A prompt from another dimension

Parallel universes and other dimensions have been getting a lot of attention at our dinner table lately, and all that talk has inspired a prompt. Write a poem (or something else) that is based in reality...but in another dimension or parallel universe. 


Think about Bizarro World or the Bizarro episode of Seinfeld for inspiration. You could write in a world where day is night and cold is hot. You could write from a viewpoint where you had turned left when in reality you turned right or said "no" when you had actually turned "left." Maybe explore the "what if." It is your writing; do what you want and have some fun!

A hot poetry prompt

Since I was indoors and busy all day, it was, of course, a beautiful warm and sunny spring day. In honor of today's heat (and how it is supposed to be cool and mild on my anticipated pool day), I am suggesting a hot prompt. Thinking of one of the following "hot" things, write a poem or do a freewrite. Here are your words; pick one as a topic:

solar flares

buffalo wings

lightening bolts

hot tub

tea kettle

campfire

curling iron

These Five Things

Five things is one of my favorite easy writing prompts (which explains why it keeps popping up on the site again and again). The premise of the prompt is silly simple: write a poem incorporating these five words. You could, of course, write something else if you aren't a poet or an overachiever for National Poetry Month.


Here are your five things:
Hendrick's Gin
Lottery ticket
Hairball
Gunnysack
Blue jay 

On Poetic Form: The Haiku

Repost from 4/10/2010

Haiku, for those of you that have been living under a rock, is a popular form of traditional Japanese poetry, made popular by Basho.  A haiku is composed of three lines with a total of seventeen syllables, with five syllables in the first and last line and seven in the middle.  In traditional haiku, there is a sort of shift or a change of image after the second line.

Vibrant nature images and minimalism are predominant in these works -- traditional and contemporary.  Haiku is like a snapshot, like a snapshot of a particular moment of time.  After the haiku is read, the idea is that there is a feeling of enlightenment or discovery.

To learn more about haiku, read these entries at Poets.org and Wikipedia.  
To start writing haiku (and to accept today's poetry challenge), grab a pen and go!

On Poetic Form: The Cento

Repost from 4/29/2010


The cento, or patchwork poem, is essentially a poem constructed of lines from other people's poems.  This poetry mash-up can be formed by using the words of only one poet or several -- I prefer the later.  This isn't high art, but I do look at it at a great exercise that I got wonderful results with during my teaching practicum for my MFA.

Why would you want to create a cento?  If you are new to poetry, the cento helps to develop and eye and an ear for the music of poetry, for the sensual experience that makes a good poem.  For a more experienced poet, it helps to tune that ear and sharpen the eye; using the words of others to put forward your own vision constricts the creative process just enough to exercise the mind and serve as a reminder that there is more than one authentic voice and vision in the world.

It would seem that the cento in its purest form would consist strictly of complete lines from other people's poetry, but for art's sake, it is perfectly acceptable to change a word or twist a line or omit a comma, if that is what is going to make your patchwork poem into a better piece.

There are a few ways to approach the cento.  With students (or with myself) I chose books from ten diverse poets or a good anthology, and I randomly flip through the book, taking a line I love from each page I land on and scribbling the line on a strip of paper.  You could also surf the web and use works from writers that are totally new to you.  In the workshop, the students sit in a circle, and I lay out the strips of paper before them, and tell them to dig in.  I also provide clean pieces of paper and tape :)

Another way to create a cento is what I am about to suggest we all do here.  In the comments, leave a line -- no more than one line -- from either a favorite poem (with citation, per favore) or offer up a line from one of your poems or a line that you wrote that you think is just amazing, even though it doesn't work anywhere for you.  Then check back later, copy down any lines you are intrigued by on long strips of paper and mix those up, armed with a fresh piece of paper and a roll of tape.

Voila!  The cento!  When you are done, you have a draft of something you can mix up and mash up and condense or draw out or do whatever you want with it... maybe even get published.

Do you want to learn more about the cento?  Read up on Wikipedia or on poets.org.