Rainbow shimmers
above an old blue jeans sky
rain falling in holes
Fingernail moon falls
in a surprise of snowflakes
a mosquito mist
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Haiku. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Haiku. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Notes on Haiku, Tanka, and Rengu
As I pasted some haiku notes below a poem I wrote in March, it got out of hand, and I realized what I wrote should have its own blog page. After all, this is cyberspace. There's plenty of it.
This morning I was explaining to a Facebook friend, a Facebook memory I had posted from May 14, 2010
Seen on a Richmond overpass: Free Leonard.Which led to a lively discussion on Leonard. I posted a note on how I wrote my Free Leonard Peltier haiku, back in March, and she asked if she could share the poems. Which led to momentary panic. OMG, they're not very good, I need to rewrite them, or at least write something about the process... I must deflect, deflect. The gift of the gob at work.
Made me sad. How long has Leonard been in prison?
This was the poem that kicked off my counting jag: a neighbor sat in his car smoking as I pulled out the driveway. I'd finished that thought, realized there were more poems coming and that I needed to write them down. No way I was going to remember that many haiku all at once. It was a traffic jam of haiku stacking up. Then I saw one Leonard sign on an overpass, and another wedged in a tree.
I was stuck in a colossal traffic jam at the Richmond Bridge, so I kept calm and carried on, but I was betrayed by my fingers madly counting syllables on the steering wheel to pass the time. And then I saw the third Leonard Peltier sign.
It got me thinking of Leonard in prison counting the days, 40 years of endless days. That's 14,600 days he's been in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Please, Obama, do the right thing: please pardon Leonard, who was a scapegoat to appease the FBI's wrath. And so the poems tumbled out, written fast and furiously, my fingers thrumming in time. FREE LEONARD HAIKU
But I want to explore the form—if only as a reminder to myself to try a new poetic art form. I feel guilty about my writing, and certainly for what passes as haiku. I keep thinking I really should learn to write tanka, instead of my loosely linked 5-stanza linked poems in quasi-haiku format. You know, real writing.
I must admit I do feel a bit like like Rain Man madly counting away when I compose them, but once I start counting syllables, I can't seem to stop. The poemettes come nearly intact, and unbidden, especially when I'm driving. So it's some sort of a rhythmic mind game. Maybe haiku is the poet's sudoku. As Rainman said: Fart. Definitely, fart.
Monte Rio poet Pat Nolan was always trying to get me to join in on his renga games. Pat was the grand poobah and illustrious founder of The Miner School of Haikai Poets. A renga is a linked pass-around chain poem. I participated a few times, but I always got off kilter, endlessly stuck in that 5-7-5 format. I couldn't seem to play nicely with the other poets. Always missing deadlines.
Also, in those days, you had to type the pass-around poem on a manual typewriter (onion skin paper), then snail mail it onto the next poet. The poem traveled to Oakland, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Pacific Grove, Montreal, Monte Rio. And if you missed the 24-hour deadline, you held up all the other poets. They got pissy. Sadly, it was a a missed opportunity. They carried on without me. I probably have several starving half-finished group poems buried in my old papers.
I lacked confidence, and it stymied me, freezing my words, mid-mind. I became mute. I'm trying to remember who was in the renga group: Keith Abbott, Michael Sowl, Maureen Owen—and maybe also Steve LaVioie, David Gitin, Phil Coturri, come to mind.... It was an avalanche of poems arriving daily in the mail, I got confused. One poem line bled into the next arriving poem, and I was all in a muddle.
Then, there's Renku, a bawdy form of linked verse.....maybe it was a really a renku group... We were a bawdy bunch of poets singing euphonies, and all. But I stubbornly stuck to my linked haiku, counting 5-7-5.
Bawdy poets send
renga verse tersely written—
golden onion skins
Sauteeing their words
sizzling in olive oil—
wilted syllables
For the next poet
to puzzle over their lines—
waiting for the end
Of the line, last word
pulsing for a rebuttal—
a full glottal stop.
Lick that final stamp
and put the poem to bed—
incestuous words.
5/15/2016
Some standard definitions:
"Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae though often loosely translated as "syllables"), in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively. A kigo (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a saijiki, an extensive but defined list of such words. The essence of haiku is "cutting" (kiru). This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji ("cutting word") between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related. A kireji fills a role somewhat analogous to a caesura. In English, since kireji have no direct equivalent, poets sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis...." —WikiGot it. OK. Three phrases, like brush strokes, one line should contain a seasonal reference, and the Aha! the cutting word—a pivotal juxtaposition where the poem turns on itself. That's were I often flail. Haiku not about counting syllables. Besides, Japanese packs a lot more information into its ideagrams than we can possibly do with our sound-based Latin alphabet.
But I still can't stop counting. And I rarely remember to add the kireji, or in my case, the use of the long em line—. Besides, it's so easy to cheat at haiku with those pesky articles and particles. We're so attached to making sense in English, it's a leap of faith to leave out those conjunctions.
古池や蛙飛び込む水の音
Old mossy pond
Frog jump!
Water sound.
—Basho
(I'm trying to remember how this translation came about, was I working with Bob Hass at the time? Anyway, it was group boardwork, distilling something down to its primal essence. It's the translation I prefer.)
What: Invoke a hoku (a stand alone line)
use one or more of the senses—often a memory from the past,
Where: a sense of place—use images from nature
When: include a kogu, a seasonal reference (or a signal word)No "I" should inhabit the poem. Think epigrams, three snapshots or telegrams reduced down to a bare minimum of words. "Little drops of poetic essence," as Sir George Sansom called them. Then there's the hidden dualism: the idea of near and far, foreground/background, then and now, past and present, sound and silence, temporalness and infinity.
Two Haiku for Poetry Month
—MH 4/21/2009
Counting syllables
is silly; Japanese count
words, not syllables.
Anglo Saxon words
paint a much broader canvas
than Latinate ones.
OK, more standard definitions.
"The Tanka poem is very similar to haiku but Tanka poems have more syllables and it uses simile, metaphor and personification. There are five lines in a Tanka poem. Tanks poems are written about nature, seasons, love, sadness and other strong emotions. This form of poetry dates back almost 1200 years ago." (Check out the chart) 5-7-5-7-7 —How to write a Tanka poem
"Renga (連歌, collaborative poetry) is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry. A renga consists of at least two ku (句 ) or stanzas. The opening stanza of the renga, called the hokku (発句 ), became the basis for the modern haiku form of poetry." —Wiki
"Renku (連句, "linked verses"), or haikai no renga is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ushin renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns providing alternating verses of 17 and 14 morae. Initially haikai no renga distinguished itself through vulgarity and coarseness of wit, before growing into a legitimate artistic tradition, and eventually giving birth to the haiku form of Japanese poetry."—WikiThen there's Haibun, a combination of prose and haiku, often autobiographical or written in the form of a travel journal. Sort of like this journey.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
NaHaiWriMo November prompts (abodes)
“Welcome to November NaHaiWriMo! The posts this month will deal with creations, starting with a week of dwellings. Let’s try something different this month. Perhaps write a 3-5-3 haiku, or a monoku (single line), or write a poem that deals with the prompt without using the prompt word. Enjoy exploring the options. Please post your poems inspired by this prompt as comments in response to this posting.”
Visit the website too as I tend to fall off the wagon, and not stay the distance of the month. It could be because writing haiku tends to bore me silly. Maybe I should switch to haibun, to haikai or renga.
The NaHaiWriMo prompt for Nov 1 , 2023: CABIN
AUTUMN ARRIVES LATE
leaves scuttle and dance
Smoke rises from a cabin in deep woods
woodpecker resumes his carpentry.
Smoke rises from a cabin in deep woods
woodpecker resumes his carpentry.
11/3/23
I lived in an old cabin
abandoned walnut orchard
slumps back into the mud.
11/3/23
Old walnut orchard
Cabin keeps vigil for signs
Still praying for rain.
11/3/23
DELUGE
Trees thirsting for rain
Cabin keeps an eye on things
Clouds weep in the orchard.
11/3/23
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Quarantine haiku with Chad Sweeney
GLOBAL TAKEOVER (pet haiku)
Truck screeches to a halt, honks,
but the chickens are unflappable, they know
they own the middle of the road.
3/24
AMARYLLIS (home haiku)
Each day I turn the pot
so the forced bulb will straighten up.
But the bud prays toward the light.
3/25
LOVE IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS
Ex-lovers, the kind
I once wished dead, forward emails
on how to beat the plague.
3/25
SPRING AND ALL
Alpha rooster proclaims dominion over his flock
The hens ignore him, go about their business
Young cock discovers he too is part of the ritual.
3/26
ESCAPE ARTIST
Amaryllis stem
grew another foot last night—
but still can’t leave the pot.
3/27
ON THE WINDOWSILL
Old beveled hand mirror
reflects a patch of grizzled sky
a soft Irish day, said my gran.
3/28
FRIENDSHIP HAIKU
The best thing she said:
something like 50-plus years later
I still have her back.
3/29
STORMFRONT
Knees and stairs creaking
together, life’s ups and downs—
one step at a time.
3/30
Tuesday Haiku (Basho style)
( setting) Drinking tea in bed
( subject) Waiting for it to kick in
( sudden Why? Still on lockdown.
perception)
3/31
SUN CLOAK
My Gran never said
our freckles were kisses stolen
from the Otherworld.
WHAT THE TURKEY VULTURE SAID
I don’t mind waiting
but it’s stiff competition
from the politicians.
3/31
MEASURING TIME
You ask why I write
haiku in a time of plague
Baby steps. Baby steps.
3/31
SHOPPING EXPEDITION
Each time I have to shop
my virus exposure meter resets to zero.
Still, the nightmares continue.
3/31
SODA ROCK WINERY, AFTER THE FIRE
Wine barrel cooperage behind a facade
a giant game of ring-toss gone wrong.
The warthog’s rusted kingdom.
3/31
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU, GRATITUDE OR FEAR?
Born in late November, at the edge of autumn,
the diminishing light & encroaching darkness motivates me
call it fear, call it death—but I am driven by it.
4/1
PATTERNS
She said, Silent & listen
are anagrams. I must be bored.
I said, Careful, poetry is a gateway drug
to the road to perdition.
4/1
DOOR TO DOOR SERVICE
According to yesterday’s headlines.
Drinking is up by 41% in the Bay Area.
I’ll drink to that.
4/1
HICK’S VALLEY ROAD
Driving down backroads
the odor of meadowfoam
vernal pools flood the eye.
4/2
NATALITY
Another passage
around the sun, still breathing.
How we count the days.
4/3
WRAPPING THE PRESENT
I give to the self
this day, a gift wrapped in light
the breath of laughter.
4/3
CANCELED
Sat in the front seat
watched the sun cross the driveway,
Hey, I’m still alive!
4/4
FEEDING TIME
The chickens circle,
they know I’m inside the car.
At least they’re not vultures.
SODA ROCK WINERY, AFTER THE FIRE
Wine barrel cooperage behind a facade
a giant game of ring-toss gone wrong.
The warthog’s rusted kingdom.
3/31
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU, GRATITUDE OR FEAR?
Born in late November, at the edge of autumn,
the diminishing light & encroaching darkness motivates me
call it fear, call it death—but I am driven by it.
4/1
PATTERNS
She said, Silent & listen
are anagrams. I must be bored.
I said, Careful, poetry is a gateway drug
to the road to perdition.
4/1
DOOR TO DOOR SERVICE
According to yesterday’s headlines.
Drinking is up by 41% in the Bay Area.
I’ll drink to that.
4/1
HICK’S VALLEY ROAD
Driving down backroads
the odor of meadowfoam
vernal pools flood the eye.
4/2
NATALITY
Another passage
around the sun, still breathing.
How we count the days.
4/3
WRAPPING THE PRESENT
I give to the self
this day, a gift wrapped in light
the breath of laughter.
4/3
CANCELED
Sat in the front seat
watched the sun cross the driveway,
Hey, I’m still alive!
4/4
FEEDING TIME
The chickens circle,
they know I’m inside the car.
At least they’re not vultures.
4/4
NOWHERE TO GO
I sit in the car
sipping coffee and writing.
Window to the world.
NOWHERE TO GO
I sit in the car
sipping coffee and writing.
Window to the world.
4/4
WHAT MY MOTHER TOLD ME
I was made at sunset
in the back seat of a Ford.
Now I wait for the night.
4/4
SOLIDARITY
West county was late
Getting their howl on—the dogs
too joined the chorus.
4/4
FOWL GODDESS
They see me coming
When I step out of the car
Chickens gather round.
4/11
WHAT MY MOTHER TOLD ME
I was made at sunset
in the back seat of a Ford.
Now I wait for the night.
4/4
SOLIDARITY
West county was late
Getting their howl on—the dogs
too joined the chorus.
4/4
FOWL GODDESS
They see me coming
When I step out of the car
Chickens gather round.
4/11
Monday, April 17, 2017
International Haiku Poetry Day; I NEVER DANCED
Today is International Haiku Poetry Day. National Poetry Month. April 17, 2017. very 17ish. A prime number.
April poetry
month, 17 syllables
& counting it's a wrap.
Word dance, a two-step
a slow waltz, counting the words
towards fruition.
Counting syllables
for haiku day, didn't say
refrigerator....
(It's an old haiku joke). See some of my haiku.
I NEVER DANCED
No, I never danced with my father
No silly daddy-daughter dance,
where I stood on his feet
like a marionette
as he swooped in giant strides
across the dance floor
no father-daughter wedding dance.
Nor did I do the solemn two-step
down some church aisle
to be passed off as chattel
to another man. Or three.
I was never a bride to be given away.
No, I danced to my own rhythm,
I freely gave myself away
to men dancing on the horizon
only to find that it was
a chattel world after all.
4/18/2017
PAD challenge: dance
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
NECTAR THIEVES, haiku
Carpenter bees shred
the sage blossoms trying
to swill sweet nectar.
Angrily they buzz,
squeezing their girth into size
zero red dresses.
Yellow shawl thorax,
taut abdomen shines like jet
beads caked with pollen.
Pollen pantaloons,
fishnet stockings, tiny heels
they're decked out, on the town.
Nectar wasp dangles
delicate honeysuckle
sips frilly blossoms.
The bombadier bee
prefers the tight red trumpet—
it's all about color.
It chases the bees off
No honeybees, no matter
how sweet, will dine here.
No bumblebees either.
Flower market is crowded
with desperate shoppers.
Surreptitious bee-
flies sneak in to steal the show
make off with the goods.
Swallowtail swoops down
to find the pantry empty,
flits off in a huff.
Cabbage moth could care
less, she has other errands
to run, like laying some eggs,
While the skipper flits,
it careens from leaf to flower
just because it can.
Hungry hummingbird
misses out, and lets me know
that it's all my fault,
Squawking and flitting
her tail in indignation,
with ruby throat aflame.
5/2/18
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
FREE LEONARD HAIKU
FREE LEONARD HAIKU
Old Free Leonard sign
on a road at rush hour clogged
with measured justice.
Sign says Free Leonard
in red paint, old scab wounds
a detour of justice.
Old Free Leonard sign
nailed to a tree, cruciform
a framed reminder.
Decades of vigil
keeping memory alive
Leonard Peltier.
In the minds of few
he lives on, this tree proclaims
his freedom to all.
But who remembers
Wounded Knee, a stigmata
of blood on our hands.
Nothing says freedom
like a clogged road at rush hour
how progress is measured.
Old Free Leonard sign
on a road at rush hour clogged
with measured justice.
Sign says Free Leonard
in red paint, old scab wounds
a detour of justice.
Old Free Leonard sign
nailed to a tree, cruciform
a framed reminder.
Decades of vigil
keeping memory alive
Leonard Peltier.
In the minds of few
he lives on, this tree proclaims
his freedom to all.
But who remembers
Wounded Knee, a stigmata
of blood on our hands.
Nothing says freedom
like a clogged road at rush hour
how progress is measured.
Friday, July 10, 1987
Renga and haiku, linked verse
Hokusai had 30 pen names, and said everything that I did before 70 was no good. At 100 I'll be a marvelous artist. He used both his hands to paint.
Both renga and haiku are non-narrative verse. Usually 12 to 17 syllables (17 characters—which convey more imagery than western words, 3 cutting words plus the —ka! The surprise.)
A guest poet opens with 2 or 3 lines. There is a traditional order, or pattern: moon, mountains are mentioned in one haiku. No moon references without a season attached. The seasons: summer/autumn. Unrequited love is another theme.
There's no apparent order of time, except for the images themselves. Time is suspended, drawn out. Thrown out of whack. Some verses need "flower" words, not just peach or cherry blossoms.
Every haiku should include: What Where When, and one of these is a seasonal word. A cue. The very short-lived cherry blossoms are a symbol for spring (mid-April). Others are references for passing time.
There are no logical links. Read only the verse above, and link to the preceding verse by:
season
color
mood
motion
zoom lens (close up)
distance, etc.
Treat it like a pass-around poem, like Pictionary, where you can only see 2 or 3 lines above, and respond. Initial your work. Pass it to your partner.
Monkey's Raincoat
Basho Sarumino
trans. Lenore Mayhead
To what may our life be compared?
the moon is a dewdrop falling from a heron's beak.
Not sure where these notes are from. Perhaps Bob Hass or Pat Nolan?
Pass around poem: write two lines, fold one line back, and pass it on.
Friday, March 28, 2014
LATE NIGHT SNACKU HAIKU
Flotsam & jetsam
on the kitchen floor again
Refrigerator
(Sorry, I couldn't resist that last line—cheap bank shot. A 6th grader actually used it as his own poem in one of Neil's poetry classes and he—new to the wiles of young plagiarists—fell for it.
Haikus are easy,
But sometimes they don't make sense.
Refrigerator. —Rolf Nelson
Between you, me and the fence, I don't think Rolf actually wrote it. But he got first dibs credit for it when he slapped it on a teeshirt design for Threadless.com.)
Ahem. Tap, tap. Take 2. Where were we?
Ahem. Tap, tap. Take 2. Where were we?
Flotsam & jetsam
on the kitchen floor again
midnight snack shoreline
Messy kitchen floor:
I sing "Neil has eaten" to
Morning Has Broken
Dental floss—really?
kitchen floor's toothy practice
Late snack cavities
Tooth floss on the floor
Too far to toss, lazy? Or
trashbin lid glued shut?
Dental floss—thin worms
turning trash into soil
Crumbs seeding the floor
Tooth floss on the floor
Too far to toss, lazy? Or
trashbin lid glued shut?
Dental floss—thin worms
turning trash into soil
Crumbs seeding the floor
Secret late night snacks
a buffet of detritus
rings the kitchen floor
Ants ring last night's crumbs
like cowboys and indians
Snack patrol posse
I herd evidence
to the jaws of the dustpan
devouring crumbs
Broom song sweeps across
a kitchen floor crumb buffet
Dustpan mouth awaits
Late night snacku full
of empty calorie words
thickens the waistline
Counting syllables
playing a piano scale
left-handed solo
I don't like to count
words, but here I am counting
haiku insanity
(yeah, yeah, last line is six syllables.
Haiku are made of
Five syllables then seven
Then end with five more. —Anon
At least Anon's more honest than some.)
Numeric madness
a haiku insanity
unleashed on the page
Kitchen floor round up
riding shotgun with broom locked
& loaded again
A good thing the broom
isn't loaded or there'd be
a feast of carnage
A Rainman moment
counting last night's crumbs like rocks
no frogpond in sight
A good thing the thief
can't hear carnal kitchen thoughts
scribbled on the floor
Crumb calligraphy
commemorates late night snack
for literate ants
Ant literacy
written on counters and floors
erased by a broom
Late night snacku full
of empty calorie words
thickens the waistline
Counting syllables
playing a piano scale
left-handed solo
I don't like to count
words, but here I am counting
haiku insanity
(yeah, yeah, last line is six syllables.
Haiku are made of
Five syllables then seven
Then end with five more. —Anon
At least Anon's more honest than some.)
Numeric madness
a haiku insanity
unleashed on the page
Kitchen floor round up
riding shotgun with broom locked
& loaded again
A good thing the broom
isn't loaded or there'd be
a feast of carnage
A Rainman moment
counting last night's crumbs like rocks
no frogpond in sight
A good thing the thief
can't hear carnal kitchen thoughts
scribbled on the floor
Crumb calligraphy
commemorates late night snack
for literate ants
Ant literacy
written on counters and floors
erased by a broom
Friday, December 15, 2023
MoSt NYPC prompt # 1, a haiku
View this email in your browser
You and a haiku
in the first throes of winter
tapping out kindness.
Greetings, Poets, and Welcome to NYPC 15! Okay, here we go… For your first poem——and in keeping with what passes for NYPC tradition: write a haiku. This year, write to the energies of kindness, mercy, grace, compassion, and/or generosity of spirit. Feel free to create a haiku series of instances of kindness, etc. if it’s difficult to touch on these themes in just 17 syllables. —Gary Thomas
Friday, June 30, 2023
June NaHaiWriMo, haiku
Playing catch-up on haiku prompts, I only just discovered this Facebook NaHaiWriMo site on July 5. There are also May prompts. (I’ll stop here for now). Since I injured my leg June 28, it’s been hard to think about writing, but haiku is feasible.
30. Summer's end
BRÓN TROGAIN, SUMMER'S END
Lúnasa danceswith the coming dark season.
Winter's cold music.
29 seashells
BEACH GOSSIPListen to seashells—
long distance conversations
with tide, wind, and waves.
28. ocean
ANOREXIA
The ceaseless hungerof the ocean nibbling
on towering cliffs.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
April Poem a Day prompts
Poem a Day is here again. I collected a few prompts, but haven't used any. I'll try and post bunches here for later use.
Robert Lee Brewer's Poem a Day Challenge is in its 11th year. Visit his blog as he ha examples and lots more info on his page. This is the quick & dirty minimalist barebones reference to the prompts. I find it hard to navigate the Writers' Digest site, and getting to the prompts is not always easy. They are now listing the prompts on the What's New column on the left side.
1. write a reminiscing poem. In my mind, this means a poem that remembers something (a moment, a relationship, etc.). The poem could be kind of nostalgic or sharing lessons learned. But for those new to these challenges, you should know that I consider these prompts open to interpretation–so if you have another take, go for it.
2. write a “not today” poem. Maybe it’s normal to give in to outside pressures, but not today. Or maybe you’re usually very disciplined in your health and wellness habits, but not today. Or maybe you struggle to write poems, but not today.
3. take the phrase “(blank) of Love,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Water Bottle of Love,” “Smart Phone of Love,” “Toothbrush of Love,” “Tweet of Love,” or any number of blanks of love. I actually kind of love this prompt and am surprised I’ve never done it before.
4. Two-for-Tuesday prompts for these challenges. You can write to one prompt; write to the other; or try to do both. Totally up to you. Here are the two prompts for today:
Write a beginning poem. And, of course, when something begins, it often signals something else ending. Soooo, the other prompt is to…
Write an ending poem. Poem about something ending.
5. pick an element (like from the periodic table), make it the title of your poem (or part of the title), and then, write the poem. Anything goes from hydrogen to oganesson.
6. write a poem about a sound. The poem could be about a small sound, a loud sound, a happy sound, or a creepy sound. And yes, music sounds count as well.
7. write a discovery poem. This poem could be about making a discovery; it could be about something discovered (by someone or something else); or something you’d like to discover. I can’t wait to discover what new poems poets will create.
8. write a panic poem. There are any number of things a person can panic about, including severe weather, military invasions, or what to wear to an event. And while some may be more life or death than others, that feeling of panic is just as real for a person who has to get up and speak in front of a crowd of smiling strangers as it is for a person hiding in the basement of their house as a tornado approaches.
9. take the phrase “So (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “So Cool,” “So Stupid,” “So Not What I Would’ve Done,” “So Sweet,” or so many other possibilities.
10. write a travel poem. Your poem can be about the process of traveling, planning to travel, vicariously traveling through television programs, or however else you’d like to take this prompt.
11. Two-for-Tuesday day. Here are the two prompts for today:
Write a sonnet. (Click here if you need a refresher on sonnets.) I know some folks will say a writing a form is not a prompt, but I often use forms to prompt me into poems. And I know that some folks will say they hate traditional forms. Soooo, the other prompt is to…
Write an anti-form poem. Write about your dislike of poetic forms. Let it all out.
13.write a family poem. It could be about your family, someone else’s family, a big family, a small family. It could be about one person in the family or a group picture. Your call. Just write that poem.
14. pick a popular saying and make that the title of your poem; then, write your poem. Some possible titles might include: “Blood Is Thicker Than Water,” “You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover,” “More Than You Can Shake a Stick At,” and so many others. Click here if you want more ideas.
15. write a “one time” poem. This poem could be about a once in a lifetime experience. Or it could be about something a person wants to try just one time (good or bad). Or take it where you will–as always.
Write a death poem. For most organisms, life leads to death. So this should be as full of possibility as the life poem.
I didn't write GAZELLE-EYED WOMEN from a prompt, but it fits.
20. write a task poem. The task can be some glorious duty, or it can be a seemingly small and insignificant job. Or the poem can take someone to task. It’s your task to figure it out and write it.
Though I didn't write OOSE from a poetry prompt, it fits.
21. pick an object (any object), make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Toothbrush,” “Rake,” “Pilot G2 Premium Gel Roller Pen,” or any number of other objective titles. Have fun with it.
22. write a fable poem. A fable is a story that conveys a moral, usually told with animal characters.
24. write a faith poem. For some people, faith means religion. For others, faith means trusting in science and mathematics. Still others, think George Michael’s “Faith” just as some immediately conjure up Faith Hill. Regardless of where you put your faith (or don’t), today’s poem gives you an opportunity to express yourself.
25. two-for-Tuesday prompt of April. Regulars probably already know what the prompt is.
Here are the two prompts for today:
Write a love poem. The poem could be about lovers, but also the love of family, love between friends, or even loving your job, chocolate, or music. Or…
Write an anti-love poem. Maybe you’re a hater; that’s fine. We’ve got the anti-love poem prompt for you.
26. write a regret poem. Most people regret some action they’ve taken over the years, whether it’s saying the wrong thing, making the wrong choice, or putting off something for a tomorrow that never comes. Write about your own regrets, or the regrets of others (this is a great opportunity to a persona poem).
27. use at least 3 of the following 6 words in your poem (using a word or two in your title is fine) for extra credit, try using all 6:
pest
crack
ramble
hiccup
wince
festoon
28. write a poem about a smell. Similar to Day 6’s prompt about writing a poem about a sound, today’s prompt involves thinking about the various good and bad smells that fill the world. Pick one smell (or a variety, I suppose), and write a poem.
29. write a metric poem. Most of the world uses the metric system to measure things out; not so much in the States. But there are meters and liters, and the occasional millimeters. Also, poetry uses metrics (the study of meter in poetry). And metrics, in a general sense, can measure various by a common denominator–even inches and/or teaspoons.
30. take the phrase “The (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “The Poets,” “The Good Guys,” “The Bad Guys,” “The Last Thing She Said,” and so on.
Robert Lee Brewer's Poem a Day Challenge is in its 11th year. Visit his blog as he ha examples and lots more info on his page. This is the quick & dirty minimalist barebones reference to the prompts. I find it hard to navigate the Writers' Digest site, and getting to the prompts is not always easy. They are now listing the prompts on the What's New column on the left side.
1. write a reminiscing poem. In my mind, this means a poem that remembers something (a moment, a relationship, etc.). The poem could be kind of nostalgic or sharing lessons learned. But for those new to these challenges, you should know that I consider these prompts open to interpretation–so if you have another take, go for it.
2. write a “not today” poem. Maybe it’s normal to give in to outside pressures, but not today. Or maybe you’re usually very disciplined in your health and wellness habits, but not today. Or maybe you struggle to write poems, but not today.
3. take the phrase “(blank) of Love,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Water Bottle of Love,” “Smart Phone of Love,” “Toothbrush of Love,” “Tweet of Love,” or any number of blanks of love. I actually kind of love this prompt and am surprised I’ve never done it before.
4. Two-for-Tuesday prompts for these challenges. You can write to one prompt; write to the other; or try to do both. Totally up to you. Here are the two prompts for today:
Write a beginning poem. And, of course, when something begins, it often signals something else ending. Soooo, the other prompt is to…
Write an ending poem. Poem about something ending.
5. pick an element (like from the periodic table), make it the title of your poem (or part of the title), and then, write the poem. Anything goes from hydrogen to oganesson.
6. write a poem about a sound. The poem could be about a small sound, a loud sound, a happy sound, or a creepy sound. And yes, music sounds count as well.
7. write a discovery poem. This poem could be about making a discovery; it could be about something discovered (by someone or something else); or something you’d like to discover. I can’t wait to discover what new poems poets will create.
8. write a panic poem. There are any number of things a person can panic about, including severe weather, military invasions, or what to wear to an event. And while some may be more life or death than others, that feeling of panic is just as real for a person who has to get up and speak in front of a crowd of smiling strangers as it is for a person hiding in the basement of their house as a tornado approaches.
9. take the phrase “So (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “So Cool,” “So Stupid,” “So Not What I Would’ve Done,” “So Sweet,” or so many other possibilities.
10. write a travel poem. Your poem can be about the process of traveling, planning to travel, vicariously traveling through television programs, or however else you’d like to take this prompt.
Write a sonnet. (Click here if you need a refresher on sonnets.) I know some folks will say a writing a form is not a prompt, but I often use forms to prompt me into poems. And I know that some folks will say they hate traditional forms. Soooo, the other prompt is to…
Write an anti-form poem. Write about your dislike of poetic forms. Let it all out.
12. write a guilty poem. The poem can be written from the perspective of someone who is (or feels) guilty, or it can be about someone (or something) else that’s guilty. But guilty of what? Cheating on a test? Or a spouse? Or a diet? Only you know, and only your poem can reveal the truth
13.write a family poem. It could be about your family, someone else’s family, a big family, a small family. It could be about one person in the family or a group picture. Your call. Just write that poem.
15. write a “one time” poem. This poem could be about a once in a lifetime experience. Or it could be about something a person wants to try just one time (good or bad). Or take it where you will–as always.
16. take the phrase “(blank) System,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Weather System,” “Solar System,” “Writing System,” “Ecological System,” or any number of other takes on systems.
17. today is International Haiku Poetry Day. It always falls on April 17, because of National Poetry Month and the 17 syllables in many (though not all) haiku. This year is extra special because the year is ’17 as well.
For today’s prompt, write a dance poem. The poem can be about the process of dancing or just somehow incorporate or reference dancing in the poem. There are so many styles of dance out there and even more occasions for dancing: school dances, daddy-daughter dances, wedding dances, people who dance when they are happy, people who dance when they are sad, people who dance in large groups, and those who dance alone. And, of course, there are so who just won’t dance for anything.
Some slovenly Haiku; and a poem I NEVER DANCED; and TAX DAY looon (haiku)For today’s prompt, write a dance poem. The poem can be about the process of dancing or just somehow incorporate or reference dancing in the poem. There are so many styles of dance out there and even more occasions for dancing: school dances, daddy-daughter dances, wedding dances, people who dance when they are happy, people who dance when they are sad, people who dance in large groups, and those who dance alone. And, of course, there are so who just won’t dance for anything.
18. Two-for-Tuesday of the month; time is flying. Here are the two prompts for today:
Write a life poem. The poem could be about the miracle of life, the complexity of life, the game of Life, or anything else that means life for you. Or…
Write a life poem. The poem could be about the miracle of life, the complexity of life, the game of Life, or anything else that means life for you. Or…
Write a death poem. For most organisms, life leads to death. So this should be as full of possibility as the life poem.
I didn't write GAZELLE-EYED WOMEN from a prompt, but it fits.
19. write a memory poem. Pick a memory, any memory. It can be a significant event, but sometimes there are beautiful insignificant moments (that ironically are very significant–quite the paradox). Mine your memories to come up with something good today.
Though I didn't write OOSE from a poetry prompt, it fits.
21. pick an object (any object), make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Toothbrush,” “Rake,” “Pilot G2 Premium Gel Roller Pen,” or any number of other objective titles. Have fun with it.
22. write a fable poem. A fable is a story that conveys a moral, usually told with animal characters.
23. take the phrase “Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: “Last Starfighter,” “Last Unicorn,” “Last Day of Summer,” “Last Cookie in the Cookie Jar,” and so on.
25. two-for-Tuesday prompt of April. Regulars probably already know what the prompt is.
Here are the two prompts for today:
Write a love poem. The poem could be about lovers, but also the love of family, love between friends, or even loving your job, chocolate, or music. Or…
Write an anti-love poem. Maybe you’re a hater; that’s fine. We’ve got the anti-love poem prompt for you.
26. write a regret poem. Most people regret some action they’ve taken over the years, whether it’s saying the wrong thing, making the wrong choice, or putting off something for a tomorrow that never comes. Write about your own regrets, or the regrets of others (this is a great opportunity to a persona poem).
27. use at least 3 of the following 6 words in your poem (using a word or two in your title is fine) for extra credit, try using all 6:
pest
crack
ramble
hiccup
wince
festoon
28. write a poem about a smell. Similar to Day 6’s prompt about writing a poem about a sound, today’s prompt involves thinking about the various good and bad smells that fill the world. Pick one smell (or a variety, I suppose), and write a poem.
29. write a metric poem. Most of the world uses the metric system to measure things out; not so much in the States. But there are meters and liters, and the occasional millimeters. Also, poetry uses metrics (the study of meter in poetry). And metrics, in a general sense, can measure various by a common denominator–even inches and/or teaspoons.
30. take the phrase “The (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “The Poets,” “The Good Guys,” “The Bad Guys,” “The Last Thing She Said,” and so on.
Molly Fisk's Poem a Day prompts here replete with photos. Definitely go to her new website to see the photos and let them inspire you. Says Molly:
Poem-a-day is pretty simple. Every day in April (National Poetry Month), I will be posting a prompt: some words and a photograph. Your job is to write a poem. You can use the prompt as the title, as some part of the subject, or ignore it entirely. I am a flexible Poet Laureate. I just want to nudge you in the direction of writing something, because creativity is good for our hearts, our minds, and our souls.
You can follow Molly on Facebook too, if that's easier.
April 1: Where are you going next?
April 2: In reflected light
April 3: Praising camouflage
April 4: What will you wear?
April 5: Want to demolish anything?
April 6: Are you going to grow old?
April 7: When the power goes out
April 8: Say something about beauty, pro or con
April 9: When the tree falls but the damage is minimal
April 10: What’s your relationship to the moon?
April 11: Write about living room chairs
April 12: What instrument do you play?
April 13: Tell us about your favorite body of water
April 14: Comforting a friend
April 15: What do you want to bet?
April 16: Easter bunny? Passover traditions? Ordinary Sunday?
April 17: Would you rather go up or go down?
April 18: Wide open spaces…
April 19: When strange things come into view
April 20: Did you know flowers emit invisible light?
April 21: Follow something to its conclusion
April 20: Did you know flowers emit invisible light?
April 21: Follow something to its conclusion
Facebook's 30 Day Poetry Challenge seems to only go to Day 5.
Day 1 - BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: What does the phrase "back by popular demand" mean to you? Tell it in a poem.
Day 2 - ON THE CONTRARY: Think of a time when you chose to be contrary. Write the story in a poem.
Day 3 - NO RHYME. NO REASON. Write a poem without rhyming any lines. Let all logic go. It only needs to make sense to you.
Day 4 - JUST DON'T DO IT: "Don't write what you're sure of, what you want set in stone, write what you are willing to have transform." -Sina Queyras
Day 5 - Rainbow Poem: Roy G. Biv - Write an acrostic poem using the acronym for the sequence of hues that make up the rainbow.
RANDOM: write a poem with one or more of your favorite natural phenomena that occurs in tour favorite/natal county
write a poem to someone living 50 years from now. It could be a letter to your future self, or a relative.
write a poem to someone living 50 years from now. It could be a letter to your future self, or a relative.
why I believed as a child..
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center New Year’s challenge 1 haiku
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center New Year’s challenge.
Write a haiku for some goodness that has happened to you this year. If you find it difficult to choose just one, feel free to create a haiku series of goodnesses. Ready…steady… go…
Many challenges
A year of indecision
Settling into
A new life without rancor
Myriad choices.
New digs deepen roots
When the past becomes a dream
Old tree bears new fruit.
NYPC 11 Prompts
Prompt #1: Greetings, Poets! Okay, here we go…For your first poem—and continuing Gillian’s first-poem tradition to ease us all into this—
Write a haiku for some goodnessthat has happened to you this year. Feel free to create a haiku series of goodnesses if it’s difficult to choose just one. Ready…steady… go…
Prompt #2: Consider times in our lives when we are at the table, or someone has said, Come to the table. Write a poem for these times, or about the many sorts of tables (dining, negotiating, or even Periodic) we come to —or leave. For inspiration, consider this poem by our current U. S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo: https://poets.org/poem/perhaps-world-ends-here
Prompt #3: Write a poem in response to this idea: The Graceful Stumble. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
Prompt #4: Write a poem in response to one or some (or all!) of these quotations, and/or use them as an epigram in your poem, or form the title of your poem from part of the quotation:
“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” (Douglas Adams)
“Out of every wandering in which people and places come and go in long successions, there is always one place remembered above the rest because the external or internal conditions were such that they produced happiness…One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world’s end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame.” (Willa Cather)
“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.” (Natalie Goldberg)
“If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic.” (Hazel Henderson)
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” (Albert Einstein)
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” (E. B. White)
“Those are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.” (Groucho Marx)
Prompt #5: Write a poem in response to this idea: Handling Earth With Care. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
Prompt #6: Try your hand at writing an ode (a poem of praise) or an elegy (a poem of loss) to a mentor. (See more detailed descriptions by the Academy of American Poets below.)
In The Odyssey, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus whom Odysseus placed in charge of his son Telemachus and of his palace when he went off to the Trojan War. The personal name Mentor has been adopted in English as a term meaning someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a less experienced colleague. (Yes, this previous sentence has been paraphrased from Wikipedia.)
Consider who your mentors have been; write an ode or elegy to them and their commitment, energy, enthusiasm, and other characteristics. Or, to whom have you been a mentor? Who needsmentoring, and how, and why? See if you can write your poem embracing some of these elements.
https://poets.org/glossary/ode
https://poets.org/glossary/elegy
Prompt #7: Write a poem in response to this idea: Notre Dame. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8thAnnual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
Prompt #8 (for December 22nd): Happy Winter Solstice! I guess you could call today’s prompt The Long and the Short of It, or Slow and Steady…
Write about a time when you had to do something slower than you’re used to because something “modern and efficient” broke down. OR write about doing something “the old-fashioned way” because you enjoy it. OR write about doing something carefully and meticulously because something important is at stake. OR combine all three elements…
For an example, read this poem by Maine poet Judy Punturo:
Cutting the Grass With Scissors
You do it
when there seems to be no other way,
when things have gone too far;
when the lawn mower balks
and even the weed whacker shies.
It’s slow, yes,
but surprisingly effective,
Grasp a handful, pull aside,
and shear, down near the roots,
and then you hold a sheaf like wheat
to harvest in a pile, or lay
like cushioned carpet on the path.
Sometimes spit bugs,
shaken from their frothy homes,
rest on your hand,
and then crawl on,
while copper beetles
scuttle for shade.
I like the intimacy
With a patch of ground,
The closeness and drawing in,
the sibilance,
the swish the grass makes
with the scissored snap of stems,
the way time changes,
stalls and disappears
with each slow slice.
Judy Punturo
Cutting the Grass with Scissors: Monhegan Poems
Prompt #9 (for December 23rd): Write a poem in response to this idea: Following a Thread. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. If you’ve not yet registered for the Festival, please check out the information on our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
This will be a wonderful day of poetry!
Ready…Steady…Go!
Prompt #10 (for December 24th): Write a poem about the photograph below—which I snagged from some random Facebook post a year or so ago and don’t know how to give credit. Since this is a pretty famous Eve, try incorporating some of what you see into a “Just before this…”/”Right now…”/”And then…” narrative. Consider having your title serve as your first or last line—or merely number it as if this poem were one in a series. Ready? Steady… Go~~~
Prompt #11 (for December 25th): There are a lot of holidays to celebrate in December! According to nationalday.com, there are several designated holidays between the 21st(Winter Solstice) and the 27th (National Fruitcake Day), including Chanukah, National Cookie Exchange Day, National Short Person Day, Festivus (!), Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, National Candy Cane Day, and National Thank You Note Day. Whether you celebrate one, some, or all of these days, or have a favorite day of your own set aside for celebration or commemoration, how do you choose to acknowledge it? What sensations (sights, sounds, smells, etc.), objects, traditions, memories, and people come to mind? Write a poem no longer than 25 lines that explores these possibilities. For an extra challenge, write a poem about a holiday that doesn’t yet exist, but should. Ready…Steady…Go~~~
Prompt #11 (for December 25th): There are a lot of holidays to celebrate in December! According to nationalday.com, there are several designated holidays between the 21st(Winter Solstice) and the 27th (National Fruitcake Day), including Chanukah, National Cookie Exchange Day, National Short Person Day, Festivus (!), Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, National Candy Cane Day, and National Thank You Note Day. Whether you celebrate one, some, or all of these days, or have a favorite day of your own set aside for celebration or commemoration, how do you choose to acknowledge it? What sensations (sights, sounds, smells, etc.), objects, traditions, memories, and people come to mind? Write a poem no longer than 25 lines that explores these possibilities. For an extra challenge, write a poem about a holiday that doesn’t yet exist, but should. Ready…Steady…Go~~~
Obstacles melted.
Under the madrone
Old car settles in, dreaming
Of the open road.
Old car settles in, dreaming
Of the open road.
Settling into
A new life without rancor
Myriad choices.
New digs deepen roots
When the past becomes a dream
Old tree bears new fruit.
NYPC 11 Prompts
Prompt #1: Greetings, Poets! Okay, here we go…For your first poem—and continuing Gillian’s first-poem tradition to ease us all into this—
Write a haiku for some goodnessthat has happened to you this year. Feel free to create a haiku series of goodnesses if it’s difficult to choose just one. Ready…steady… go…
Prompt #2: Consider times in our lives when we are at the table, or someone has said, Come to the table. Write a poem for these times, or about the many sorts of tables (dining, negotiating, or even Periodic) we come to —or leave. For inspiration, consider this poem by our current U. S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo: https://poets.org/poem/perhaps-world-ends-here
Prompt #3: Write a poem in response to this idea: The Graceful Stumble. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
Prompt #4: Write a poem in response to one or some (or all!) of these quotations, and/or use them as an epigram in your poem, or form the title of your poem from part of the quotation:
“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” (Douglas Adams)
“Out of every wandering in which people and places come and go in long successions, there is always one place remembered above the rest because the external or internal conditions were such that they produced happiness…One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world’s end somewhere, and holds fast to the days, as to fortune or fame.” (Willa Cather)
“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.” (Natalie Goldberg)
“If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic.” (Hazel Henderson)
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” (Albert Einstein)
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” (E. B. White)
“Those are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.” (Groucho Marx)
Prompt #5: Write a poem in response to this idea: Handling Earth With Care. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
Prompt #6: Try your hand at writing an ode (a poem of praise) or an elegy (a poem of loss) to a mentor. (See more detailed descriptions by the Academy of American Poets below.)
In The Odyssey, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus whom Odysseus placed in charge of his son Telemachus and of his palace when he went off to the Trojan War. The personal name Mentor has been adopted in English as a term meaning someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a less experienced colleague. (Yes, this previous sentence has been paraphrased from Wikipedia.)
Consider who your mentors have been; write an ode or elegy to them and their commitment, energy, enthusiasm, and other characteristics. Or, to whom have you been a mentor? Who needsmentoring, and how, and why? See if you can write your poem embracing some of these elements.
https://poets.org/glossary/ode
https://poets.org/glossary/elegy
Prompt #7: Write a poem in response to this idea: Notre Dame. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8thAnnual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
Prompt #8 (for December 22nd): Happy Winter Solstice! I guess you could call today’s prompt The Long and the Short of It, or Slow and Steady…
Write about a time when you had to do something slower than you’re used to because something “modern and efficient” broke down. OR write about doing something “the old-fashioned way” because you enjoy it. OR write about doing something carefully and meticulously because something important is at stake. OR combine all three elements…
For an example, read this poem by Maine poet Judy Punturo:
Cutting the Grass With Scissors
You do it
when there seems to be no other way,
when things have gone too far;
when the lawn mower balks
and even the weed whacker shies.
It’s slow, yes,
but surprisingly effective,
Grasp a handful, pull aside,
and shear, down near the roots,
and then you hold a sheaf like wheat
to harvest in a pile, or lay
like cushioned carpet on the path.
Sometimes spit bugs,
shaken from their frothy homes,
rest on your hand,
and then crawl on,
while copper beetles
scuttle for shade.
I like the intimacy
With a patch of ground,
The closeness and drawing in,
the sibilance,
the swish the grass makes
with the scissored snap of stems,
the way time changes,
stalls and disappears
with each slow slice.
Judy Punturo
Cutting the Grass with Scissors: Monhegan Poems
Prompt #9 (for December 23rd): Write a poem in response to this idea: Following a Thread. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. If you’ve not yet registered for the Festival, please check out the information on our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
This will be a wonderful day of poetry!
Ready…Steady…Go!
Prompt #10 (for December 24th): Write a poem about the photograph below—which I snagged from some random Facebook post a year or so ago and don’t know how to give credit. Since this is a pretty famous Eve, try incorporating some of what you see into a “Just before this…”/”Right now…”/”And then…” narrative. Consider having your title serve as your first or last line—or merely number it as if this poem were one in a series. Ready? Steady… Go~~~
Prompt #11 (for December 25th): There are a lot of holidays to celebrate in December! According to nationalday.com, there are several designated holidays between the 21st(Winter Solstice) and the 27th (National Fruitcake Day), including Chanukah, National Cookie Exchange Day, National Short Person Day, Festivus (!), Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, National Candy Cane Day, and National Thank You Note Day. Whether you celebrate one, some, or all of these days, or have a favorite day of your own set aside for celebration or commemoration, how do you choose to acknowledge it? What sensations (sights, sounds, smells, etc.), objects, traditions, memories, and people come to mind? Write a poem no longer than 25 lines that explores these possibilities. For an extra challenge, write a poem about a holiday that doesn’t yet exist, but should. Ready…Steady…Go~~~
Prompt #11 (for December 25th): There are a lot of holidays to celebrate in December! According to nationalday.com, there are several designated holidays between the 21st(Winter Solstice) and the 27th (National Fruitcake Day), including Chanukah, National Cookie Exchange Day, National Short Person Day, Festivus (!), Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, National Candy Cane Day, and National Thank You Note Day. Whether you celebrate one, some, or all of these days, or have a favorite day of your own set aside for celebration or commemoration, how do you choose to acknowledge it? What sensations (sights, sounds, smells, etc.), objects, traditions, memories, and people come to mind? Write a poem no longer than 25 lines that explores these possibilities. For an extra challenge, write a poem about a holiday that doesn’t yet exist, but should. Ready…Steady…Go~~~
Thursday, November 13, 2014
HAIKU HAIHU
Five, seven & five
Less is more when you count them.
The hand holds the words.
We manically count
syllables to make haiku
refrigerators!
Left-handed counter-
feit words to convey meaning—
syllabic hand jive.
Versus dexterous:
all water under the bridge
is a sinister current.
Counting syllables
is silly; Japanese count
words, not syllables.
Anglo Saxon words
paint a much broader canvas
than Latinate ones.
Polysyllabic
words too cumbersome to count
English albatross.
To sleep bilingual
with hands signing in ASL
a transmission of tongues.
Archipelago
of words tangles the eyeteeth
of haiku thought poems.
Monday, April 4, 2016
DEATH BY GPS HAIKU, etc.
Desert superbloom
siren call of empty roads
led tourists astray.
New technology
old backroads, no cell service
= death by GPS.
Death Valley lives up
to its name, tourist follow
back roads to their death.
Death by GPS
the desert lives up to its name
wrong road led them astray.
4/4/2016
Three lines of 5-3-5 syllables, or 5-3-5 words.
(or do a haiku)
I seem to be having trouble with this prompt.
5-3-5 syllables
Heady floral scent
blossoming
in the lemon tree.
Hummingbird visits
each flower
sacramental dip.
or 5-3-5 words (easier to do, but I'm locked into haiku}.
Hummingbird visits every flower twice
seeking sweet nectar
Meyer lemons in the bud.
Moths chewed on old cashmere
sweaters leaving trails
of darkness and light behind.
4/5/2016
Death by GPS' in desert
Friday, May 29, 1987
Napa State Hospital Poetry Journal, Teaching notes May 29
Lesson plan ideas:
Remember those final exams in school? The bluebooks?
Remember those final exams in school? The bluebooks?
Do a self portrait that begins with the idea
You will never awaken from the bluebook…
Go back 10 years, to the summer of love, where were you? What were you doing? Go back 20 years. Who remembers the moon landing? Or the assassination of President Kennedy? What were you doing? What were you wearing? Where were you?
Discuss Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Write about the walls you have inside. Describe them with details.
Now go back and write about one brick on that wall. It's loose. What's hidden behind it?
Write about the walls you have inside. Describe them with details.
Now go back and write about one brick on that wall. It's loose. What's hidden behind it?
Male perspective, Stephen Crane uses intense descriptions. Use intense description as you write about that brick in your wall.
Another writing idea is about hope.
What is the first thing that you will do when you get out? What do you miss most? The answer of keys surprises me.
Start each sentence sentence for each paragraph with the line: When I get out…
Pass around poem: write two lines, fold one line back, and pass it on. (Treat it like renga haiku.)
SCHEDULE
My schedule is this: I have one week of training in orientation and learning the rules of management of aggressive behavior.
What is the first thing that you will do when you get out? What do you miss most? The answer of keys surprises me.
Start each sentence sentence for each paragraph with the line: When I get out…
Pass around poem: write two lines, fold one line back, and pass it on. (Treat it like renga haiku.)
SCHEDULE
My schedule is this: I have one week of training in orientation and learning the rules of management of aggressive behavior.
"P cards" are passes. I need to ask the clients; Show me your P card.
There are 11 programs here.
program three is wards five and six, and seven and eight (admitting)
program two is the little kids, and program five are the adolescents (most kids are here because of gangs, or they're self-harming.)
there are eight people at a time in the geriatrics ward and they can handle up to 30 minute segments.
The kids and the adolescents are scheduled with 30 to 45 minutes sessions
some groups are for only 10 to 15 minute visits
I will have to change that, it will never work
I'll be working Tuesdays 10 to 11 at Zoey's admitting ward, which are people right off the street. Admitting wards are O five and six.
So my schedule is Tuesday 9 to 12 in the geriatric ward.
And then 1 to 4 or perhaps 1:30 to 2:30 in Greg Giatto's group
Wednesdays 9 to 12 and 1to 2
I have a group of profoundly deaf students from 2 to 2:30
And at 3 to 4 another group perhaps drop-ins.
Thursday is working in the closed down wards from 9 to 11, 1 to 4, but 3 to 4 will be a group process.
Meeting with my coordinator, Patricia Brown, the librarian. I will use her library for the afternoon drop-in clients.
Shopping list
I need bond paper for drawing, 12 x 18 size colored paper, calligraphy pens, pencils, glue, glue sticks, paper strips, and tag board to make little books. Mylar, contact paper, cardboard, crayons, watercolors brushes, tempera paint, etc.
projector, tape recorder video monitor—xeroxing will be a problem.
Then the issue of keys comes up. It turns out that keys are tantamount to everything: they get you in, the get you out. They're also status symbols and also be aware that nobody steals your keys. Great. everyone's aspiring to look like a janitor at Napa.
So my schedule is Tuesday 9 to 12 in the geriatric ward.
And then 1 to 4 or perhaps 1:30 to 2:30 in Greg Giatto's group
Wednesdays 9 to 12 and 1to 2
I have a group of profoundly deaf students from 2 to 2:30
And at 3 to 4 another group perhaps drop-ins.
Thursday is working in the closed down wards from 9 to 11, 1 to 4, but 3 to 4 will be a group process.
Meeting with my coordinator, Patricia Brown, the librarian. I will use her library for the afternoon drop-in clients.
Shopping list
I need bond paper for drawing, 12 x 18 size colored paper, calligraphy pens, pencils, glue, glue sticks, paper strips, and tag board to make little books. Mylar, contact paper, cardboard, crayons, watercolors brushes, tempera paint, etc.
projector, tape recorder video monitor—xeroxing will be a problem.
Then the issue of keys comes up. It turns out that keys are tantamount to everything: they get you in, the get you out. They're also status symbols and also be aware that nobody steals your keys. Great. everyone's aspiring to look like a janitor at Napa.
I have access to an Apple IIe, and a daisywheel printer, xeroxing will be tricky. I cannot bring anything stapled into the lockdown boards. Pencils have to all be accounted for. They are lethal weapons.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
End of Year Writing Stats 2014
The best training is to read and write, no matter what. Don’t live with a lover or roommate who doesn’t respect your work. Don’t lie, buy time, borrow to buy time. Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write. —Grace PaleyEnd of year writing stats: this blog helps me keep track of my writing. It's often the only tangible evidence that I am still a writer, though most of the time I don't feel like a writer or a poet or a thinker. I suffer from the illusion of falling into the void of nihilism. I don't do many readings and almost no publishing. I don't even write every day (except on Facebook).
My generic goal is to average 52 poems (a poem a week) and I strive for a similar quantity of prose pieces. Some years I exceed my goals, other years I fail miserably. When I began this electronic writing process in August of 2007, I filed everything thematically. Well, that didn't work out so well. This year, I've tried to restore some semblance of chronological order. I've got a long ways to go, so my numbers are always in flux.
When I began this process, I also had misplaced ambitions of writing a blog piece a day. What was I thinking? I had read Guy Kawasaki's evangelical blog post, How to Change the World in 120 Days, in the Art of Blogging, April of 2006, and I founded this blog soon after, then let it lay fallow until mid-August of 2007. It's always a struggle to be productive. I was once more prolific a writer, but these days I take what I can get, wherever I can get it. Facecbook? so be it.
I probably have the poetry quota well met for this year as I have many haiku strings that I file as one item, though there may be as many as six or eight linked haiku in a file. But I tend to count them as a single entry. And, I didn't even attempt to do NaPoWriMo, nor did I participate in April Poetry Month PAD, these two are where I usually stack up the writing bits. (Do I count the prose poems as poems too? I waffle, I waffle. Hold the syrup.) Anyway, not separating haiku threads, I have about 45 poems.
I'm up to 90 pieces (I'm not sure I should count this one as it's an open letter). Don't know if I'll make my self-imposed quota but I've still got several orphan bits and pieces to whip into shape. Much of my writing these days comes from interacting with friends and with strangers in Facebook groups—especially my prose and essays.
NB: With a little help from Facebook posts throughout the years, my total tally increased to 169 posts.
I guess if I were to include my 60 Amazon book reviews, I'll have met my prose quota as well, but though a lot of thought and analysis goes into the process, I don't consider it to be new writing—nor does it take one's breath away, as Grace Paley put it.
In general, my prose writing begins as a small nugget, then as I research and expand an idea, a day has slipped by, and I'm stuck wrestling long cephalopodic pieces into coherent shapes. Not always succeeding, I might add. Prose, where I seem to spend most of my time working on, is always difficult, but it also won't let me alone. I do read and write very day, no matter what. But rendering finished pieces is not always so easy. This dark craft.
The blog format forces me to go back and wrest fragments into being. Maybe it's the fear and the tyranny of the printed page. Or maybe it's the thought that someone might actually read the pieces that motivates me.
I am especially grateful to those of you who visit this blog from time to time and leave comments. So I thank you all for your interactions. For keeping the home fires burning. Something I hold especially dear, as the process of writing is often akin to falling into the void.
I guess if I were to include my 60 Amazon book reviews, I'll have met my prose quota as well, but though a lot of thought and analysis goes into the process, I don't consider it to be new writing—nor does it take one's breath away, as Grace Paley put it.
In general, my prose writing begins as a small nugget, then as I research and expand an idea, a day has slipped by, and I'm stuck wrestling long cephalopodic pieces into coherent shapes. Not always succeeding, I might add. Prose, where I seem to spend most of my time working on, is always difficult, but it also won't let me alone. I do read and write very day, no matter what. But rendering finished pieces is not always so easy. This dark craft.
The blog format forces me to go back and wrest fragments into being. Maybe it's the fear and the tyranny of the printed page. Or maybe it's the thought that someone might actually read the pieces that motivates me.
I am especially grateful to those of you who visit this blog from time to time and leave comments. So I thank you all for your interactions. For keeping the home fires burning. Something I hold especially dear, as the process of writing is often akin to falling into the void.
Friday, April 1, 2016
April Poetry Month prompts...
Get your hot off the press red-hot poetry prompts here:
NaPoWriMo 2016
NaHaiWriMo and Haiku writing prompts OK, I admit I'm guilty of counting syllables, I know Japanese haiku isn't syllabic. See The Discipline of Haiku
2016 April PAD Challenge
The Poetry School
Poetry Prompts
Facebook search for poetry prompt sites
If you're on Facebook, check out Molly Fisk - Poet. She often posts random prompts there on her own page, too.
Molly Fisk's ongoing poetry bootcamps require a secret handshake and small fee to join their Nicenet group.
Check out Poets.org too! A poem a day will be sent to your email box and you can use that poem as a starting point.
Or cannibalize old writing prompts from previous years! I often combine prompts until I find one that juices me. I also collect prompts from other sites in a folder and let them surface in random order.
I have lots of prompts posted in my blog and I've tried to link them, but not always. See writing prompts
MORE POETRY PROMPTS
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center New Year’s challenge—all the poetry prompts
I wasn’t quite in the mood to write, too discombobulated, and I had a painting deadline looming over my head. But I faithfully read the prompts, and wrote quite a few out of sequence, making it harder to post the poems under the date written vs. conceived. Sort of like conception followed by birth.
NYPC 11 Prompts
Prompt #1: Greetings, Poets! Okay, here we go…For your first poem—and continuing Gillian’s first-poem tradition to ease us all into this—
Write a haiku for some goodness that has happened to you this year. Feel free to create a haiku series of goodnesses if it’s difficult to choose just one. Ready…steady… go…
Prompt #2: Consider times in our lives when we are at the table, or someone has said, Come to the table. Write a poem for these times, or about the many sorts of tables (dining, negotiating, or even Periodic) we come to —or leave. For inspiration, consider this poem by our current U. S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo: https://poets.org/poem/perhaps-world-ends-here Prompt #3: Write a poem in response to this idea: The Graceful Stumble. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
NYPC 11 Prompts
Prompt #1: Greetings, Poets! Okay, here we go…For your first poem—and continuing Gillian’s first-poem tradition to ease us all into this—
Write a haiku for some goodness that has happened to you this year. Feel free to create a haiku series of goodnesses if it’s difficult to choose just one. Ready…steady… go…
Prompt #2: Consider times in our lives when we are at the table, or someone has said, Come to the table. Write a poem for these times, or about the many sorts of tables (dining, negotiating, or even Periodic) we come to —or leave. For inspiration, consider this poem by our current U. S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo: https://poets.org/poem/perhaps-world-ends-here Prompt #3: Write a poem in response to this idea: The Graceful Stumble. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information, go to our website:
https://www.mostpoetry.org/event/8th-annual-modesto-poetry-festival/
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Old work, new vision
Lately I've been uploading old work—mostly poems from the 1980s and 1990s. It's a bit of a surprise to revisit one's old writing all at once like that. I started at the beginning. Only work that made the electronic cut was uploaded. It's been a tedious process fraught with technical difficulty (read: incompatible formats) and more than a few poems weren't all there. As in physically not all there (no that's not a value judgement.)
And of course, I don't have hard copy for any of my old work, my big clippie-board mss binder has gone on walkabout. So I can't fill in the missing words and lines, nor date some of my old work. I'm sure there are myriad formatting typos. Long dashes (em lines) reverted to accented ós, and line breaks disappeared. I've been burning the midnight oil—nay, more like 2AM, removing those pesky ascii artifacts. But some are insidious.
See my very first entry of 1979 to read all about it. But rereading and reformatting all those poems is labor intensive. (I'm up to 1993). There are gaps because I didn't date my earlier work—incestuous nepotism? It dated me and now it's haunting me. Everything's relative.
Yeah, there was a lot of love gone wrong stuff. Rites of passage. Painful stuff. Painfully funny stuff: comparing women to pears with PTSD, imagining myself as an asparagus stalk, eating white oil paint because it reminded me of ice cream. OK, so I was four, it was my first metaphor.
Weird to review one's life for the past 35 years via poetry—shuffling the poems into the right creation date has created an interesting timeline.
Don't know how much more I'll upload during this round. My eyeballs hurt. I've moved all the orphan poems to relative dates within a 2-4 year period. Usually to Jan 1,19xx, so I can find them later. I still have a rat's nest of early poems filled in 1994—that was the latest file date saved. Need to track them down too.
Too much circular reading. Sorry for the typos, Working on them.
When This Blog Really Began—Aug 2008
Old Posts, New Posts
The Paper and the Sonoma County Stump
Poem titles are in CAPITAL LETTERS, and you can search the blog, using the word 'poem" in the search box at the top or clicking on the word "poem" on the hotlist below the dates. Other poetic categories too: haiku, ekphrastic poetry, collage, etc. Some poems also sorted by region: from the Andes to the USSR, and Zenia.
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