Tag Archives: poem

Day Five Poetry Challenge

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Yesterday Rob, who I hadn’t seen in a week, returned from California. This combined with teaching, working out, and other responsibilities pushed writing my poem for the day out of the way. This is what it’s like to be a writer.We have to fight to make time to write. We have to commit to the act of writing. We have to find solitude and erase from our minds the other voices and pressures of our day. Yesterday, I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to spend time with Rob. So, I may not have written a poem, but I did get to eat Mexican food and watch baseball with my husband who I had been missing for 7 days.

So, today I will be posting two prompts. If you made up your own yesterday, you can choose one. Otherwise, let’s see if we can write two today!

Palin and Trump Mash Up

In light of yesterday’s primary in Wisconsin, our fifth prompt will be political in nature…sort of. Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are both known for their wacky words and phrasing. Write a poem that mashes some of them together. The links below will take you to a quote generator for each of them, as well as videos and lists of some of the crazier things they’ve said. A lot of what Palin says is so musical, even if it is nonsensical. You can think of this as a nonsense poem, or you can revise to make the poem more sensical.

Sarah Palin Quote Generator

Wisconsin April 1st

Palin’s Endorsement of Trump

Sarah Palin Quotes

Trump Quote Generator

199 Tump Quotes

 

 

 

Day Four Poetry Challenge

04 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Hello Poets!

Today I was reminded of an old Sesame Street cartoon about a girl sent to the store by her mother for (you know it?) a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter. The rhythm of this list is so memorable that I still recite today when I go to the store! Your prompt for today is to write a poem that contains the following items:

bread, milk, and butter

Alternatively, write a poem that conatins a shopping list.

Follow this link to the classic video.

 

Day Three Poetry Challenge

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Play ball! As baseball players take to their fields for the first games of the 2016 season, it is only fitting that today we write a poem about baseball. Do you have a baseball memory? Did you used to play as a kid? Do you not like the game (tsk, tsk)? Explore your relationship to the game in today’s poem and see what happens. For inspiration, here is a poem by John Hodgen:

Forgiving Buckner

The world is always rolling between our legs.
It comes for us, dribbler, slow roller,
humming its goat song, easy as pie.

We spit in our gloves, bend our stiff knees,
keep it in front of us, our fathers' advice,
but we miss it every time, its physic, its science,
and it bleeds on through, blue streak, heart sore,
to the four-leaf clovers deep in right field.

The runner scores, knight in white armor,
the others out leaping, bumptious, gladhanding,
your net come up empty, Jonah again.
Even the dance of the dead won't come near you,
heart in your throat, holy of holies,
the oh of your mouth as the stone rolls away,
as if it had come from before you were born
to roll past your life to the end of the world,
till the world comes around again, gathering steam,
heading right for us again and again,
faith of our fathers, world without end.

—John Hodgen

Poetry Contest Deadline: March 15th

11 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

The Poet’s Billow is welcoming submissions to the Bermuda Triangle Prize. It is awarded to three poems on a theme from up to three different poets.

Current Theme: Running

Running for president, running down the street, running up the bar tab, we are open to interpretations on the theme. It is up to you how literal or abstract you would like to play on the chosen theme.

Each winning poem will receive $50, for a total cash prize of $150. The poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. Up to five finalists will be considered for publication.

We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.

See the Bermuda Triangle contest page for details.

If you would like to stay updated on contests and publications in the future you can join us on Facebook and Twitter.

2015 Atlantis Award Winner & Finalists

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

The winner of the 2015 Atlantis Award is Alison Palmer for her poem “Flight.” We are thrilled to publish it along with a selection of the finalists from the contest. We really hope you read these wonderful poems and that they inspire you in some way: to write, to sing, to live your life fully.

The winning poem along with a selection of the finalists can be read here; and the full list of finalists and semi-finalists is below.

The Poet’s Billow is also now welcoming submissions to the Bermuda Triangle Prize and the Pangaea Prize. If you would like to stay updated on contests and publications in the future you can join us on Facebook and Twitter.

 
Winner: Alison Palmer

Finalists:
Garrett Flatt
Jen Karetnick
Katharyn Howd Machan
Julie Prentice
Diana Roffman
Teresa Sutton

Semi-Finalists:
M.K. Brake
Michael Collins
Colette Gill
Colleen Harris-Keith
Heather Keyser
Kieran MacNaughton
Adrian S. Potter
Jessica Temple
Martin Willitts, Jr

Poetry Contest Submissions Welcome

27 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

The Poet’s Billow, an organization dedicated to increasing the exposure of poetry, is accepting submission for the Bermuda Triangle Prize – the deadline is March 15th.

The Bermuda Triangle Prize is given to three poems on a theme from up to three different poets.

Current Theme: Running

Running for president, running down the street, running up the bar tab, we are open to interpretations on the theme. It is up to you how literal or abstract you would like to play on the chosen theme. 

We are open to interpretations on the theme. It is up to you how literal or abstract you would like to play on the chosen theme.

Each winning poem will receive $50, for a total cash prize of $150. The poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. Up to five finalists will be considered for publication.

We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.

Go to our website for the full guidelines: The Poet’s Billow Awards

Don’t forget you can follow The Poet’s Billow on Facebook and Twitter.

Interview With Poet Brittany Cagle

15 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

We are really excited to bring you an interview with Brittany Cagle, the winner of the 2014 Pangaea Prize with a series of poems titled My Family Sleeps in New Beds.  This interview  addresses how to navigate personal tragedy within the tragedies of others and how to translate the experience of people close to you while not exploiting them. We also discuss some formal elements of Cagle’s poetry and her amazing art.

“In the case of [writing on] tragedy, we completely expose the people we know and often have to negotiate between our desire to be truthful and our fears of exploiting someone. We have the ability—even more so as writers—to hurt each other in perseverant and permanent ways, especially once our words are printed and public…. But often I think— don’t I somewhat own the things that happened to me in my own life? Aren’t these, too, stories for me to tell?  This is where lines can become blurred and downright confusing. This became a source of personal frustration—how I could approach writing on others.” Read the entire interview here.

C. D. Wright 1949-2016

14 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

“C.D. Wright, beloved prize-winning poet and writing professor at Brown University, unexpectedly passed away in her home on January 12, 2016. Her most recent book had just been published. The cause of death is yet to be determined.” Copper Canyon Press Release.

Floating Trees

a bed is left open to a mirror

a mirror gazes long and hard at a bed

light fingers the house with its own acoustics Read more…

Poetry Submissions Welcome

08 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Blog

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The Poet’s Billow is now accepting submission for the Bermuda Triangle Prize – the deadline is March 15th.

The Bermuda Triangle Prize is given to three poems on a theme from up to three different poets.

Current Theme: Running 

Running for president, running down the street, running up the bar tab, we are open to interpretations on the theme. It is up to you how literal or abstract you would like to play on the chosen theme.

Each winning poem will receive $50, for a total cash prize of $150. The poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.

Submit Early – Worried about submitting earlier and paying for an entry you will have to withdraw: we will allow you to replace withdrawn poems until the end of the reading period.

Go to our website for the full guidelines: The Poet’s Billow Awards

Don’t forget you can follow The Poet’s Billow on Facebook and Twitter.