I discovered so many great D words reading through the Sept/Oct 2018 Poets&Writers; such as: despite, disheartening, discouraged, denigrate, determine, deeper, delve, delight, doubt, derided, dependent, deserves, dimension, and distract. Using that list of words right there in a poem makes for an interesting poetry prompt. But for today’s word, I want to talk about decisions.
In “MFA in Mind: Twenty Questions o Ask Before Applying,” I read, “But advice is rarely universal, and the decision to pursue a graduate degree is one that requires individualized attention. One writer’s expectations for an MFA program might be radically different from those of another. So rather than spout platitudes about the uniquely personal decision you are facing, we’d like to offer some simple questions . . .” In “Like the First Time” by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, she talks about all of the life decisions she made while taking twelve years to finish her third book. She had two children, a teaching career, and moved from one side of the country to the other and back again. Then, in parentheses she writes, “all decisions I do not regret.”
A poem, like any life event, is full of uniquely personal decisions. Today, I thought it would be interesting to pay attention to my decisions, try to capture my thoughts, and take notes of every little decision I make while working on my poems. Then include some of my decision making in the poem for the reader to be part of made aware of. Will they all be decisions I do not regret? Only time will tell.
The Prompts
NaPoWriMo : write a poem in which you take your title or some language/ideas from The Strangest Things in the World
PAD Challenge : write a mistake poem.
Poetry Non-Stop : pain
Thanks to Bruce Niedt who shares his poetry at Orangepeel, I became aware of another source of prompts; Poetry Super Highway is providing daily prompts for NaPoWriMo.
The Assembly Line of Surprise
Step 1 – Choose a subject to write about. This should probably be something about being human such as a mental state, emotion, or social issue. Often this is abstract.
Step 2 – Choose an object to compare it to. It’s best if this is something very different than in step 1. Concrete things like machinery give good imagery. The more outrageous the better. Congratulations! You’ve just created a metaphor.
Step 3 – Make two columns on a piece of paper. List the parts of the subject step 1 in the first column and the parts of the item in step 2 in the second.
Step 4 – Map items in each column to those in the other. Choose the most interesting mappings. These will be phrases in your poem.
Step 5 – Put these phrases together into a poem.
Today’s Poem
Gigantic Serpents of the Sky
He reported two pink serpents in the sky
but they were flocks of pigeons
migrating in search of acorns
like they do every ten years
like the lightness of delight
they take flight, but in him
their undulating movements
evoked fright and tricked his eyes
and he saw two giant asps
roaring to earth with a thunder
of a million beating wings
jaws unhinged revealing rows
and rows of tiny teeth like beaks
light glinting off their venom
dripping fangs coming to pierce him
coming right at him to end him
and consume all the nature
he so carefully observed
Experience Writing 
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