I also set up a new mirrorworld, and played with simple shapes to create the expression of psycho kitties:
Psycho Kitties by Maria L. Berg 2024
The Prompts
NaPoWriMo: “write a poem titled “Wish You Were Here” that takes its inspiration from the idea of a postcard. Consistent with the abbreviated format of a postcard, your poem should be short, and should play with the idea of travel, distance, or sightseeing.
These prompts are great for today. Though I’m still not feeling 100%, tonight at midnight is the end of my fiftieth year, so today feels like a good day to look at my trip pictures and read what I wrote in Puerto Vallarta.
I received this faux postcard with my bill at a restaurant at Marina Vallarta. I thought it was a clever reminder and ask for a review. So I used this with my magnet poetry to make my poem today. The poem is a luck poem through the word selection of the magnets from the box.
Today’s Poem
Wish You Were Here
Poetry MFA Week 1 Review
Writing: So far, so good. I’ve definitely been writing at least forty-five minutes a day. I’ve been journaling, doing writing exercises, and writing poem drafts. I’ve been trying writing in different places at different times. One thing I wanted to try that I haven’t done is writing right before bed. I’ve done most of my writing first thing in the morning, and in the afternoon, so I’ll focus on writing before bed this coming week.
Reading: It was fun that the second Poets&Writers issue I studied had an interview with Ada Limόn about her collection the Carrying(assoc. link), so the A to Z Challenge fit into getting to know some background of my chosen poet. I read my selected poem, “Anticipation,” aloud many different ways, exploring the poet’s choice to break the poem into very short lines.
I’ll talk about the week two instructions and expectations tomorrow.
How’s your NaPoWriMo and/or A to Z Blogging Challenge going? Did you have a good week? Have some challenges creep up that tested your resolve like my day two internet outage? If so I hope it was short-lived, and you didn’t get derailed.
Today’s word from the Nov/Dec 2018 Poets&Writers Magazine is Focus. This issue had a section called “Focus in on Literary Magazines” that included three articles: one on the dawn of digital submissions; one on magazine contracts; and one on increasing diverse representation.
My intense focus on poetry and poetry submissions for the first quarter of this year has revealed to me how scattered I’ve been in the past. I can see why I was only coming up with poems to post on here, leaving few unpublished poems to submit to journals when I was also working on short stories and novels. For the first time during NaPoWriMo, I have a file with unpublished drafts in it, and there are already seven poems in there.
So what’s working? How am I staying focused when I haven’t in the past?
P&W Collage #6 – Focus
It started with a rejection letter bingo card in the Writer’s Relief newsletter. I liked the idea of each of my rejection letters being a possible square on my bingo card. The idea got me submitting and when the rejection letters started coming in, putting stickers on that bingo card made me want to get more rejection letters, so I kept submitting. Those first rejection letters still held the familiar sting, but now, after my first bingo, yesterday’s rejection only made me think about where to send my next submissions.
The other thing that has changed that’s really helping is I found an online generative writing gathering called Friday Gatherings led by MK Chavez of the Ouroboros Writing Lab that I’m really enjoying. And yesterday I tried the Gotham Writers write-in. These zoom write-ins are really helping me generate work in a new way, and I’m excited by the results.
But mock events for the Writer’s Games are already starting this month. Will I be able to keep my poetry focus and write a couple short stories? Do I want to spend six of my weekends this summer writing short stories? I really enjoy the Writer’s Games, but the intensive short story competition will draw my focus from poetry.
I will stay completely focused on poetry this month. I will not even look at the Mock Events, but I have high hopes that by June I will have such a solid poetry practice that I will be able to split my focus for the Writers Games and have some fun with short stories on the weekends.
The Prompts
NaPoWriMo : “write a poem rooted in “weird wisdom,” by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since.”
Poetry Non-stop : The green envelope. For this poem ask yourself: “Why is the envelope green? What does that mean to you? Where has it come from and what does it say? What would you want it to say? Open it with us. And read it with us.”
Today’s Poem
This Green Envelope
Green is the real color of love someone told me once. I don’t remember why. The color of money, envy, the green M&M. But this green envelope is a mass-produced advertisement disguised as a letter addressed to my neighbor in digitized handwriting. Putting the envelope in the correct box is the bare minimum, but we cannot expect that. I walk the green envelope down the street and slip it into the void of the open slot. Perhaps it is an advertisement for something my neighbor needs, but could not find. This is my act of love.
Every issue of Poets & Writers has a page titled, “The Time Is Now: Writing Prompts and Exercises,” which has three prompts” Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction. The poetry prompt in the Nov/Dec 2018 Poets&Writers says to “make a list of objects or ephemera that have played a prominent role in your life in the past two or three years, including items that have figured into international news. Write a poem in response to a selection of these objects, exploring any emotional ties you have to them and their significance to larger social issues.”
Ephemera is such a great word. It is the plural of ephemeron and means items designed to be useful or important for only a short time, especially pamphlets, notices, tickets, etc. I find the “or” in the prompt instructions odd as ephemera are objects. But an interesting exercise none the less.
P&W Collage #5 – Ephemera
When I looked up “poetry of ephemera” on the internet, I got some interesting results. I found Ephemera by Ann Lauterbach which is a portfolio of photographs and captions. I found the poem “Ephemera” by W.B. Yeats. And I found two poetry collections (assoc. links): Ephemera by Sierra DeMulder, and The Ephemera & The Eternal by Kai Mei.
The Prompts
NaPoWriMo : start by taking a look at Alicia Ostriker’s poem, “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog.” Now try your hand at writing your own poem about how a pair or trio very different things would perceive of a blessing or, alternatively, how these very different things would think of something else (luck, grief, happiness, etc).
PAD Challenge : take the phrase “Tell (blank),” replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.
Today’s Poem
Tell us the joy of the doctor, his skeleton, and the crime tape
Finding a healthy heart hearing its steady beat makes me want to dance, said the doctor smiling, and a day without finding a tumor; that is pure joy.
Not being feared, side-glanced with a grimace while fleshy fingers flutter over muscled thighs, whispered the doctor’s skeleton, hanging in the corner. Being observed as the fact that I am the stable center of industry would bring me joy.
A day of rest just one day staying rolled, still in a dark closet or trunk, says the yellow crime tape across the gaping shattered-glass door of the doctor’s office overlooking the body-shaped tape and the blood stain. I dream of that joy.
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.
P&W Collage #4 – 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.
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.
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
Enjoy all the decisions you get to make today. See you tomorrow!
The second issue of Poets&Writers Magazine in my stack is the Sept/Oct 2018 issue with Ada Limόn on the cover. In the article, “The Poetry of Perseverance,” Carrie Fountain talks with Ada Limόn about her fifth collection, The Carrying(assoc. link).
P&W Collage #3 – Carrying
Ada Limόn says the poems in this collection were answering the question, “Where do I put all this?” She also said, “When I finally had about thirty poems, I realized I was writing something real, making a complicated living thing. Then started to push myself to plunge further, to be as veracious as possible and follow the craft, follow the song as far as it would take me.”
She says that her book terrifies her and when asked what it is about The Carrying that terrifies her she says, “I think what scares me the most is that I’m writing more about the body and from a place of physical vulnerability. . . .I address more of the frailty of my own body.”
Just before I started writing this, I came down the stairs carrying a Poets & Writers magazine in one hand and a mug in the other, and I thought about how I carry myself. I instantly felt my spine straighten, but not completely because I was watching the stairs. I thought about how I’ve always slouched, and the string that is supposed to pull the top of my head toward the sky always goes slack when I’m not focused on it.
What do my poems carry? How do they carry themselves? What are the things I am carrying that I need to put into my poems to let the poems carry for me?
PAD Challenge: pick a musical act or artist and either make that the title of your poem or incorporate into the title of your poem; then, write your poem.
Poetry Non-stop: Alex Blustin’s prompt is: Try imagining a hapless engineer designing love from scratch. How would it work? What tragic errors would they make in their design, and is any of it funny enough to inspire a poem?
These three prompts seemed to fit well together.
Today’s Poem
The Mothers of Invention Engineer Love
When the idea came to us to engineer such a thing that would excite the body as well as the mind, binding two beings in such a way that they would desire to stay together—the hissing amusements, giggling glucose and rough savor—we hadn’t taken into account that we are antiseptic, rectangular, loose, and astringent. We thought of love as a red sequin unitard with fringe that sticks out her tongue a lot, crawling, climbing, and rubbing up against bodies, but love is as breakable as inflammations, a hollow ricochet of discomfort, tinkling, nasty, searing, grubby, and malty. We tried to stage a low grade, sorta cheap pseudo Mother-mania hysteria event. She was going to demonstrate how in love she is by providing a much needed element. How can someone so electric lust after the faultiest harp? Right now, paper bags are plotting to get rather intimate with dental floss, and ferns that surround us may be genetically unstable. We are in a labyrinth surrounded by people, but we can’t be sure if any of them are real. Right now, pins are plotting to turn invisible which may lead to the result we hoped for: you can get drunk on it, and you can gaze upon it, and you can have a phobia about it. If you want to get completely confused by it, you’ll need a fire exit.
I guess I need to be more careful with the words I choose for A to Z. Just yesterday I was talking about how acceptance is so important and how I want to be accepting of everything that comes this month, and this morning I wake up to no internet. My internet was out all day and just when I had given up on being able to get the prompts, write my poem, and post today (7:30 pm), my internet suddenly started working. So I have an abbreviated post today, but I’m here, so Hurray!!
P&W Collage #2 – Boxes
While reading Hanif Abdurraqib’s profile of Terrance Hayes, I came across this interesting sentence, “He is talking about boxes and how every box, like every poem, has multiple sides through which it can be entered. So B is for boxes. This made me think of a poetry exercise I did a few weeks ago in which we drew boxes in a document and then put our text into the different boxes. Hayes’s thoughts on boxes made me think of using a flattened cube to put my words on. Then I can put the words on the inside or the outside of the cube. Then, by turning the cube, I can enter the poem from different text.
The Light on the Top of the Box is Blinking Yellow
I’m not sure when our relationship changed from a casual acquaintance to a platonic love to this unhealthy dependence so clear this morning when you disappeared I awoke without a tether to the world plans shredded and flapping in the wind all communications lost with no way to report that I’m adrift and no way to lodge a complaint Only yesterday I swore acceptance of all that was to come and here it is the unexpected but I’ve come undone And worrying that you’re gone for good sucked my day away checking and double checking that I couldn’t bring you back ate up all the hours But here you are, suddenly returned and I’m so happy, all is forgiven, but please don’t leave me again
This first day of poetry immersion has already been Amazing. This morning, I received my first Acceptance letter of the year. Two of my poems are going to be published in Heron Tree later this year. What a great way to kick off NaPoWriMo!
Acceptance is not only a great word for today because it is a goal of writing and submitting poems, but because it is also a great attitude for the month. There will be ups and downs during the month (last year I fell and hit my head, pretty scary) and I want to accept all that comes with an open mind and heart. Another important part of a successful NaPoWriMo is self-acceptance.
P&W Collage #1 by Maria L. Berg 2024
So with acceptance as my word for today, I took a look at my first Poets & Writers magazine in my stack the July/ August 2018 issue with Terrance Hayes on the cover, and found “the journal accepts queries or pitches via e-mail year-round,” on a very interesting page titled “Literary MagNet.” The page followed one essayist named Chelsea Hodson through different Literary Magazines that published her work. The article introduced me to EOAGH, The Scofield, Sundog Lit, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn, all online journals that I had not heard of before and look forward to exploring.
Though I approached today’s letter in somewhat the opposite way than I had planned, I accept that this year I’m doing things differently, and I accept and enjoy process.
The Prompts
NaPoWriMo: Write a poem that recounts the plot of a novel you liked but haven’t read in a long time.
Poetry Non-Stop: Write a poem inspired by a good news story.
Today’s Poem
Every Day Holds Possible Skink
What makes a good day? Optimism arrives like a runaway governor vigilante in an old shower cap on a mission to thwart crooked, polluting developers Solutions to my problems lie within my grasp like roadkill collected and cooked over a campfire, leaving plenty to share once found in the deep swamp where gators leave little evidence. It’s not that I want to ignore laws or meet violence with violence but I find hope in self-sufficiency and the day turns like a glass eye when the motor suddenly roars to life.
The Mountain’s Hat by Maria L. Berg 2024
Today is also Quadrille Monday at dVerse Poets Pub. The Quadrille is a poem of exactly forty-four words, not including the title, that includes a word chosen by the host. Today, Lisa has chosen “contour.”
The Mountain’s Hat is Never Wrong
The curved cloud contours of the mountain’s hat on a hat, emulating the tall Stetsons its park rangers wear, defy the blue sky reflecting in the still lake and confirm that I mowed just in time, because rain is going to come before long.
Portable MFA Week One: Beginnings
The opening instructions for this first week say that “This is the week you give yourself permission to write.” So here on day one I am declaring my commitment to working through all eight weeks of this program, and I hope you’ll hold me to it.
This week has a writing component and a reading component: Writing: Write for forty-five minutes every day. Break this up into three blocks of fifteen minutes to play around with different writing times in different places to explore where and when you feel most creative. Write these sessions by hand in a notebook. Free-write, letting the words come in fragments, or lines without trying to force them into a whole (this is something I need to work on).
The chapter then gives seven suggestions for connecting with your creativity. The first one is “Read a newspaper and free-write about something you find there.”
I’m going to be using “Ideas for Writing” exercises from (assoc. link)The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux to guide my writing sessions. I will choose one exercise from the Subjects for Writing section for my morning writing, and one from the Poet’s Craft section for the afternoon, and then write about something I found interesting during the day for my night writing.
Reading: This week’s reading assignment is to pick a poet that I’ll be reading and studying for the next four weeks. I chose Ada Limόn. I got three of her collections from the library: (assoc. links)The Hurting Kind (2022); Bright Dead Things (2015); and The Carrying (2018). I have Lucky Wreck (2021) and Sharks in the Rivers (2010) on hold.
The reading assignment is: “Begin with a single poem by your poet of choice, and after you have read the poem at least five times (preferably aloud), spend a good half-hour writing about the poem in your writing journal. If you must, you can break up the half-hour into ten-minute increments throughout the week, returning to the poem, rereading it at different times. Do this every week for the next four weeks, choosing a different poem by the same poet each week.”
I apologize for being away so long, but I took a wonderful vacation to Puerto Vallarta, and returned with COVID-19. I’m only now beginning to feel like I have a functioning brain again, and that’s only for a short part of the day. When I’m feeling all better, I should have beautiful pictures, and writing from my trip to share which will most likely sneak into my poems and posts this NaPoWriMo.
I received this year’s poster from Academy of American poets in the mail the other day. I really like this year’s design. You can find out about their events and get their graphic on the poets.org page.
While I was trying to decide on my Blogging A to Z theme this year, I found myself thinking, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Every year, I hope to write better poems that speak to and inspire more readers. And each year I hope to write more than one poem a day, so I have poems to revise and submit when the month is over, but I find that one poem and a post are all I have in me each day. So how will this year be different? How can I change my Poetry Month experience to get to different results?
My first idea was to not participate in any of the blogging challenges this year, and only write unpublished drafts each day, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, I’m going to the other extreme: complete poetry immersion.
I decided to use this month as the first four weeks of the eight week Portable MFA Poetry program by Rita Gabis from the book, (assoc. link)The Portable MFA in Creative Writing from The New York Writers Workshop. I’ve started it in the past, but not made it past the second week. I’ll be discussing each week’s program and my progress. I hope you readers will keep me accountable.
Theme: Miscellaneous poetry topics inspired by reading physical Poets & Writers Magazine issues from July 2018 – February 2021.
I pulled out all of my physical copies of Poets & Writers. I have every issue from Autumn of 2018 through January/February of 2021. I plan to read every page of each issue cover to cover, one issue every two days, and share what I find most interesting in that issue for two letters of the alphabet.
For example: The first issue I’ll be reading is the July/ August 2018 issue with Terrance Hayes on the cover. Only looking at the cover, I see it’s the literary Agents issue, so A might be for Agents, or (assoc. link)American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes, or the African fabric print on his t-shirt because have some fabric with that exact print on it in my closet that I bought in West Africa. B might be for Jamel Brinkley because there is an interview with him inside. Who knows what will actually grab my attention and be what I want to write about once I read the entire issue.
I thought to further explore each magazine, I would cut them up and use them to make collages to illustrate my blog posts. Flipping through this first issue, it appears that my imagery will include a lot of faces, book covers, and words.
This year to be more immersive, I’ve also found a podcast celebrating NaPoWriMo. Poetry Non-Stop will have daily prompts and poems shared by guest poets each day. So their prompts may also sneak into my daily poems.
Prompt: “Pick a word from the list below. Then write a poem titled either “A [your word]” or “The [your word]” in which you explore the meaning of the word, or some memory you have of it, as if you were writing an illustrative/alternative definition.”
An Ocean by Maria L. Berg March 2024
An Ocean
Through the searing sand I raced to you Even when you appeared calm you pushed back with an uninviting chill that disappeared once you rose over my chest and reached my neck
After difficult introductions we became playmates inventing games, fun for their hint of danger Shells and bones, leftovers from death, scattered on the beach, betrayed the life within your darkness I gave you my body and you lifted me as if weightless
All I wanted was to stay immersed in you forever, then I would know pure joy, but with that thought I also felt my muscles tire and my guts rumble and I let you push me to the shore.
Other Plans for Poetry Immersion
Classes: I’m going to take my favorite free poetry class again. Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop with Douglas Kearney through CALARTS is available online through Coursera. And I’m also going to review the poetry courses on Masterclass: Joy Harjo, Billy Collins, and Amanda Gorman.
Videos: I found a list of interesting looking poetry TED talks. And there’s plenty of interesting results on Youtube when I searched poetry videos.
With these videos and the podcast, I have my vision and hearing full of poetry, but what about my other senses? How do I smell, taste, and touch poetry every day? 1. Each morning in my journal I will write what I am experiencing with my five senses in that moment: I see, I hear, I smell, I feel, I taste . . . 2. At every meal I will note about the flavor, smell, texture, colors, shapes, similes, metaphors, etc. in a notebook. 3. Every day I will select one small object to interact with and describe each day. I will attempt to pick objects with different textures each day to explore touch.
Throughout the month I will attempt to become more specific and more descriptive of all my senses.
I’ll share more about my poetry journey so far this year as it fits with my daily posts. I hope you’ll join me and share your thoughts. If you have any ideas for my poetry immersion in April, please leave them in the comments. I’m looking forward to sharing this poetry intensive with you.
Today’s prompt at dVerse felt like a continuation of my poem from Tuesday. How can I say more about those daffodils? But then I read the example poem: NARCISSUS AND ECHO by Fred Chappell, and heard myself say “How beautiful,” and thought, now I’m seeing in a different way.
Narcissus in Shade by Maria L. Berg 2024
Narcissus in Shade
Bloomed too early, that’s what y’all say H’aint she heard they all been with her daddy
Not a bloomin’ to do that’ll set her apart Might as well wilt with the breath of a shart
‘N wiltin’s good nuff if she’d look like she should down in the bowin’ would do her some good
But she so stuck up with her face to the sun Otta take her down before she can run
But all y’all should know she’s got grandaddy’s gun, and she is her father’s most beloved son.
*I know I didn’t follow the rules exactly, but I want to thank Laura for the inspiration to push into my experience and use it on the page in ways I haven’t tried before to tell Narcissus’s story.
Today’s Poetics prompt at dVerse Poets Pub is to write a poem on being “young and green.” It seems an appropriate prompt for my poem today: the sun came out and upon opening the curtains in my office, I was greeted by a camellia in full bloom in complete defiance of the snow that was on the ground this morning. It made me think of the impetuousness of youth.
Impetuous Youth by Maria L. Berg 2024
That made me think of the the early daffodils that bloomed last week. Mom had told me to put them in a vase before the freeze, believing they would die, but they also defied old man winter and posed brightly for me this afternoon.
Early Bloomers by Maria L. Berg 2024
Impetuous Blooming
I don’t remember a year when spring was so eager Narcissus and her little sister stared down old man winter and refused to go back to bed wouldn’t bow their brilliant heads Not used to being ignored he threatened and he roared positive he could make them cower by covering them in icy showers and somehow even stole my power leaving me in freezing dark confused and frightened for my part but those impetuous youth stood strong and invited their friend Camellia along her delicate ruffles innocently mocked him while her exhibitionism shocked him and seeing all her sisters budding in the green he slipped into the shadows not wanting to be seen
Experience Writing 