Into The The
If you are always looking for new poetry writing prompts, there's a new kid on the block, The Poetry Instigator. It's a blog, it's a forum, it's a poetry machine, I tell ye! They're completely mad over there. I think you'll love it.
photo by shikoooooo via flickr
I like this writing exercise by Linda Jacobs so much that I’ve stolen it. Well, provided a link to it anyway. Check out her idea of writing about death and shoes on the blog, Totally Optional Prompts. I think it’s a keeper. If you give this one a try, let us know. And you get extra points if you remember the old gospel song, Traveling Shoes.
This month Delirious Hem has launched a forum on feminism. Some of the most exciting female poets I know are digging into the question: What does a feminist [poet] look like? They are adding to the conversation all month long. Want to join in?
I am!
I'm taking a break from blogging for the month of April to focus on my poetry. While I'm away, feel free to follow me on:
I will still sponsor the 2nd annual Blog Reader Appreciation Day on April 16th. More on that event coming soon.
For the last weeks of the U.S. election madness, Wave Books rolls out a 50 day blog, PoetryPolitic. Here's the official announcement:
From September 15th through November 4th, PoetryPolitic will be
offering a spectrum of critical and imaginative thinking, through
poems, audio and video recordings, essays, interviews and manifestos,
by which we — as citizens and as readers — might be brought into a
field of greater and more urgent awareness. The work on PoetryPolitic
represents the ways in which poetry might respond to the complexity of
the political moment, enacting and catalyzing the thinking and
conversations necessary towards that response.
The site's worth visiting, I promise.
Austin-based cartoonist Austin Kleon has a lot of ideas about newspaper blackout poems on his blog. He’s even gotten a book deal from Harper Collins. Get your Sharpies ready.
NaPoWriMo is 2/3 through. How’s the month of poems going for you? So far I’ve only missed one day, the day I did the taxes. That seems reasonable, somehow. At first I thought everything I wrote was dreck, but lately I sense the outline of a poem in several of the drafts. That what drafts are all about, right? I’ve been using my LiveJournal blog. Outsiders can only read the most recent attempt. Add me as your LJ friend, if you want to see the month-long trajectory.
Shanna Compton (if not there, try Bloof)
Janet Holmes
Geof Huth (vispo!)
Danielle Pafunda (if not there, hanging with Shanna)
Jen Tynes
Here’s my list of NaPoWriMo players. Leave me your name and link as a comment below, and I will gladly
add you to the list. If you’re on the list and prefer anonymity, I can
arrange that as well!
Are you in?
Who’s up for writing a poem a day during the month of April?
NaPoWriMo officially begins tomorrow, on April Fool’s day, naturally. This underground event was launched five years ago by poet and blogger Maureen Thorsen. Here’s her recent reflection about the evolution of the project. At this point, it is even branded.
However in a typical poet (i.e. anti-corporate) move, as you can see, the logo options are manifold.
I did this exercise last year and enjoyed it, mostly because of the kind camaraderie involved. I will be using my LiveJournal blog. Email me if you’d like to link up in LJ land. I’m compiling a list of participants.
Robert Lee Brewer (providing daily prompts to aid and abet!)
Shanna Compton (if not there, try Bloof)
Janet Holmes
Geof Huth (vispo!)
Danielle Pafunda (if not there, hanging with Shanna)
Jen Tynes
Leave me your name and link as a comment below, and I will gladly add you to the list. If you’re on the list and prefer anonymity, I can arrange that as well!
Here’s a wonderful collage celebrating the 2nd birthday of Moleskinerie. It has occurred to me in a waking dream that perhaps Big Window wants to become Moleskinerie when it grows up. Time will tell.
Uploaded to Flickr by Occam`s razor
Why not say the obvious? I’m obsessed with notebooks.
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I love notebooks. My friends told me I missed the AWP panel where Charles Simic talked about his.
You can check out the latest edition of EOAGH: A Journal of the Arts online now. The journal is
edited by Tim Peterson. One of my poems is published in this issue.
The table of contents includes:
Language Poetry and The Body: A Panel by Maria Damon, Steve Benson, Leslie Scalapino, and Bruce Andrews
ORDERED FRAGMENTS ( ) OF A DISORDERED DEVOTION
by Charles Alexander
OFF THE TOP OF MY RADIO HEAD
by Stephen Paul Miller
Inbetweeness
by Veronica Wong
Lydia Davis’ Proust reviewed by Michael Gottlieb
And poems by Gilbert Adair, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Cara Benson, Charles Borkhuis, Allen
Bramhall, Laynie Brown, Marie Buck, Laura Carter, Christopher Casamassima, Joel Chace, James Cook, Lisa Cooper, Clayton Couch, Bruce Covey, Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, Jonathan Doherty, Thom Donovan, Jim Dunn, kari edwards and Chris Martin, Thomas Fink, Skip Fox, Joanna Fuhrman, Rebecca Gopoian, Andy Gricevich, Arielle Guy, Barbara Henning, Mitch Highfill, Dan Hoy, Thomas Hummel, Paolo Javier, Paul Foster Johnson, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, Lin Kelsey, Brendan Kreitler, Ruth Lepson, Hillary Lyon, Jami Macarty, Nicholas Manning, Sara Marcus, Bonnie Jean Michalski, Joe Moffet, Rich Murphy, Sheila Murphy and Scott Glassman, Chris Murray, Shin Yu Pai, Dawn Pendergast, Patricia Peterson, Simon Pettet, Nick Piombino, Laurie Price, Karen Randall, Robin Reagler, Marthe Reed, Evelyn Reilly, Edwin Rodriguez, Linda Russo, Frank Sherlock, James Sherry, Ron Silliman, Gregory Vincent St Thomasino, Rob Stanton, Jordan Stempleman, Ray Succre, Shelly Taylor, Adam Tobin, Andrew Topel, Rodrigo Toscano, and Lynn Xu.
Check out the great new issue of WOMB. It’s online and at your ready. The writers/artists featured in this issue are:
Kelli Russell Agodon
Nicole Cooley
Kate Greenstreet
Luisa A. Igloria
Eve Rifkah
Jennifer Karmin
Nicki Hastie
Raina León
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Arlene Biala
Nava Fader
C Mehrl Bennett
Laura Goldstein
Jill Alexander Essbaum
Kristen Orser
Pearl Pirie
Kathryn Douglas
Angela Veronica Wong
Juliet Cook
Lillian Baker Kennedy
Michelle Detorie, editor
(below, photography by Kate Greenstreet)
Apparently NaPoWriMo has not one but two logos? Which one do you prefer? I like this one by Maureen. It has an exquisite corpse quality to it that appeals to me.
For the month of April, I’ve decided to give this poem-a-day challenge a try. Instead of posting the poems here, however, I’m going the more private route via LiveJournal. It’s free and easy to set up and you can label things so that only selected individuals can read what you’re writing. I’m going to post drafts there. If you want to join me, add me as a "friend" on LJ, and I will do the same.
Every poet knows that April is the cruelest month and that fact alone makes it the perfect time for National Poetry
Writing Month or NaPoWriMo 2007. This year there’s even a logo for it.
All that is required of you, dear poet, is one poem a day. Are you in?
