Poetry Freeforall: Take One

7:51a.m. — Atlanta

listening to Firehead sung by Infinity Girl

Hello, all. It looks like a sunny day outside. My husband is at his final day of work and then he will be retired, officially. We were bemused to see a piece of paper he was handed earlier this week, titled: Separation Notice. Yikes! The state of Georgia is divorcing him. Texas, here we come.

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie  The prompt that caught my eye this week is the photograph. As with poetry, a viewer’s interpretation may not be what an artist intends. The image is titled Beyond Hope. I see almost the opposite. Check out their other prompts for the week.

The Music In It: Adele Kenny’s Poetry Blog: Adele talks about a personal poetry pharmacy from which we can draw for our therapy poems. Poems centred around deeply felt emotions are some of the hardest to write well. But, their importance as therapy is boundless. Visit to see what she says on the topic of therapy poems.

 Pink.Girl.Ink. Stacy wants us to let a coffee shop be our poem starter. Head over to read what she says.

Feeling blue? Need a laugh? Need warming up? You need to read a limerick or two. Make tracks to Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. Read several. They are in the comments so you don’t even have to leave the page. One advantage to writing a limerick is they are short. You can post them in comments on the blog, or on Mad Kane’s Facebook page. Go over and check it out — read several, write one.

Magpie Tales gives us a black and white photograph by Toni Frissell. It’s one of those photographs that holds on, both while studying it and after leaving it. Remember, as with any image prompt, you can focus on one aspect rather than the whole. Take a look.

Found Poetry Review The FPR is looking at propaganda posters. Beth gives us a wonderful link to a page of poster thumbnails — if you hover your cursor over a thumbnail, it will show you the text. Head over. (If you find a different prompt, Thursdays is changeover day.)

Poets & Writers gives us three prompts every week. One for non-fiction, one for fiction, and one for poetry. My contention is that all the prompts work for poetry. They also all work for prose. This week’s topics are maps, specialty dishes, and tributes.  Visit to find out what the prompts are about.

At imaginary garden with real toads Susie gives us flowers. She has images and quotes to help us on our way, but the most inspirational thing in the post, for me, is when Susie says imagine surfing through velvet brilliance or the sky smelling of orchids. Check it out.

At Poets United Midweek Motif Susan gives us sustainability as our motif. Visit to read Susan’s quotes and a poem by Ginsberg.

Jeremy’s Weekly Challenge I have to laugh at myself. When I see this site coming up, I begin to happily anticipate what Jez has put together for one of his multi-faceted prompts (It’s okay, Jez — after a month you’ll be a regular and I won’t keep putting you to the blush). Check out the possibilities.

At The Happy Amateur Sasha explains wikems. Head over to see what she does with summer.

Over at dVerse I chose the Open Link Night. I don’t think I have done that before, but Bjorn talks about us using images with our poems. As many of us do, I thought you might like to see what he says, but, more importantly (:-)), he gives us a fabulous link. I don’t know if you know of Wikiart, but if you head to the bar, Bjorn is waiting.

See you Tuesday for the next dream prompt; Thursday for links and such; and the following Tuesday (I hope — I’ll have our dates sussed out at some point) for the third dream prompt. Wordgathering will be dark next Friday, while my husband and I drive to Missouri.

Happy writing, everyone.

 

Poetry Freeforall

10:03 a.m.– Atlanta

listening to the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo Yo Ma

Hello, all. Need a few prompts to take your mind off things? Here we go.

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie  The prompt that caught my eye this week is the image with its photograph of tattooed wrists, but also, the haibun opportunity at fairy tale. Check out their other prompts for the week.

The Music In It: Adele Kenny’s Poetry Blog: Adele gives us a prompt that helps us take a memory and write that memory into a poem. Her tips and guidelines give us a process. Visit.

 Pink.Girl.Ink. Stacy asks us to try creating a new spin on the fairy tale Alice In Wonderland. There are so many possibilities. A haibun might be an interesting form to use. But, what caught and held me, for quite a while, is the image Stacy has accompanying the prompt. My inspiration would come from it. Head over to read what she says.

Make tracks to Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. This week’s rhyming word has intriguing possibilities. Read several. They are in the comments so you don’t even have to leave the page. One advantage to writing a limerick is they are short. You can post them in comments on the blog, or on Mad Kane’s Facebook page. Go over and check it out — read several, write one or two.

Magpie Tales gives us a Still Life, 1907, by John Frederick Peto. I find it remarkably compelling. Consider the textures of things. Remember, as with any image prompt, you can focus on one aspect rather than the whole. Take a look.

Found Poetry Review Beth has added a twist, a challenge, to her prompt. The source text concerns lithography, but she asks us to create a remix poem concerning anything other than lithography. Head over.

The Sunday Whirligig has our Wordle words ready. Even if you don’t wordle, it’s fun to see how she lays the words within a photograph.

Poets & Writers gives us three prompts every week. One for non-fiction, one for fiction, and one for poetry. My contention is that all the prompts work for poetry. They also all work for prose. This week’s topics are maps, picture a story, and making connections. Visit to find out what the prompts are about.

At imaginary garden with real toads Isadora tells us to get our groove on. I love her idea for freeing our minds if only for the moments between dance and paper. Head over.

At Poets United Midweek Motif Susan gives us weeds as our motif. I love the quotes she gives us, almost all of which support weeds. Go on over and read.

Jeremy’s Weekly Challenge I am officially hooked on the way Jez presents his prompts.  I find myself anticipating arriving at his page to see what he has for us. You like ekphrastic? Go for it. You like  possibilities for found sources? Yep. Ideas for a theme? Sure. Check out the possibilities.

At The Happy Amateur Sasha explains wikems. If you haven’t tried one yet, you should, especially if you like found poetry (but it isn’t necessary).  Head over to see what she does with mind.

Over at dVerse Gabriella talks to us about the poetry of the everyday. You might want to check the prosody post, as well, even if just to read. To the bar!

See you Tuesday for our first prompt of the summer; Thursday for links and such; and Friday for the roundup of the week’s prompts.

Happy writing, everyone.

 

Poetry Freeforall — Remember

8:02 a.m.– Atlanta

listening to Seals & Crofts singing King of Nothing

Hello, all.

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie  The prompt that caught my eye this week is the image with its photograph of two red shoes, oddly compelling. Check out their other prompts for the week.

The Music In It: Adele Kenny’s Poetry Blog: Adele has a guest prompter, this week: Me.It was odd to arrive at her site and see me. I had forgotten, briefly. At any rate, the prompt focuses on a sense of place and I talk more than usual, as I discuss what a sense of place entails. Visit.

The Sunday Whirligig has our Wordle words ready. They are an interesting collection, sourced from a Naomi Shihab Nye piece. Go on over.

 Pink.Girl.Ink. Stacy is giving us one of her guided prompts. I love these. Even if you are feeling at your least creative, if you follow the steps, you will have a poem. You can take it from there. Stacy is good at these, so see what she says about summer. Visit.

Feeling blue? Need a laugh? Need warming up? You need to read a limerick or two. Make tracks to Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. Read several. They are in the comments so you don’t even have to leave the page. One advantage to writing a limerick is they are short. You can post them in comments on the blog, or on Mad Kane’s Facebook page. Go over and check it out — read several, write one.

Magpie Tales gives us an exquisite artwork by Ulrike Bolenz. Remember, as with any image prompt, you can focus on one aspect rather than the whole. Take a look.

Found Poetry Review The FPR’s focus is graduation speeches: select any current or past speech. If you are attending a graduation, jot down notes to reuse later. Beth provides several links for us to look for a source text. Head over.

Poets & Writers gives us three prompts every week. One for non-fiction, one for fiction, and one for poetry. My contention is that all the prompts work for poetry. They also all work for prose. This week’s topics are personal truths, stranded, and sunflowers.  Visit to find out what the prompts are about.

At imaginary garden with real toads Fireblossom talks lists. Check it out.

At Poets United Midweek Motif Susan gives us happiness as our motif. Visit to read the examples she has chosen, to inspire us, especially a brief video of Alfred Hitchcock defining happiness.

Jeremy’s Weekly Challenge I love the black and white photograph Jeremy has and found myself already working on one of the phrases he gives us this week. Check out the possibilities.

At The Happy Amateur Sasha explains wikems. Head over to see what she does with blue.

Over at dVerse I have left the choice to you. When you arrive at the site, scroll down a bit and you will see the choices for the week. To the bar!

See you Tuesday for an image prompt; Thursday for links and such; and Friday for the roundup of the week’s prompts.

Happy writing, everyone.

 

Poetry Freeforall — And, Again

7:42 a.m.– Atlanta

listening to America (to a backing chorus of the dish washer) sung by Neil Diamond

Hello, all.

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie  The prompt that caught my eye this week is Heeding haiku with HA — the prompt involves Debussy and a piece of his music. Check out their other prompts for the week.

The Music In It: Adele Kenny’s Poetry Blog: Adele has a post for the files: What Editors Look For. If publishing poems is part of your goal it’s not a bad idea to think about what makes particular poems compelling enough to publish, she writes. I thought it might be interesting to poll some poetry journal publishers and poetry editors (print and electronic) to gather some ideas about the qualities of poetry that editors want for their journals. Not only do we hear from several editors, but we have magazines to check out.

The Sunday Whirligig has our Wordle words ready.

 Pink.Girl.Ink. For her return prompt, Stacy has a photograph. I found myself staring at it for quite a while. Take a look.

 

Feeling blue? Need a laugh? Need warming up? You need to read a limerick or two. Make tracks to Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. Read several. They are in the comments so you don’t even have to leave the page. One advantage to writing a limerick is they are short. You can post them in comments on the blog, or on Mad Kane’s Facebook page. Go over and check it out — read several, write one.

Magpie Tales gives us a photograph. Interesting. Remember, as with any image prompt, you can focus on one aspect rather than the whole.

Found Poetry Review Recovering: Stand by.

Poets & Writers gives us three prompts every week. One for non-fiction, one for fiction, and one for poetry. My contention is that all the prompts work for poetry. They also all work for prose. This week’s topics are mothers, alternate future, and made of glass.  Visit to find out what the prompts are about.

At imaginary garden with real toads Marian offers a musical prompt with a Seussian touch. Check it out.

At Poets United Midweek Motif Sumana gives us waves as our motif. Visit to read the examples she has chosen, to inspire us.

We have a new contender, Jeremy’s Weekly Challenge, on Thursdays. I have looked at several of Jeremy’s past prompts and they are fun because he gives us many possibilities. We have possible themes, poetic lines, and images. Choose one, two, or mix a bunch. He asks for both poetry and flash fiction, depending on what strikes you. Go on over and ‘meet’ him. Try a prompt.

At The Happy Amateur Sasha explains wikems. Head over to see what she does with philosophy.

Over at dVerse Bjorn talks to us about antithesis. It’s an interesting discussion and always a fun topic to deal with in a poem. To the bar!

See you Tuesday for one of my prompts; Thursday for links and such; and Friday for the roundup of the week’s prompts.

Happy writing, everyone.

 

 

Poetry Freeforall — Let’s Go. You Can Do It.

Out of my way. I’m late, I’m late, for a very important… Oh, you’re the date and I’m only a couple of hours behind: 9:45 a.m.– Atlanta

listening to They Can’t Take That Away From Me sung by Robbie Williams

Hello, all. No niceties. We’re late! We’re off!

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie  The prompt that caught my eye this week is Tale Weaver’s — the prompt involves documents of any sort and will work for regular and found poetry. Check out their other prompts for the week.

The Sunday Whirligig has our Wordle words ready.

 Pink.Girl.Ink. Stand by.

The Music In It: Adele Kenny’s Poetry Blog: Adele gives us a prompt that is particularly important to what we do. This week, she asks us to deal with last lines. She has many examples (There are a couple where I’m going to seek out the poem), and the tips and dos and don’ts that make her prompts mini-workshops. Head over.

Feeling blue? Need a laugh? Need warming up? You need to read a limerick or two. Make tracks to Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. Read several. They are in the comments so you don’t even have to leave the page. One advantage to writing a limerick is they are short. You can post them in comments on the blog, or on Mad Kane’s Facebook page. Go over and check it out — read several, write one.

Magpie Tales  Either people are slow in coming back from April, or they don’t know what to do with this photograph. Remember that you do not have to write about the whole, or write about the image directly. Head over.

At Poetry Jam, I have been denied access. If anyone knows if the site has gone private, let me know.

 

Found Poetry Review Recovering: Stand by.

Poets & Writers gives us three prompts every week. One for non-fiction, one for fiction, and one for poetry. My contention is that all the prompts work for poetry. They also all work for prose. This week’s topics are bard, found objects, and digital poetry. A whole little poem right there. Visit to find out what the prompts are about.

At imaginary garden with real toads grapeling offers a word list drawn from the works of Neruda. Go play with the toads.

At Poets United Midweek Motif Susan gives us honouring our elders as our motif. Visit to read the examples Susan has chosen.

At The Happy Amateur Sasha explains wikems. Stand by.

Over at dVerse Bjorn talks to us about metaphor and cliché. The post is a week ago, but the piece is worth a read, if you haven’t done so, so head to the bar. They have Moscow Mules this week.

That should keep you busy. I shall see you Tuesday for one of my prompts; Thursday for links and such; and Friday for the roundup of the week’s prompts.

Happy writing, everyone.

 

 

PoMoSco Day 30

Here we are, at last. The final day. I have loved having part of this month be posting poems I thought you’d enjoy. The final prompt asked us to: Visit your local restaurant, bar or coffee shop and snag a copy of the menu. Write a poem using only words and phrases found on the menu.

This, as with any source, depends on text to be workable. I was lucky. I chose a Japanese menu. The restaurant must make a hundred rolls and they name every single one of them. In fact, I had too many words. The first things I did was delete words I knew I wasn’t going to use, so the list was not so intimidating. I like what I finally arrived at: Life is a Japanese Menu.

Other items on the menu (I went nuts today, because it’s the final one):

Barbara C: Please ask

Richard Walker: aromas!

Massimo Soranzio: Buried within

Misky: Filling and Earl Grey at Pret

Kimmy Stühle: Angels on the Moon

Gary Glauber: The Western Chinese Amigo’s Umbrella

Zann Carter:Live–Often and Well

Andrea Janelle Dickens: Émigré Memories

Lori Brack: gypsy midnight

Okay, I’m stopping. The relatives are on their way from the airport, so I guess I should cast my eye over the flat. The dusting… ah, well. Enjoy these. I hope to, a couple of times next month, post links to some more that I come across as I go back through and read without a deadline.

I will see you Tuesday for my regular prompt; Thursday for links and such; and Friday for the prompt roundup.

 

PoMoSco Day 29

I’m still alive and kicking. Okay, maybe not kicking. Today’s prompt was… interesting: Choose a source text where key terms reappear frequently throughout. Books on a particular subject (e.g., whaling, basketball, the Civil War) lend themselves easily to this prompt, as do textbooks, medical journals, etc. Fiction is harder, but you may challenge yourself!

Choose 1-5 of these recurring terms. In a source text about chess, you might choose the words “pawn” and “board.” For each word you’ve chosen, select a replacement word. In the example above, you might choose to replace “pawn” with “woman” and “board” with “home.” Substitute the replacement word(s) on your list each time the original term(s) appear(s) in the text. Create a poem, keeping editing and authorial intervention to a minimum. Got that? Here’s mine: Bookcombing Tips For Southern Florida

Other substitutions (and be sure you look to see what the source text is):

Misky: What Do Kisses Drink

james w. moore: poets of the Wolf — this one is giving me much pleasure. I left a tab open the third time I hunted it down to reread. The two items giving me much joy are picturing specific writers from the PoMoSco group as the wolves, howling, of course. Or, peopling the landscape with famous poets.

Massimo Soranzio: After

Richard Walker: the pursuit of happiness

Rebecca Siegel: On Swarming

Barbara C: Freeing the Muse

Gary Glauber: Replacing and Installing Your WF yes, it is long, but what a giggle

Nancy Chen Long: Glitter Roses Are Beautiful Moons Too

Enjoy these. I will see you tomorrow for the final poem.

 

PoMoSco Day 28

Whoo! That’s all. Too much energy required for anything else. Two more days. Two days. It’s good we have family coming in, so the aftershock of post-April won’t hit me until next week and I’ll have been eased into a different routine.

Instructions: Start with an X ACTO knife, box cutter or other cutting device. Find a text you don’t mind cutting up — or make a photocopy of the text if necessary — and physically cut out the unused portions to create an erasure poem.
Watch james w. moore’s video, “Making Heaven,” which captures his process of creating poems using one approach.
Scan your completed work — or take a picture of it — and upload it to the site.

Today’s gave me trouble and I ended up compromising, not on the poem, but on what a cut-out entails. While understanding that if it’s cut, it’s a cut-out, I knew that was rationalising. I spent an entire April watching james doing cut-outs, during the Pulitzer challenge two years ago. I knew what I wanted. Alas. If I Wish

Other cut-ups and cut-outs:

james w. moore: Crunch & his passenger

Daniel Ari: ?QUIZ?

Barbara C: Undeceived

Richard Walker: Aunt and Uncle

Rebecca Siegel: Journal of Emily Shore

Misky: White as Milk

Vinita Agrawal: Waiting

Gary Glauber: Sound Fury

There are some dark-ish ones in here and I can assure you, if you have never done any kind of erasure, that the darkness will have surprised many of the poets, when it first appeared and they realised where the poem was going. Again, you see many approaches. Why, you might ask, so many different types of ways to do what remains an erasure? Because (I have learned after a reading about a hundred) there really is a different effect.

Enjoy these and I shall see you tomorrow for the penultimate poem.

Lori Brack: Icarus, from a distance

A.K. Afferez: testimony

I know, but I just read them and hadn’t hit publish, yet.

 

PoMoSco Day 27

Three more days. Hard to believe. But, I will have many poems in my revision bag that I am happy about reworking. Today’s prompt is an erasure by chance: Start with two dice and your source text. You’ll want to work with a smaller section of text for this one. For each line, roll the dice. Erase or remove the word in that line that corresponds with the number that comes up (i.e., if you roll an eight, erase the eighth word in that line). Continue to work through the text, re-rolling the dice for each line, until you’ve reached the end of your source text solution.

Repeat, removing additional words, until you arrive at your poem. Experiment with space, illustration or other visual presentation to engage with the relative silence created.

I chose another Adrienne Rich poem to work with and came up with: Child’s Poet Dreaming.

More Spaced Out Poems:

Misky: Shades Beneath White

Barbara C: Appalachian Dream

Richard Walker: judgmental in trusting

Rebecca Siegel: Map

Pamela Sayers: A Tease Around the Eyes

Gary Glauber: Thinking

Doug Luman: Audubon Field Report: Aphelocoma Coerulescens

I’ve known this throughout, but reading today’s poems brought home how differently we each approach writing a poem, how differently we interpret a prompt. Fascinating. Enjoy these. Tomorrow is another angst-filled prompt, for me, but should provide many interesting approaches.

 

PoMoSco Day 26

Happy Sunday. I have dim sum in my near future, always a happy prospect. The prompt for today is an interesting one and was invented by Charmi Anderson, a writer who participated in The Pulitzer Remix Challenge, two years ago. As Charmi described her process, she had taken an envelope with a glassine window in it and everything that appeared within that was her material.

Instructions: Take your source text and a ruler. Mark off a column of  text one inch wide down one or more pages — an inch down the centre of your page, or along the page’s left or right margin. Craft your poem using only words located within your vertical column inch(es). If you use multiple pages, locate your column inch in the same location on each page.

My inch gave me a fair amount of material but it wasn’t until I reminded myself I only needed to use what I wanted, that the poem appeared: I Have Long Scribbled

Other inches:

Sonja Johanson: Alligator

Misky: The Voyage of an Enslaved Heart

Barbara C: created

Sarah Sloat: Asleep by the Sea Window

Richard Walker: you have the ability to stay

Gary Glauber: Hexagram

Theo LeGro: Departing

Nancy Chen Long: Assimilation of the Knower

Okay, I’ll stop. I get caught up and then I want you to read them. Enjoy. Tomorrow is another erasure, but one left to chance. See you then.