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the poet's billow

~ a resource for moving poetry

the poet's billow

Tag Archives: Prompt

April 13th: Making Time, aka What are you looking at?

13 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

apm, april poetry challenge, Bonczek, Evory, fore-edge, meditation poetry, poem, Poetry, Prompt, slowing down time

Poetry makes us slow down. And in that lengthening space, we are able to look closely–at a painting, a memory, a tree, a comma. Whatever it is, we look for a long time.

We look with all of our senses.

We linger.

I once performed a meditation in which you focus your attention on time and imagine a bubble, a dome, settling over your surroundings. The dome allows you to be present and protects you from the world on the other side of the bubble where time moves fast. You know that feeling of how something just won’t end? Usually it’s something we don’t want to be doing, right? A day that just won’t end. Well, this meditation switches this common experience so you can slow the feeling of time passing while you did things you really wanted to do. We all know that slow feeling. This allowed you to change it from dread to pleasure.

Funny. When I’m creating in the zone/in the flow, time ceases to exist. I don’t know if time’s expanded or contracted. There is no time. And when we enter that reality, we see differently.

This video reminded me of that experience. I hope it’s one you are all making time to savor.

Hidden Paintings 

Here are some more links on “fore-edge” technique:

Art on the Edge

Beauty on the Edge

Write on,

Michelle

Day Three Poetry Challenge

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

april poetry challenge, baseball poetry, opening day 2016, poem, poem about baseball, Poetry, poetry prompts, Prompt, Writing, writing assignments, writing prompts

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

Day Two Prompt

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

April poetry, poem, Poetry, poetry exercise, poetry month, Prompt, Writing, writing assignments, writing prompt

Write a poem in the persona of a person who is the first to do something. For example, the first person to build a boat; to start a fire; to brew coffee; to walk on the moon; to look into a microscope.

Write on!

April Poetry Month

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

April poetry, national poetry month, Poetry, poetry challenge, poetry prompts, Prompt, writing assignments, writing exercises, writing prompts

We at the Billow will be celebrating National Poetry Month by attempting to complete the April Poetry Challenge–write a poem a day for the month! For the next 30 days we will share prompts with you in the hope that maybe you, too, will find your way to the page.

Day 1: Write a poem about a thunderstorm without using the words rain, thunder, or lightning.

Write on!

Michelle & Rob

Unlocking Your Inner Artist

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art, artist, creativity, habits, Hugo, ideas, poem, Poet, Poetry, poets, practice, Prompt, Stafford, writers, Writing

This following article published by The Huffington Post reminds us what attitudes to take to the page to overcome creative anxiety. Along with William Stafford’s always good advice to “lower our standards,” the article has some other good ideas. A special thanks to poet Steven Blythe for pointing us to this article. Check it out:

You don’t have to be a famous painter or sculptor to sympathize with the pains of creative block. Whether it comes on like a giant smack in the face or creeps up on you like a shiver down your spine, we’ve all dealt with the woes of being stuck. You second guess yourself, you dance around ideas and you feel like progress is miles away, all while the joys of creating take a back seat to the pressures we associate with success.

19 Daily Habits Of Artists That Can Help Unlock Your Creativity

Online Poetry Workshop Starting July 7th

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

2013, Internet, poem, Poet, Poetry, poetry workshop, poets, Prompt, Publishing, Workshop, writers, Writing

The Poet’s Billow is starting an online poetry workshop July 7th run by poet and author Michelle Bonczek.

This is a 4 week workshop. Post a poem onto a private website each week and comment on your fellow poets’ work. Michelle Bonczek will give editorial and revisionary comments on poems; through the course of a workshop she may give suggestions for books to read, suggestions for publishing and exercises designed to generate new work. You are guaranteed feedback on a poem of your choosing each week.

This is a great option for anyone who wants honest editorial feedback on their work. It is great for writers who want to publish, enter MFA programs, just want to improve their writing or even just started writing.

We expect to have writers of multiple styles, and ages, with different experiences and plots in life. But what will bring us all together is a love for poetry and a desire to interact with others who write.

For more information on the workshop and to sign up for the workshop visit the workshop page on the poet’s billow website: https://thepoetsbillow.org/workshops/

Find out more information about the workshop leader Michelle Bonczek at: https://thepoetsbillow.org/our-poets/michelle-bonczek/

Need help unblocking your writing try the 20 lines project blog

26 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

blog, books, contest, Internet, literature, online journal, poem, Poetry, Prompt, reading, reading poetry, Writing

http://anexerciseindiscipline.wordpress.com/

A Writing Exercise: Engaging the Senses

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by thepoetsbillow in Blog

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

art, books, cooking, excercise, food, Lit. Journal, literature, miracle fruit, online journal, poem, Poet, Poetry, Prompt, reading, Writing

Go to your kitchen pantry, garden, refrigerator, or spice rack. Pick an herb, spice, fruit, or vegetable. Take it to your writing space. Smell it, feel it, observe it, taste it. Does it come in multiple forms: powdered, sliced, dried, pickled? What sensations does it arouse? What memories does it bring?

Now, write for thirty minutes or more, don’t stop –Don’t think, just write. Reread what you’ve written. Find the connections, the heat, the moments where language lifts, where it sings, and sculpt this into a poem.

If you like, post your results as a comment; we would love to see what people come up with.

Here is a Poem by Aimee Nezhukumatathil from her book Miracle Fruit (Tupelo Press, 2003) to inspire you.

Spices

coloring

If your man doesn’t know cumin

from cardamom, it’s time to let him go.

but if he discovers a wetted paintbrush dipped

into turmeric makes a soft yellow line

on your back, spells something like You

are my sun—then keep him and hold on tight.

I like a cupboard packed with jam jars rubbed clean,

full of the sand from fantasy beaches of me

and my man and a paintbrush I conjured up

just last night—a cupboard where the difference in reds

means danger or victory for my pot of stew.

 

fragrance

And what about cloves pierced

into a fat orange, strung up with ribbon

at Christmas? What came up with that,

and what kind of twisted need did they have

for the occasional prick of spikes under

nails? One, we were leaving

Bombay Palace, my father spooned

caraway and licorice bits into my palm

from the jade bowl on the counter and said,

“This will clean your breath.” The owner

twitched his moustache, and nodded.

 

heat

Pepper is the obvious choice, in its powder form,

I mean—but there’s something about the crash

of peppercorns into a salad, over pasta, the twist

and flex of wrist that sends men back for more.

But if you really want to impress, try chili flaked fresh

under a rolling pin and wax paper. Make sure he sees

you doing this labor of love—act as if you do this

at every meal, that is how it would be every day

if he desired. And after dinner, float some

in his tea, slip some into his slice of cake.

Be careful for the warmth of his mouth.

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