put out a call for submissions:

“In women’s literature, myth and magic easily co-exists with domestic concerns; indeed it often amplifies the drama of the ordinary. Many contemporary poets take that familiar domestic scene—a kitchen, a laundry room, a vegetable patch—and distort the details to reveal the actual nature of the situation through fabulism. Folk tales may have given birth to this exciting new genre, poems that move towards speculative writing, dark poetry, fairytales, myths, magic realism, origin stories, or divination.”

For today’s poem, write a poem about the domestic realm that incorporates elements of the real and surreal. No matter if you are male or female–we all have a domestic realm if we live in a house. Do goblins live in your garabage can? Gnomes congregate behind your compost bin? Maybe whenever you do the dishes you see into the future.

It’s an excellent prompt that allows you to pull from a lot of imaginative spaces. And if you are a female-identified poet, you can submit your poem to this call for submissions after you revise it:

“Please submit up to five poems in one document, no more than one poem/page. We are open to varying lengths, total pages: 10. Submit all poems in one .doc, .docx, or .rtf. No more than five poems per submission. Please format your works in 12 point Times New Roman or Garamond font.

Simultaneous submissions okay. Please make sure to withdraw any piece accepted elsewhere as soon as possible by email with your name and the title of the piece(s).

Unpublished poems are preferred, though previously published work from periodicals will be considered only if you own the rights. Please provide all publication information for any previously published pieces, and be prepared to acquire written permissions for previously published work.

Deadline: June 15, 2016.

Planned publication date: 2017.

Include a cover letter with brief 3rd person bio (no more than 50 words, no more than 5 previous publications listed), and contact information. Anything else you tell us is strictly up to you, but we’d love to know what you’re reading or what inspires you.”

The Editors

Fiolet & Wing: An Anthology of Domestic Fabulist Poetry

FioletandWingATgmailDOTcom

GUIDELINES http://fioletandwing.wix.com/fioletandwing

the poet's billow

~ a resource for moving poetry

Tag Archives: poem

Day 15 Poetry Challenge

Day 14 Poetry Challenge

Day 13 Poetry Challenge

Day 12 Poetry Challenge

Day 11 Poetry Challenge

Day 10 Poetry Challenge

April 9th Poetry Challenge

Day Eight Poetry Challenge

Day Seven Poetry Challenge

Day Six Poetry Challenge