Friday Freeforall: Prompts, Poem a Days, and Giveaways

10:19 am — Atlanta

Hello all! I’m running late today. Had a dentist appointment this morning and am now sitting here with numb gums and 800 mg of ibuprofen. I will keep this short, as many people do not need or want to be flooded with exercises this month. I have picked the prompts that are the most interesting, or fun, or have the most possibilities. I will run through the prompts first and then give you links to the happenings around the poetry month sites.

First up is Carry On Tuesday which gives us two clichéd phrases, but I included it because often if we kick off with the cliché and freewrite for a while, we come up with something. Then, you can remove the clichéd phrase unless deliberately including it because it is a cliché. Go on over and take a look and see if something sparks. The blog, as always, includes links to hear or see the phrase in context.

Next, Big Tent Poetry, which, if you were here last week, you will remember is participating in the poem a day by giving us seven prompts each week. Here are the first three for this week: 1. Write about a broken window. 2. Write about something that no longer exists. 3. Write a poem with lungs in it. For the rest, visit the circus.

I don’t always include Poets & Writers, but their post this week is intriguing and fun. They ask us to, Take a cue from Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style, which tells a single narrative in ninety-nine ways, and write a poem based on what happened just after you got up this morning. Then use one or more of these filters to revise the poem: I do not include the filters they suggest. To see what they are [you know you are curious, even if you aren’t going to write a poem] visit the site.

How complete do you often feel about the poems you write? We know that’s not likely all black or white, each poem stands on its’ own. And maybe a poem can just be as it is – without a judge or jury speaking up. But how is it for you as a writer? That’s the question here. How do poems “arrive” for you? That’s how We Write Poems starts its prompt. Head over to read the rest. The topic of the how of writing poetry fascinates most poets. Here’s a chance to write about it. I already know I’ll post on this one.

For the month, I have an exciting site for you to visit: Inkseeds. Jennie Paige is posting detailed exercises that explore our personal mythologies. Here is a sample from today’s prompt: Sometimes we are so immersed in the details our personal mythology that our own worldview and story structures become invisible to us, much as a flighted bird doesn’t for a moment consider the air that it moves through. But our personal stories do not evolve in isolation – we are always in the context of the grander scheme, the larger lives of the groups we belong to. Today’s prompt asks us to step back out of ourselves for a while, to notice and to honor the things that we have inherited from those who have gone before us. I encourage you to visit and explore her site. So far we have dealt with water, earth, personae, and dreams.

This is already longer than I had planned, so I shall give you the link to my last Friday’s blog, which contains links for a couple of Poem a Day sites and the links for the Great Poetry Giveaway.

If you know anyone who would be interested in any of this, take a second to click any of the buttons below. I shall see you again Tuesday, for Acrostics Part 2, and next Thursday for the rest of the story on the no no words for writers. Have a wonderful weekend. Happy Writing.