I met with a friend and wrote for 90 minutes this morning. 90 minutes and when we were done I had 5 new starts to poems. Of those 5, one feels as if it will move forward and eventually end up in my "completed poems" file. It felt more like a gift that when the time was up, I wondered where it came from.
The other 4?
One has potential and a strong ending, in fact, a narrative.
One has an idea that just doesn't quite make it, but might.
One is a shorter poem that will either work or fail miserably.
One has strong lines but needs some transitions.
The poem that worked out best was the first poem I wrote of the day.
One thing I did differently with this friend is that I typed directly into my laptop instead of write freehand in a notebook. This was different for me (normally I write in a notebook), but I think I might prefer it.
A group of us will be meeting once maybe twice a month to write together. There is a nice energy when writing with others that can sometimes carry you.
* * *
If you want to do a couple of the exercises we did, here they are--
1) Write a poem that uses this as your epigraph
Take bread away from me, if you wish
Pablo Neruda from “Your Laughter”
2) Start a poem with this line: I have divided from the mind
(the line is from a Dorianne Laux poem either from Smoke or Facts about the Moon)
3) Begin a poem with the line: Next morning, breakfast
(this was just a random line from my friend's journal)
Have fun!
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Showing posts with label poetry writing exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry writing exercise. Show all posts
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
More Writing Prompts for National Poetry Month
These were posted on the Woman Poets Listserve by another wonderful Kellypoet, Kelly Madigan Erlandson
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH: WRITE EVERY DAY!
1. Write a really ugly poem.
2. Quickly pick out 12 words from the titles of books on a nearby bookshelf. Use them in a poem.
3. Write a poem with an invented biography for yourself.
4. Take a 1-2 page poem from a book and re-type it backwards—from the very last word in the poem all the way to the very first, keeping the lines the same lengths as they are in the book. Use this as the starting point of a poem, picking out the word formations that are particularly interesting to you.
5. Write from the number six.
6. Write to your pain: "Dear Pad of My Thumb, Will you kindly stop hurting? It is very hard for me to stir a pot or write a poem when you hurt like this..."
7. Let your pain write back to you: "Dear Liesl, if you would lay off the text messaging and playing minesweeper it would help me a lot, then you can write your poem or stir pot...".
8. Write to your hurting country, city or community, as a variation on the theme. Take the dialogue as far as it goes, then distill the essence. See if you can arrive at a fresh insight about what ails you and yours.
9. Wow! You've been at this over a week straight! Let your hand draw an abstract shape. Write about it.
10. Speaking as a fortune teller, tell a fortune. The first line is: You will take a strange journey ...... Finish the prediction/forecast by describing the journey and giving instructions or advice or even warnings for the journey.
11. Write a poem of at least 40 lines that is a single sentence.
12. Take fairy tale and rewrite it from the viewpoint of another character. For example, use the wolf to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
13. Write about a family secret.
14. Write an apostrophe to some abstraction (e.g., "To the End of the World" or "To My Birth").
15. Write about someone waiting for something.
16. Write about a color without naming the color—or its kin, e.g., no fair using "crimson" "scarlet" or "ruddy" instead of red.
17. Take any object out of your bag or pocket or purse. Speaking in first person AS THE OBJECT, answer the following questions (in any order): What is your favorite thing?
What are you scared of? What is your secret? What is your wish for the future?
18. Take someone else's poem and select one word per line, writing them out in a list.
Then write your own poem using these words in the same sequence, one per line.
19. Write 100 words (any kind of words) about your kitchen table.
20. Write a poem in which the form contradicts the content.
21. Write a piece at least 50 words long using only one-syllable words.
22. Take a common object, such as a flowerpot, boot or paperclip, and write about it as if you've never seen such a thing before (e.g., you're from the future and have just excavated it, or are from another planet).
23. Take the name of a favorite poet and anagram it. Use this to begin a poem.
24. Pick a word from today's headlines and write a definition poem for it.
25. Write the poem you cannot write.
26. What Work is For You: Write about a job you have had, whether you loathed it or loved it. Write from your own experience but go beyond the literal! Keep the poem in the present tense, and BE SURE THERE IS A PHYSICAL ACTION INVOLVED such as scrubbing floors, dissecting chickens, helping someone use the toilet. Keep your poem in couplets, tercets, quatrains, or sestets—your choice.
27. Write a poem in a received form in such a way that the form is concealed.
28. Imagine a drink or food dish that would bring you fully alive. Write the recipe.
29. Begin with, "This is not the last poem I will write…"
30. Elide (strike out) the Junk: Take a piece of junk mail and black out most of the words so that what remains is a poem.
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH: WRITE EVERY DAY!
1. Write a really ugly poem.
2. Quickly pick out 12 words from the titles of books on a nearby bookshelf. Use them in a poem.
3. Write a poem with an invented biography for yourself.
4. Take a 1-2 page poem from a book and re-type it backwards—from the very last word in the poem all the way to the very first, keeping the lines the same lengths as they are in the book. Use this as the starting point of a poem, picking out the word formations that are particularly interesting to you.
5. Write from the number six.
6. Write to your pain: "Dear Pad of My Thumb, Will you kindly stop hurting? It is very hard for me to stir a pot or write a poem when you hurt like this..."
7. Let your pain write back to you: "Dear Liesl, if you would lay off the text messaging and playing minesweeper it would help me a lot, then you can write your poem or stir pot...".
8. Write to your hurting country, city or community, as a variation on the theme. Take the dialogue as far as it goes, then distill the essence. See if you can arrive at a fresh insight about what ails you and yours.
9. Wow! You've been at this over a week straight! Let your hand draw an abstract shape. Write about it.
10. Speaking as a fortune teller, tell a fortune. The first line is: You will take a strange journey ...... Finish the prediction/forecast by describing the journey and giving instructions or advice or even warnings for the journey.
11. Write a poem of at least 40 lines that is a single sentence.
12. Take fairy tale and rewrite it from the viewpoint of another character. For example, use the wolf to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
13. Write about a family secret.
14. Write an apostrophe to some abstraction (e.g., "To the End of the World" or "To My Birth").
15. Write about someone waiting for something.
16. Write about a color without naming the color—or its kin, e.g., no fair using "crimson" "scarlet" or "ruddy" instead of red.
17. Take any object out of your bag or pocket or purse. Speaking in first person AS THE OBJECT, answer the following questions (in any order): What is your favorite thing?
What are you scared of? What is your secret? What is your wish for the future?
18. Take someone else's poem and select one word per line, writing them out in a list.
Then write your own poem using these words in the same sequence, one per line.
19. Write 100 words (any kind of words) about your kitchen table.
20. Write a poem in which the form contradicts the content.
21. Write a piece at least 50 words long using only one-syllable words.
22. Take a common object, such as a flowerpot, boot or paperclip, and write about it as if you've never seen such a thing before (e.g., you're from the future and have just excavated it, or are from another planet).
23. Take the name of a favorite poet and anagram it. Use this to begin a poem.
24. Pick a word from today's headlines and write a definition poem for it.
25. Write the poem you cannot write.
26. What Work is For You: Write about a job you have had, whether you loathed it or loved it. Write from your own experience but go beyond the literal! Keep the poem in the present tense, and BE SURE THERE IS A PHYSICAL ACTION INVOLVED such as scrubbing floors, dissecting chickens, helping someone use the toilet. Keep your poem in couplets, tercets, quatrains, or sestets—your choice.
27. Write a poem in a received form in such a way that the form is concealed.
28. Imagine a drink or food dish that would bring you fully alive. Write the recipe.
29. Begin with, "This is not the last poem I will write…"
30. Elide (strike out) the Junk: Take a piece of junk mail and black out most of the words so that what remains is a poem.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
April is the Coolest Month...
I think that's what Eliot really meant to say. Welcome Easter, the end of Lent, and National Poetry Month.
I really am going to write a poem a day. And maybe I'll post a couple here--briefly--just to make sure I keep it up. 30 poems in 30 days. Reminds me of those weight-loss programs except in this case, we're gaining words, verse, stanzas.
I've never been one to wait for inspiration to arrive. I'm impatient and life is short, if I had waited for inspiration I'd probably only have about 20 poems. Or maybe inspiration can be the deadline, the goal, the need to finish something and make it good. Inspiration as revenge, as success, as the inner struggle with something bigger than you thought.
It doesn't matter what gets us writing, it only matters that we are. We need to have something to revise. We need to sort out the thoughts that circle or heads. We need to let someone know we have fallen in love with them or are ready to leave. We need to shake things down, calm things up, explore old territory as new territory. We write because we cannot not write.
Some ideas for NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month- or write a poem a day)
* Think about the poems you love and try to write them as your own this month.
* Think about the poems you hate and write a better poem.
* Write a poem from the end to the beginning.
* Take an old poem, cut up the words and phrases, and reorder.
* Find 3 old poems that you don't like or can't finish and write down your favorite 10-15 words from those poems to use in a new poem.
* Write in a way you've never written.
* Write a sestina, a villanelle, a sonnet.
* Rhyme something.
* Steal a title of a news article and use it for your poem.
* Break a line in a place that feels terribly uncomfortable for you.
* Try to write a poem in the shape of something.
* Start a poem with the last line of someone else's poem
* Write an acrostic poem
* Hide your name in a poem
* Write a ghazal
* Break an old habit of something you do in a poem
* Write a poem Flush Right
* Write a poem with pencil if you normally use your computer or vice verse
* Write about a sad childhood event as if it happened to someone else
* Write a poem then remove all your adjectives.
* Write a poem with all those extra adjectives you just took out.
* Write a haiku
* When you are stuck, begin with "I remember" then edit that out later.
* Write an ode
* Write a poem in a letter to your favorite poet
* Write a poem using words from another language as well as English
* Write the poem you don't think you should write
* Write the poem you wouldn't want a relative to read
* Write the poem that embarrasses you
* Write a list of images and fold down your paper. Now write a list of questions. Match them up and write a poem
* Write what you think is the opposite of a New Yorker poem
* Use the word "seismic" in a poem
* Read a book of poems, then write a poem in the voice of that poet
* Start your poem, "This is the last poem of the month"
For inspiration for a poem a day, read David Lehman's THE DAILY MIRROR.
Happy writing!
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Weekly Poetry Exercise: Ekphrastic poetry
KAHLO, FRIDA. 1927 portrait de miguel N Lira
* * *
Title: The Love Embrace Of The Universe, The Earth, Me, Diego And Mr Xolotl 1949
_____________
Ekphrastic poetry: Poems that are based on another form of art, such as paintings, sculptures or musical compositions.
Look over these paintings by Frida Kahlo. Think about the colors and images, what emotions they bring out in you. What in these paintings (if anything) haunts you in your life? Do they make you remember a dream you've had? Fear? Love? Desire? Pain?
What image do you focus on first? What image did you not notice?
Once you've spent some time with the paintings--
First: Write as a person or object within the painting.
Second: Write as the painter.
Third: Write as you, the poet, perceiving the art.
Your poem can either be created from one of these sections or may combine all three.
Happy writing.