Day 15: Fighting the Urge to Vomit

Today's prompt sits uncomfortably in my throat. One of my least favorite feelings in this world is this one. If I'm fighting back the urge to vomit, then something in my world is skewed. The dinner didn't set well. The presentation went horribly. Someone has passed on a virus that I now have to fight off. The news was too awful and too real. The baby apparently hates it when I eat broccoli now.

Generally speaking, there's a trigger for that urge to vomit. Today I challenge you to key into one of those triggers and describe that scenario that preludes fighting back the sick. It's not always a negative that makes us feel this way. Take it where you want it to go and tell us a story.

The suggested type of poem for this prompt is a narrative or storytelling poem. This poem has one main character, a beginning, middle, and an end. You can use devices like rhyme and repetition to tell the story (or not, it's entirely up to you). There's no set structure for modern narrative poems. Use your senses and help us to explore your story. You don't have to take a lot of time to set up the story, you can dive right in. And there's no definitive length for the narrative poem. It can be as long or as short as you want.

Happy writing!

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.  

Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia, where she began writing poetry at the age of 12. She published her first poetry collection, The Shaping of an “Angry” Black Woman in 2014 and is working on her first fiction novel due out in winter 2016. She is the Editor of The Reverie Journal, a poetry publication. She also moderates #writestuff a weekly writing Twitter chat. You can find her on Twitter here. She works as a full-time freelance writer and doesn’t post nearly enough her blog PenPaperPad. She creates videos about books and writing on her YouTube channel. She is a hillbilly hermit in Honolulu living with her Mathemagician.

Day 12: Imagination Stands in the Road

Our imagination is a powerful thing, it's what fuels us as children and hopefully continues to fuel us as adults. As I'm writing this, I have the Disney-Pixar movie "Inside Out" playing in the background. If you haven't seen it, it's a fun watch with some important life lessons that anyone can gather from it. 

One of the supporting characters is Bing Bong, the main character Riley's imaginary friend who she might have forgotten. He's mostly cotton candy, part cat, part elephant, and part dolphin as he describes himself. They went on adventures on their imaginary rocket, usually trips to the moon!

 Did you have an imaginary friend as a kid? Do you have one now? What about your kids if you have them? What are some adventures you went on? 

On a sadder note, when did you stop playing with your imaginary friend? What was the moment where you grew past that? 

​

For those prompt lovers that commented nice things about my prompts last time, I have another for you! You'll either love me or hate me for it. Let's go around the world to France, for a 39 line poem called the sestina

Today I challenge you to try your hand at a sestina. Back in college when I was getting my poetry degree, I had to write several of these and hated most of those minutes. However, once I found my beat, I really found it and that was a pretty awesome feeling. 

A sestina is 39 lines, 6 stanzas with 6 lines each plus a tag. 

First, start with 6 words of your choice. Make sure you like them because you'll be using them over and over again. Take those words and rotate them at the ends of your stanzas. They rotate in a round with the last word of the last line being the last word of the first line in the next stanza.  Your lines can be any length, though it just looks nicer if they're quite regular. 

Example of how that will look with the words imagine(A), joy(B), coffee(C), clouds(D), rocket(E), music(F)

Stanza 1
Line 1-imagine (A)
Line 2-joy (B)
Line 3-coffee (C)
Line 4-clouds (D)
Line 5-rocket (E)
Line 6-music (F)

Stanza 2
Line 7-music(F)
Line 8-Imagine(A)
Line 9-rocket(E)
Line 10-joy(B)
Line 11-clouds (D)
Line 12-coffee(C)

Stanza 3
Line 13-coffee(C)
Line 14-music (F)
Line 15-clouds (D)
Line 16-imagine (A)
Line 17-joy (B)
Line 18-rocket(E)

Stanza 4
Line 19-rocket (E)
Line 20-coffee (C)
Line 21-joy (B)
Line 22-music (F)
Line 23-imagine (A)
Line 24-clouds (D)

Stanza 5
Line 25-clouds (D)
Line 26-rocket (E)
Line 27-imagine (A)
Line 28-coffee (C)
Line 29-music (F)
Line 30-joy (B)

Stanza 6
Line 31-joy(B)
Line 32-clouds(D)
Line 33-music (F)
Line 34-rocket(E)
Line 35-coffee (C)
Line 36-imagine (A)

Stanza 7
Line 37-imagine(A), joy (B)
Line 38-coffee (C), clouds (D)
Line 39-rocket (E), music (F)

There is a modification for an envoi for Stanza 7 

Line 37- imagine (A), joy (B), coffee (C)

Line 38- clouds (D), rocket (E), music (F) 

1. ABCDEF
2. FAEBDC
3. CFDABE
4. ECBFAD
5. DEACFB
6. BDFECA
7. (envoi) ECA or ACE or AB, CD, EF 

Do you love or hate me now? 

For those that hate me, maybe I can redeem myself with more normal prompts: 

Imagine yourself on a mountain: 

Word prompts: 

Joy, clouds, music, rocket, coffee, imagine. 

Cheers and sunshine, 

-Beverly Tan

(Hash)Tag It!

Just a few more days! Is your blog as ready as you are? 

So we're doing a good bit of writing here, the next step would be to share it. One of the easiest ways to make sure we're sharing work is to make sure you've got proper tags on your blog posts! 

There's the obvious ones #Poetry #OctPoWriMo 

Then there are some that are popular in a lot of the online writer communities: #SpilledInk (Often accompanying a photo of a handwritten poem) #SpilledWords #SoulKissing #Wordsmith (Usually used for briefer poems) 

You can also go subject specific #LovePoetry #NaturePoetry #WrittenOnAMountaintop, #WordsOnMyHeart, and even more subject specific #PoemAboutHer #WhiskeyedWords 

To connect with other writers and the local community ,the most popular tags are #AmWriting #WordCount #WriterWednesday 

If you've got a strong following and several sites, you can use a personal hashtag such as #BeverlyTanPoetry or a blog name if you don't share with someone. 

There is a note that on different platforms, there is a difference between putting a space between words in a hashtag and not. Instagram has no spaces, Tumblr allows spaces but it's more popular without because of Instagram integration. Blogger and WordPress tend to lean towards the spaces. 

Another thing to keep in mind with hashtags is who else uses. Do a quick search if you're not sure. My favorite story is my friend who grows her own vegetables started using the Instagram hashtag along the lines #FromGardenToPot #Homegrowing and to her surprise, it wasn't about her veggie garden or herb collection, it was actually a cannabis community. 

With all these options, it'll become very trial and error to figure out how to tag your style. I recommend evaluating what is and isn't working every couple months. Choose your tags with style and have some variety between types. 

What's YOUR hashtag? 

Following the Smoke - OctPoWriMo Countdown

“...something was starting to take shape, out of magic and will. Smoke and bone.” ― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone 

We are a third of the way through September. 20 days left until OctPoWriMo: 31 Poems in 31 Days. Can you feel the excitement in the air?  I decided to hop on over to PublicDomainPictures.net to see what would inspire me tonight and I found smoke. Of course, wherever you find smoke, there's fire. Is that cliche or too dated or will that always be a saying?

Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net
by Paduret Dan Cristian

See how the smoke twists and turns, flowing this way and that way. You don't know where the smoke is going or how it will look in the next moment. Kind of like poetry. But even though you don't know where it is going it is beautiful just as it is, just as it will be as it floats out into the world.

Today's Indie ebook is:



Love and Ink by Kiana Donae


Have you Linked up to join in the OctPoWriMo fun yet? Poet or not, you will find inspiration here.

Morgan Dragonwillow, author of Wild Woman Waking & Dancing within Shadow, is a Bodywork transformer, dancing poet, motivator of words, magical instigator and creatrix of #OctPoWriMo & #PoetsonthePage. You can find out more about her and how she can help you "move your body, move your words" on her website, Read, Dance, Write.
Yes, she is on Google+ too!

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OctPoWriMo 2015 | Free your emotions

One of the most powerful aspects of poetry stems from tapping into your inner self. When you let down your guard and allow yourself be vulnerable, it opens your mind up to so much more. It can give your writing wings and authenticity.

I'm normally a person, who keeps my feelings in. I don't' necessarily share how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking unless I feel close to a person. I keep things at a surface level and I'm not even sure why. It's just the way I deal with the world, I suppose. With poetry, I can expose my inner-workings, my feelings, my thoughts, impressions, and interpretations. I don't feel shy or awkward. Not anymore.

This amount of openness can be a little bit off-putting at first. It might feel conspicuous, slightly uncomfortable. But with poetry as Linda was telling us yesterday, things are open to interpretation. You may be talking about one thing and the reader could see it a totally different way. Her experiences colors what she reads. By honoring your truth, allowing yourself to permission to feel and write about it, you can help your readers find their truths.

 It's emotional freedom at its finest. If you give yourself permission to let go.

.Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia where she began penning poems after a boy broke her heart. She shares poetry, short stories and writer interviews on her blog, PenPaperPad. Her writing has been featured in Mamalode, In the Powder Room, and many others. She is the editor for The Reverie Journal, which will be releasing it's first poetry collection early October. She also hosts #writestuff TweetChat where writers talk about writing every Tuesday at 9 pm EST. She is a hillbilly hermit living in Honolulu with her Mathmagician.

Poetry - Your Muse - And Dance

"Dance came first, the words came later. It was dance that freed my words, freed my soul." ~MDragonwillow

You knew that I would be talking about this, I talk about it every year - at least once. My Muse is just happier with music and dance and gets my poetry flowing!

If you have hopped over to my blog recently you know that I have been making a lot of changes. I am finally claiming my dancing self, completely.


I.am.              The Dancing Muse.              

There I said it.

Dance is an integral part of my writing and poetry process. Today I am going to share some of my favorite music mixes on YouTube that I write and dance to. They inspire me. I can't be still when I am listening to them, even when I'm writing I'll stand at my writing station and bounce, bop, tap, and sway to the music.  No it isn't a desk, it's a rolling kitchen island I have in the dining room because I often would rather stand than sit, though I have a bar stool for when my feet say they've had enough.

Even if I am sitting on the couch typing, as I am now, my feet are moving on the footstool while I rock my shoulders back and forth as I type. The music dances in my blood and my body and fingers (typing) get pulled along.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, that you find yourself up and moving to the music, and then pulled to the page to download the words that are hopping to come out. Even if you detest my music, I hope you find yourself either going through your own music or checking out different mixes on YouTube for you to dance and write your poetry to.

Dance, write, repeat! My Muse loves it!


This is "2 Hours of Celtic Music" and no I don't dance for two hours (though there have been days that I have danced more than two hours over the course of a day) but I often have it playing in the background as I type.

 

And this is when I really need to stir things up, James Asher - Tigers of the Raj (full album)




I recently (sometime in the last few months) discovered Epic Music Mixes on Youtube and this is one of my favorites. 2-Hours Epic Music Mix | The Power of Epic Music - Full Mix Vol. 2




Hope you have fun listening, dancing, and writing!

Count Down: 3 Days until OctPoWriMo!

Time is going by quickly, are you ready for this poetry challenge, will you be sharing your poetry on your blog? Make sure 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.

Morgan Dragonwillow: Writing rebel, stress relief explorer, recovering perfectionist, cooking as therapy, poet & author that (mostly) doesn't let her fears get in the way of her passion for writing and creating. She is team leader at @StoryDam, creatrix of #OctPoWriMo, and you can find her at, A Poet's Kitchen, cooking up simply delicious meals. She lives in Marietta, Ga. with her loving and patient partner, their dog that thinks she's a princess, and the cat that reminds her that she isn't.
You can find her on Google+

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