OctPoWriMo Day 21: Poetry Prompt: "I was here...."

Where are your fingerprints?

I spent last weekend at Morro Bay along the Central California Coast. On both Saturday and Sunday morning I could be found nestled in the dunes along the beach, waiting to greet the new day.

On Sunday, I noticed I left a distinctive hand print in the sand.

As a creative person, you are aware how such a thing sparks the imagination. It got me to thinking where my fingerprints and handprints and footprints live on in places, with other people, in memory.

It birthed the image you see here (feel free to also use the image for inspiration and on your blogs) as well as this prompt.

Question Prompt:

Where are your fingerprints?

Where are your handprints?

Where are your footprints?

Sentence Starters

My fingerprints are...

My handprints are...

My footprints are...

I remember the fingerprints of...

I remember the handprints of...

I remember the footprints of....

Words for Inspiration

Hand

Foot

Sand

Impression

Memory

Beach

Ocean

Fingers

Share your poetry with us by linking up. Make sure you visit your neighbors one or two before and after. If you are last on the list go back to the beginning of the list. If you are the first few on the list please go back to the day before and visit the last on the list if you haven't already. Have fun!

-- Julie Jordan Scott 

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming Fall and Winter, 2014 and beyond. 

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

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© 2014

The Thing with Feathers: Hopeful Inspiration for OctPoWriMo from Emily Dickinson

Mixed Media: Emily Dickinson portrait with book page and leaf - 2012, Julie Jordan Scott

As we get closer to the beginning of OctPoWriMo, you may consider ways to stay inspired. Some of my greatest inspiration comes from the poets who have written before me, especially the women. 

I call them "Literary Grannies" because they have a feminine legacy that isn't often touted. 

I make it a mission to elevate the stature of all women writers and poets. Along the way, I fall in love with the poems and the women.

The more I get to know Emily Dickinson, the more I love her. I have been an admirer for quite a few years now, but my word-love has flourished since I visited her home in Amherst Massachusetts. Not once, not twice, but three times so far and I think another trip there is long overdue. 

It isn’t as if travel to Western Massachusetts is convenient: I live in Bakersfield, California. Visiting her home is like visiting Mecca.

 Not only do I visit her home, I take in the stomping grounds of other literary figures.

My visit, though, does not begin until I have paid due homage to Emily.

So many people think of her as an odd recluse who had agoraphobia among other mental illnesses. Perhaps she did fight some disease but we don’t know for certain. There are so many books of research about her poems, I am sure we could find a researcher or several right now who would argue for all sorts of illnesses and quirks.

What I feel most strongly about is this: Emily Dickinson was a one of a kind. She lived with great passion, continually learning via the news of the day from both her family and newspapers and magazines. She enjoyed baking for the neighborhood children – she would lower Ginger cookies in a basket to them as they waited below her bedroom window. She was a botanist – spending hours in

"The Thing with Feathers" inspired by Emily Dickinson's poetry. Mixed Media, Julie Jordan Scott, 2013

the garden drawing flora and communing with the trees.

 Yes, she sought refuge in solitude.

She spoke to people behind a curtain.

She also corresponded with many and grew friendships via her entertaining letters.

What impresses me most about her is how the mystery surrounding her continues to invite inquiry AND the more I know of her the more I want to know. The more I know of her the more I want to create in her honor. The more I know the more I want to share with others.

I created a mixed media work of art called “The Thing with Feathers” based on this stanza of hers, one of her famous oft quoted ones:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

She inspires me as poet, a visual artist and as a human being.

It doesn't get much better than that.

What literary granny (or any other poet) inspires you to write? If you don't know of one yet, I urge you to begin reading more poetry. We can support poets (and poetry collections) by purchasing their books. My own skill as a poet increase multi-fold when I studied poets with a lasting legacy.

Honor your poetry by honoring wise sage poets.

-- Julie Jordan Scott

* This entry is a revised blog entry from the Julie Unplugged Blog.

 = = =

Time is going by quickly, are you ready for this poetry challenge, will you be sharing your poetry on your blog? Make sure you if you are on Twitter that you share your poem posts with the hashtag #OctPoWriMo so that other participants can find you. You can also share and chat with us on Facebook in our Writing Poetry Group.

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Poetry Prompt Day 23: Number Theory

A page from my art journal

You knew it was going to happen. The former math teacher turned poet/writer/word artist would have to go there. Yes, my fellow poets, today our focus is numbers! Now before you roll your eyes, panic, and run screaming from the room, allow me to assure you that your writing today has nothing AT ALL to do with "Math" (unless you want it to, of course!)

 Let's face it. There is not a day that goes by that we don't encounter numbers in some way. Look around you. Think about the last drive you took, bus you rode on, purchase you made. We cannot function without them. They are on our calendars, in our phones, along our highways. We use them as markers of important days and remembrances of special years. They keep track of the pages in our books and remind us when we're running late. Numbers are everywhere.

Poetry Prompt Day 17 : Games We played

The moment I log in to Facebook , my first thought is to once play Candy Crush [ Am stuck on same stage for about 15 days now ].  And then , I proceed to check other notifications. On mobile too , I am addicted to same game from some time. Before that , there was Ruzzle , Motto race  , WordFeud and a  few more.

So while I was thinking of today's prompt , I was of course playing Candy Crush again , when the idea hit me. Why not write of the games we play on mobile , desktop or play stations ( sorry , I am not aware of latest gadgets ) . While we are at it , lets go back into our childhood and list all the games we loved to play.

Poetry Prompt Day 2: Hiding Places

Several years ago, I had an opportunity to travel to Worcester, MA to visit the University Park Campus School and observe some of the best teachers in education. One of my favorite moments of that visit took place in a 7th grade English class. The students had been given an assignment the previous day and were reporting back their findings. Their assignment is the inspiration for our prompt today.

THE PROMPT: Where does poetry hide? Some possible answers could be "in the dark dusty corner under my bed", "in the extension of a dancer's leg", or perhaps "in the layered harmony of a Pentatonix song". Look around you. Make a list of some of the unusual places that you find poetry. Use this list as the starting place for a poem. Maybe the list is a poem in itself. Or maybe you'll find an entire poem tucked in between your sofa cushions. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

~ Amy McGrath

EveryDay Muse: Woo Our Poets Within and Move Our Pencils (Pens, etc.)

One of my favorite ways to be inspired by other poets is to begin my journey by collecting words from other poets by including a poetry reading practice into my writing practice.

What I love about this first word offering from another poet is the "everyday life" aspect of the content. It isn't a big a-ha moment she is seeking, but asking her poetry muse for guidance in her everyday life as a Woman, as a Mom.

"Release a stanza

from the sink's hot suds

where dirty dishes glow

Seal a message inside:

encourage me to hold on.

Inform me

in detail

exactly how to do it."

Kate Daniels in Prayer to the Muse ofOrdinary Life

One of my daily practices as a writer and poet is to read at least one published poem a day. I have a wild assortment of poetry anthologies to choose from and my normal way of finding a poem to read is simply to open up a chosen book and read wherever my eyes fall. Today my eyes fell upon a poet I have never bumped into before. Now she has managed to take both arms and pull them out at the sides in an enormously full stretch. She did all this with her word power.