Tag Archives: Writing

Day 11 Poetry Challenge

11 Monday Apr 2016

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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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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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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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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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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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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

 

 

 

 

Day Four Poetry Challenge

04 Monday Apr 2016

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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

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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

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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.

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