Tag Archives: poetry prompts

q is for quires- Poem: Now I Lay Me

DSC00427.JPG

Today’s new word:

quires n. 1. a set of 24 uniform sheets of paper. 2. Bookbinding . a section of printed leaves in proper sequence after folding; gathering.

National Poetry Writing Month prompt:

Yesterday’s poem, Little Bee, is the featured poem on NaPoWriMo today. So exciting. Thank you.

Write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in alphabetical order, or you could write one in which each line begins with a word that follows the order of the alphabet. This is a prompt that lends itself well to a certain playfulness.

Writer’s Digest April PAD (poem a day) challenge:

Write a license poem.

My poem

Now I lay me

acidic
bile building
calcium can’t conquer
dull drunks don’t drown
effervescent ellipses emit
fidgety film
gross
heart hurting
illicit illness insists
jerking jolting jarring jog
killing kiln kicks
license lost
morning
never new
obsess over oddities
plentiful patience, peeking peepers
quires quell quips
ruin reams
sleep
tortured tether
under urban upper-crust
vaulting value vanishes virtues
wintered wandering wonderment
x-ray xenomorph
yawn
zzz

Reading

Today’s poetry book for inspiration is A Trio of Tolerable Tales by Margaret Atwood.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Advertisements

P is for perfidy- Poem: Little Bee

little bee

Today’s new word:

perfidy n. 1. deliberate breach of faith or trust; faithlessness; treachery. 2. an act or instance of faithlessness or treachery.

National Poetry Writing Month prompt:

Write an elegy of your own, one in which the abstraction of sadness is communicated not through abstract words, but physical detail.

This prompt is quite timely. Yesterday, I finished up Billy Collins’s Masterclass and there was a lovely section where he and Marie Howe discussed their elegy poems. Mr. Collins’s was “Death of a hat” and Ms. Howe’s was “What the Living Do.” When Ms. Howe finished reading her poem, I got that great WOW feeling. I can’t wait to go back and listen again, and read it when my hold gets to my library.

Writer’s Digest April PAD (poem a day) challenge:

Take the phrase “Little (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then write your poem.

My poem

Little Bee

Floating
barely a breeze
slight current moving us mountainward
the wake of a boat passing
jostles into
a rocking, lulling
deliquesce

Then
little bee
your perfidy
How
did you find
my hand?

Breaking
the flow
of a comfortable row
with a piercing
then stinging
then ache

like Sunday
in church
when I finally faced
that she would
never be there
again

I didn’t cry
when you told me
she died
a surprise call
on a sunny
afternoon

There
was a space
where her face
was replaced
reality swiftly and suddenly
stung

I keep
breathing
and flouting
and singing
before
the bee
on a leaf
in this lake

Reading

Today’s poetry book for inspiration is What the Living Do: Poems by Marie Howe.

Happy Reading and Writing!

O is for ostracon – Poem: I Am a Piece

Today’s new word:

ostracon n. a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ostraca refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone that have writing scratched into them. Usually these are considered to have been broken off before the writing was added; ancient people used the cheap, plentiful and durable broken pieces of pottery around them as convenient places to place writing for a wide variety of purposes, mostly very short inscriptions, but in some cases surprisingly long. -from Wikipedia

In ancient Greece ostraca were used to vote which citizens should be ostracized.

National Poetry Writing Month prompt:

Write a poem that similarly presents a scene from an unusual point of view. Perhaps you could write a poem that presents Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery from the perspective of the apple. Or the shootout at the OK Corral from the viewpoint of a passing vulture. Or maybe it could be something as everyday as a rainstorm, as experienced by a raindrop.

Writer’s Digest April PAD (poem a day) challenge:

Write a reason poem. If this prompt seems unreasonable, just remember all the reasons you write poetry or enjoy cooking, dancing, singing, etc. Or provide a reasoned argument for your lack of reason. Only you know your reasons.

My poem

I Am a Piece

I am a piece, an ostracon
I am not broken
I am whole and of the whole
I am unique in size, shape and site
I am your surface, your history,
your judgement

I will not return to the whole
I will bare a name, carved, scarred into me
I will hold its weight upon me immemorial
I will be counted among the other ostraca
I will grow in number and strength, deciding
your fate

I have heard the reasons:
I have been abundant and plentiful
I have been accessible and pliable
I have no other useful purpose, but
I have lasted through time and space to witness
your erosion

Reading

This month, I bought myself a very rewarding birthday gift: a year of access to Masterclass. I love it! I’ve already enjoyed about half of Neil Gaiman’s class and Margaret Atwood’s class. The classes come with beautiful, unique workbooks and videos about the craft from the authors. It’s wonderful.

Yesterday, they added a poetry class by Billy Collins. Though I was not familiar with his work, in the introduction video he showed a lovely sense of humor, so I dove right in.

To my great joy, my library system had a couple of Mr. Collins’s collections for immediate access as ebooks and one as an audiobook and a performance of Mr. Collins reading his poems on audio as well. Needless to say. This week’s inspirational reading will be Billy Collins heavy.

Today’s poetry book for inspiration is Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems by Billy Collins.

Happy Reading and Writing!

N is for nyctalopia and nympholepsy – Poem: Catch and Release

Crater Lake July 4th 2015

The hummingbird moth drinking after dark. photo by Maria L. Berg.

Today’s new word:

nyctalopia n. night blindness.

nympholepsy n. 1. an ecstasy supposed by the ancients to be inspired by nymphs. 2. a frenzy of emotion, as for something unattainable.

National Poetry Writing Month prompt:

Write a poem that uses the form of a list to defamiliarize the mundane.

Writer’s Digest April PAD (poem a day) challenge:

It’s two for Tuesday

  1. Write a catch poem. Catch a cold, a ball, a fish, or someone’s eye.
  2. Write a release poem. Release your anger, a ball, a fish, or someone’s head (from a head lock while wrestling, of course).

My poem

Catch and Release

Catch a nympholepsy for the mundane
the light switch, the space heater, the ceiling fan

Release disinterest, boredom and shame

Catch a glimpse of the unknown
in the spiders’ webs that cling to the walls

Release dust while opening and retying the curtains

Catch my breath when I discover the long lost piece
of something I threw out long ago

Release carbon dioxide and stress with each breath

Catch nyctalopia while remembering the times spent
enjoying it before I lost that piece

Release regret, expectation and need

Catch fire with a new idea
Collect the mundane, your mundane
and turn it to gold

Release preconceived notions, cultural norms, and beauty ideals

Reading

Today’s poetry book for inspiration is Hourglass Museum by Kelli Russell Agodon.

Happy Reading and Writing!

L is for lucubration- Poem: Not Alone

giphy2

                                                                                                           from giphy

Today’s new word:

lucubration n. 1. laborious work, study, thought, etc., especially at night. 2. the result of such activity, as a learned speech or dissertation. Often lucubrations. 3. any literary effort, especially of a pretentious or solemn nature.

National Poetry Writing Month prompt:

Write a poem about something mysterious and spooky!

Writer’s Digest April PAD (poem a day) challenge:

Write a view poem. Wherever you’re at, you have a view: maybe of a river or sunset. Maybe of a cubicle or a copy machine. Even the blind have a view of darkness, nothingness, or some other -ness. And that’s just being literal, because everyone has views on sports, politics, poetry, etc.

My poem

Not Alone

In my midnight lucubrations
when this table slips away and
I see my thoughts so clearly
I can plunder and can play

I don’t mean it as an invite
or, maybe, subconsciously, I do
to everything that must bump in the night
to take a walk on through

My sane mind knows that voices travel
on the lake and through these walls
And I’m conscious that old plumbing
can produce those moaning calls

But alone in lucubration
I get an odd sensation
that the smell of smoker’s residue
pressing on my shivering shoulder
is you

Reading

Today’s poetry book for inspiration is Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith

Happy Reading and Writing!

A is for Agita- Poem: How to take a picture of the mountain in the morning

the mountain in the morning

Today’s new word:

agita n. 1. heartburn; indigestion 2. agitation; anxiety

National Poetry Writing Month prompt:

Write a poem that provides the reader with instructions on how to do something.

Writer’s Digest April PAD (poem a day) challenge:

Write a morning poem

My poem

How to take a picture of the mountain in the morning

Imbibe the pink hue on the air
Imagine its reflection off of the glaciered peaks
Rush downstairs and scour the regular places
Race back upstairs and inspect the most recent surfaces
Retrace your hurry downstairs, instrument in hand,
out the glass door, startling the birds at the feeder
Dart across the freshly cut grass, your naked toes
collecting cuttings wet with ice-cold dew
Ignore the agita of your stirred morning coffee,
rumbling in your blackened bowels
Steady your arms, your eyes, and your breath
Select the detail that will capture what is left
of the beauty you missed in your flailing
Push the button
Adjust your view
Push it again

Reading

Today’s poetry book for inspiration is The Best American Poetry 2015 (The Best American Poetry series) with guest editor Sherman Alexie.

 

Happy Reading and Writing!

#OctPoWriMo Day 13 Blitz Poem: If I Were You

Ex

Not Like You

Absolute ultimatum
Absolute end
End of an age
End of trust
Trust is everything
Trust betrayed
Betrayed our love
Betrayed and alone
Alone, far from home
Alone and afraid
Afraid of uncertainty
Afraid to discover
Discover yourself
Discover you were wrong
Wrong to believe
Wrong to deceive
Deceive your believer
Deceive with a smile
Smile through the pain
Smile while the heart breaks
Breaks barriers
Breaks in the story
Story twisted
Story old as time
Time selfishly stolen
Time to mourn
Mourn lost trust
Mourn our love
Love ripped away in a day
Love in a paper heart
Heart involuntarily tightens
Heart in pieces on the ground
Ground fell away
Ground into dust
Dust to dust
Dust in the wind
Wind chills
Wind of change
Change your ways
Change your mind
Mind your manners
Mind to consider
Consider your options
Consider how I feel
Feel the love
Feel for another
Another day in paradise
Another love lost
Lost
Paradise

#OctPoWriMo Day 10: Dancing On Air

Dancing On The CloudsThis OctPoWriMo, I haven’t been as interested in working on poetry forms as I have in the past. However, today’s form, Con-Verse, appeals to me. Here’s my attempt:

She Knows They’re Watching

Flipping off her heals, releas-
ing her toes to the cool breeze

She bends her knees, loose hips swaying
Her skirt joins the music playing

Then she steps and her shoulders drop free
Her arms grow wild and reach out to me

I shake my head, but I’m already there
Dizzy and weightless, I move without care

Something is off. She isn’t looking at me.
I am part of a show for others to see.

It’s Writober! Time for some creepy flash fiction and poetry

across the street sI had pretty much spaced #Writober3 until this morning. Because I’m in New Orleans and my schedule is out of my hands, I won’t be as on top of my daily writing as I have been the last couple of years, but I’m going to try to do the daily poems for OctPoWriMo and I started adding pictures to a #Writober3 Pinterest board to inspire Halloween themed flash fiction.

The first pins I added are pictures I took from my immediate surroundings and a crow claw that I had on my camera from late July.  I decided not to number the images this year. Just choose the image on the day it speaks to you. I am going to start with this one:

painting of a girl s

The theme for this year’s Halloween party  is “Strange Brood” and this little lady definitely came from one. I think writing her story will  set the tone for a great #Writober.

The OctPoWriMo theme for today is Surrender. Here’s the poem I came up with:

Callistemon

Callistemon, the bottle brush tree
releases her red tassels
as I surrender to the moment
From elation as the light shines
through the erect, lush hibiscus
to the frustration of a burning throat
and muddy head of acclimation
I focus on the detailed lines of a glistening dragonfly’s wing
She extends
tail to the sun
on the tip of a twig
fully splayed

Like a kite escaping its tether
on a fitful wind, I surrender
to each fleeting change
Revelations bombard by the hour
The days pass too quickly
Each stuffed full of muti-days of meaning
I swirl in the dance of confusing splendor,
facing my first regret of ever catching your eye while I recognize the truth of my bliss
The white flag
wavers
I yield
to whatever comes

 

Happy Reading and Writing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dVerse Poets Quadrille: Stacked Boxes

Today is Quadrille Monday over at the dVerse Poets Pub and De Jackson served up the word: box.

A photograph of large boxes stacked on smaller boxes

 

Stacked Boxes

Stacking larger boxes on small boxes
A heavy head bobbles upon a lilting middle, teetering on a poor foundation
Functioning intelligence, serpentine systems based on a corrupted piece of code
The hypocrisy covers lies told to disguise the fib
A whisper topples the tower.