OctPoWriMo Day 9

 We've made it to Day 9 and it's the weekend! I'm going to spend my time reading a good book and hanging out with my dog. What do you do to relax and recharge?

Word Prompts:

refresh

connect

play

quiet

untroubled

Poetry Forms:

The Bop or Loop

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you and if this is your first year or if you have been with us from the beginning.

Michele Vecchitto is a writer, recruiter, and  former middle school teacher.  Her poetry has been published in literary journals and anthologies as well as in four self-published volumes. Michele was invited to read her poems at the Austin International Poetry Festival and was honored to be included in When Time and Space Conspire.  In addition, she published a young adult fantasy novel, Tales from Blarnach: The Chosen One. She continues to hone her craft simply to breathe life into the stories living in the corners of her mind. Please visit her blog, Reading, Writing, and Reflections to see more of her work.

OctPoWriMo Day 14

 

Sometimes truth is the hardest thing to face, especially when you take a moment to examine YOUR truth. What you see or believe may be very different from what that means to another person, but that's the beauty of it all. Your truth makes you unique. It can give you strength or challenge you to face situations or beliefs which may be painful or filled with sorrow. It can bring great joy or supreme satisfaction. 

Poetry Prompt

Take some time to think about your truth. Where do your thoughts lead? Are there particular images or memories this truth conjures? Was it something you felt the need to defend or was it that something that fortified you in times of need? Your truth is a part of your being. Introduce us to him/her.

Word Prompts

absolute                            bravado                           reckoning

freedom                            peace                               flexible

fortitude                            independent                    reason

Poetry Type

Villanelle

     or

Cascade

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you and if this is your first year or if you have been with us from the beginning.

Michele Vecchitto is a writer and a former middle school teacher.  Her poetry has been published in literary journals and anthologies as well as in four self-published volumes. Michele was invited to read her poems at the Austin International Poetry Festival and was honored to be included in When Time and Space Conspire.  In addition, she published a young adult fantasy novel, Tales from Blarnach: The Chosen One. She continues to hone her craft simply to breathe life into the stories living in the corners of her mind. Please visit her blog, Reading, Writing, and Reflections to see more of her work.

Day 20 - Time Stands Still

"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived." ~Captain Picard, Star Trek: Generations

One of my favorite movies is an older fantasy movie called Krull. In it there is a scene where an old man goes to see the widow in the web and she breaks her hourglass and gives the sand to the old man so that he can make it out of her web alive. But he only has until the sands run out to live. The sands also control this HUGE spider that comes after the man but stops whenever he lets the sands run between his fingers a little. That's just one of the things I thought of when I saw the title for today's prompt. It gave me lots of inspiration.

Have you ever had a moment in time that you wished you could stop and live in? Have you ever wished you could control time even if for just a little while? What would you do? What moment would you make last longer? Write about time and what you would do if you were in control of it. Today you get to be a Time Lord!

Word Prompts:

moment

hours

minutes

clock

hourglass

future

past

present

chronology

Suggested Form:

In keeping with the time theme and for those who really want a challenge, try a Minute poem. For less of a challenge try Loop poetry. Get it? ;-)

Remember these are just suggestions. Feel free to write in whatever form you wish and whatever you are inspired to write about. And don't forget to visit at least three other participant sites and leave some positive comments.

Status Symbolism

Photo by Shehan Peruma / CC BY 

Emotions.

Anger, frustration, sadness, joy. Before you log on to Facebook and pour your feelings out onto your status update, think about how you could channel them into a poem that can be preserved as an artistic expression with perhaps a more timeless appeal than "this is how pissed I was on Tuesday". You could even throw in a little poetic symbolism for good measure.

Believe me, it's something I want to do regularly. And it doesn't take too much more thought than it would to put it out there on Facebook. In fact, wouldn't it be cool if more of us took a more poetic approach to our status updates? Fun, right?

The doctor's office, 8am

I'm right on time, but he's late again

Why does the receptionist admonish when I'm running behind?

It's as if they only value their precious time 

It's about adding a little flair to the same old recitation of "Waited in the doctor's office for 45 minutes. Again. How come it's okay for them to be late, but not me? 

I think I'll try it today. 

Take THAT, Zuckerberg! 

Linda Roy is a writer, singer/songwriter/musician whose humor blog elleroy was here mixes funny with a soundtrack. She is the founder and lead singer of the Indie/Americana band Jehova Waitresses and her writing has been featured at The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop, Humor Outcasts and In the Powder Room, among others. She is a 2014 BlogHer Voice of the Year recipient and has contributed to several anthologies, including the third book of the New York Times best selling "Pee Alone" series, I Still Just Want To Pee Alone. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

OctPoWriMo Day 29: Epitaph Poems

Halloween is lurking and we are also reaching the end...of OctPoWriMo 2013 that is.
In honor of the ghoulish holiday and the impending demise of our month of poetry...mwahaha...(maniacally creepy laugh is not optional) the prompt for today is to write an Epitaph Poem. 

An epitaph poem is a tasteful summarization of the life of a person. A kind of poetic eulogy if you will. The idea is to emphasize the positive aspects of the deceased. Epitaph poems can be humorous, dark, brooding, maudlin, serious, whatever you like. Some begin with "Here lies..." followed by thoughts about the deceased.  Prompt: Write an epitaph poem.  It can rhyme or not. It can be funny if you'd like. It can be about a fictional character or a well known person who has passed. You can choose to write about a beloved pet or a loved one you wish to pay tribute to or you can simply make it spooky for Halloween.  And if spooky is where you're headed...a little tip: imagine it being read by Vincent Price or Christopher Walken. I think that's a pretty good litmus test. Have a ghoulish good time!

OctPoWriMo Writing Prompt: Day 22 - A Picture Paints a Thousand Poems

If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can't it paint poems? A photograph tells a story and that story is usually pretty open to interpretation. Using the images that surround us is another way to find inspiration for poetry. What does it make you feel? What is your experience with the image? Or what do you think the subject is thinking, feeling and experiencing? Does the photograph make a statement about the world? Is it whimsical and surreal? Can it be funny, serious? Tragic? 

Writing Prompt: Choose one of the photos below and use it as inspiration for your poetry. You can tell us a story with your prose or mention the photograph within the body of the poem.  Have fun with it! There's no limit to where your imagination can take you. 

photo by Stephen Hernandez

photo by Robert Rauschenberg 

photo by Rodney Smith 

photo by Ben Heine 

OctPoWriMo: Day 15 - Making News Your Muse

In September I wrote about using what you find in the news as inspiration for poetry.  Whether it be a headline that jumps out at you or the story itself; perhaps a line from the story - any of these things can serve as inspiration for the beginnings of a poem.  For instance, a phrase might pop out at you - you see a line like 'China slams debt crisis, calling for new world order', which sparks an idea for prose using the words 'new world' or 'new world order'.

The example that most comes to mind is John Lennon's lyric from the iconic song 'A Day In the Life', which he took parts of almost verbatim from the newspaper, adding poetic touches to it to create a more artful vision of the events.

'I read the news today oh boy...about a lucky man who made the grade...and though the new was rather sad...well i just had to laugh...I saw the photograph..." 


'He blew his mind out in a car...he didn't notice that the lights had changed...a crowd of people stood and stared...they'd seen his face before, nobody was really sure if he was from the house of lords..." 

The Prompt: Regardless of where you get your news from, be it newspaper, online or television news, choose a headline, phrase, line or the story itself and craft it into the framework of a poem. Your poem needn't be a piece of news, the piece you choose is merely a springboard for the bigger picture. But if you choose to write about the event itself, that can make for a powerful poetic statement. See where it takes you and have fun. It can be about anything - not necessarily a serious piece of world news. Even something pulled from the funnies can make for good material.

Poetry Prompt Day 9: Lyrical Poetry

In September I shared some insights on thinking lyrically when writing poetry.  So let's take it a step further and try writing a poem with a lyrical feel in mind. 

Writing Prompt: Choose a musical style that you enjoy that fits what you'd like to write about and think in that style as you craft your poem. Think about *scansion in relation to that musical style and write your poem as a song. It can be short, long, a story song - anything you feel. Let go of any preconceptions you may have about prose and write what you feel musically. 

*scan·sion

ˈskanSHən/

noun

1. 1.

   the action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm.

Take inspiration from some of your favorite artists and think about some of the lines that you find particularly poetic and pay attention to how they get the message across. Are they compact, little bites of deliciousness or are they lavish and intricate?  It can rhyme, but it doesn't have to. 

"whisper words of wisdom...let it be" - paul mccartney 

"life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - john lennon 

"What I am is what I am, are you what you are, or what?" - edie brick ell

"we're one...but we're not the same...we get to carry each other, carry each other..." - bono

"i wanna knit you a sweater, i wanna write you a love letter, i wanna make you feel better, i wanna make you feel...free..." -joni mitchell

Write a poem that could be set to music! Have fun!