I clicked over to NaPoWriMo to get the daily prompt. Oh! A form! I'm doing well with writing in form for NaPoWriMo this year and this is a new form for me to play with.
Then I saw it - the title I used for today's post. It made me laugh out loud, so I had to share it here.
Today, I challenge you to write a poem in terza rima. This form was invented by Dante, and used in The Divine Comedy. It consists of three-line stanzas, with a “chained” rhyme scheme. The first stanza is ABA, the second is BCB, the third is CDC, and so on. No particular meter is necessary, but English poets have tended to default to iambic pentameter (iambic pentameter is like the Microsoft Windows of English poetry). One common way of ending a terza rima poem is with a single line standing on its own, rhyming with the middle line of the preceding three-line stanza.
I haven't written mine, yet. I will. But I have planted all of the spinach (two types), kale (two
types), onions, rainbow carrots, and tomatoes (one plant each of three types). And mowed the grassy areas (or should I say grass-like areas?).
Now I have to clean up so I can go watch Othello tonight! Carolyn and Rich saw it last week and Carolyn and I are going tonight. The three of us (Rich Hall, Carolyn Brockway, and I) will be interpreting Othello at Portland Center Stage on April 24th at 7:30 pm and May 1st at noon (the matinee may already be sold out).
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Here is the prompt - I am looking forward to getting my hands on it! Maybe over dinner before Othello.
Today’s (optional) prompt is a “replacement” poem. Pick a common noun for a physical thing, for example, “desk” or “hat” or “bear,” and then pick one for something intangible, like “love” or “memories” or “aspiration.” Then Google your tangible noun, and find some sentences using it. Now, replace that tangible noun in those sentences with your intangible noun, and use those sentences to create (or inspire) a poem. Here’s a little example that replaces the word “lemon,” in sentences from a Wikipedia article on lemons, with the word “sorrow.”
Sorrow is a small evergreen tree native to Asia. The origin of sorrow is a mystery. The first substantial cultivation of sorrow in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the 15th century. A halved sorrow dipped in salt or baking powder is used to brighten copper cookware. One educational science experiment involves attaching electrodes to sorrow and using it as a battery. Although very low power, several sorrows can power a small digital watch.
Goofy, but also interesting! It’s not quite a poem yet, but there might be a poem in there, waiting to come out. Happy writing!
From NaPoWriMo : "Poets have been writing about love and wine, wine and love, since . . . well, since the time of Anacreon, a Greek poet who was rather partial to that subject matter. Anacreon developed a particular meter for his tipsy, lovey-dovey verse, but Anacreontics in English generally do away with meter-based constraints. Anacreontics might be described as a sort of high-falutin' drinking song. So today I challenge you to write about wine-and-love. Of course, you may have no love of wine yourself, in which case you might try an anti-Anacreontic poem."
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The NaPoWriMo (write a poem each day for 30 days) prompt for today is:
Today’s prompt is to write a love poem . . . but the object of the poem should be inanimate. You can write a love poem to your favorite pen, the teddy bear you had as a child (and maybe still have), or anything else, so long as it’s not alive!
I won't get to writing my poem today until later, since I'm waiting at the CoLab in Port Townsend waiting for the writing workshop to begin. Today I get to write with Lidia Yuknavitch; tomorrow it will be with Pam Houston. You will be able to read the poem over at The Writing Vein Playground.
But, courtesy of NaPoWriMo, here is a prompt for today's daily poem.
Today’s prompt is a little complicated, which is why I saved it for a Saturday, in the hopes that you might have a little more time today than during a weekday. I think this is a very rewarding form, though, so I hope you’ll enjoy it! Today I challenge you to write a “golden shovel.” This form was invented by Terrance Hayes in his poem, The Golden Shovel. The last word of each line of Hayes’ poem is a word from Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem We Real Cool. You can read Brooks’ poem by reading the last word of each line of Hayes’ poem! (In fact, you can do so twice, because Hayes, being ultra-ambitious, wrote a two-part golden shovel, repeating Brooks’ poem). Now, the golden shovel is a tricky form, but you can help keep it manageable by picking a short poem to shovel-ize. And there’s no need to double-up the poem you pick, like Hayes did.
She goes on to give a few examples on the webpage, so make sure to hop over there to take a look.
The poetry prompt for today, from NaPoWriMo is...
"... to write a lune. A lune is a sort of English-language variation on the haiku, meant to better render the tone of the Japanese haiku than the standard 5-7-5 format we all learned (and maybe loved) in elementary school. There are a couple of variants on the lune form, but just to keep things simple, let's try the version developed by Jack Collum. His version of the lune involves a three-line stanza. The first line has three words. The second line has five, and the third line has three. You can write a poem that consists of just one stanza, or link many lune-stanzas together into a unified poem. "
From NaPoWriMo.net, here is their (optional) prompt for today's poem. I will be posting my poem later over at The Writing Vein Playground.
In keeping with today's status as the third day of NaPoWriMo, I challenge you to write a charm – a simple rhyming poem, in the style of a recipe-slash-nursery rhyme. It could be a charm against warts, or against traffic tickets. It could be a charm to bring love, or to bring free pizzas from your local radio station.
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In the tradition of NaNoWriMo, someone started NaPoWriMo in 2003. The goal is to write 30 poems in 30 days. It's that simple. Yes, it is.
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The official NaPoWriMo site will have a featured press, a featured blog, and a featured participant every day. They also offer daily prompts.
Here is the prompt for day one:
Our prompts are, as always, optional. If you have your own plans for generating poems, or find prompts elsewhere that suit you better, that’s just fine. Our prompts are there just to help those who are having trouble getting inspired – if you’re full up on inspiration, there’s no need to follow them. With that out of the way, I’ve chosen something I hope will be fun and simple, to ease you into your first day. Today, I’d like you to go to Reb Livingston’s Bibliomancy Oracle. Clear your mind, push the button, and then write a poem based on the quotation that the oracle provides. Happy writing!
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My Oracle prompt and poem:
this is the meet-up of movement and memory/ how our ancestors kiss each other in the stairwells of satellites/mischievous and right on time
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from “like seeds / or a guide to black feminist time travel” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Truth of the Garden by Dot Hearn
Clematis hiking over painted trellis slats interwoven green on white on wood against the cement pillars of the porch. Sun baking, rain pelting, wind buffeting leaves and delicate flowers left over from a decade ago when the house was planted when the walls erected and the foundation layed. Memories buried and covering and hiding everywhere. "If these walls could talk" has nothing on the preservation power of roots and stalks and rhizomes and the flowers they produce year after year. Infinity.
This weekend I'm attending a workshop with both Lidia Yuknavitch and Dorothy Allison. The participants are divided into two groups and each group spends one day with Lidia and one day with Dorothy. Tonight we had the pleasure of listening to both Lidia and Dorothy read from their future novels. I'm excited to read them both and I could have listened to more tonight.
It was an incredible day with Lidia, with the other writers. Writing. Listening to their words, those who wanted to share. Strength, power, honesty. Brave.
This isn't something I normally do - but here I go. This is a raw piece of writing from the workshop today. I want to put it out there, as is. This was the third of a series of three related prompts. No, you don't get to see the earlier two and I'm not even giving you the prompt, which wouldn't make sense if you don't get parts one and two.
Here it is, untitled, from Port Townsend.
Flutter in the wind and the waves of knowledge passing through. Directing, redirecting and I know from where the wind comes though I’m not sure where it’s going. The going isn’t my concern, no it’s that you know. That we know that life is a river and you don’t have to stay here all the time you can change your mind and swim upstream or rest on the bank on a rock in the sun or under the shade of a tree if the light is too bright. You don’t have to brave it all at once it all leads to the same place and we will all get there. We will. I promise. I’m soft and downy and I carry the rhythm of not only your life but all life because life needs. Life is. Life. Live it. Stroke me, carry me, hear me if you can but I beat. Under the darkness inside, darkness outside. But I know and you can know if you’re willing, that darkness is just a different way of seeing. It is not absence of sight not absent of light, but a strengthening of the other senses. Strengthening of that inner knowing which I know and I will hold for you. Knowing. Holding. My wings flap and I flutter and I hold you in my gentleness and all my strength. Cry or don’t. Just be. With me.
J is for Juxtaposition. I like that word. The sound of it, the feel of it in my mouth when I say it, the challenges it raises when I sign in, the way doesn't quite flow from the pen onto paper - the way spans the length of the keyboard as I type it.
As it doesn't flow to produce the word, so it doesn't flow in definition. By which I mean that a Juxtaposition is generally placing things together which aren't normally found that way. It doesn't have to be that there is tension between the objects places side by side, but often - at least in creative and artistic uses - it is.
In art, Juxtaposition is frequently used to show tension, inconsistencies, to make a point or give graphic representation to concepts one is trying to show to convince, evoke, or expose. I suppose that Juxtaposition is prevalent in dance, which is one reason I like it. And in theater. Aren't performances all about Juxtaposition? What goes together, what doesn't? What is present or absent, in the concrete or the abstract?
I was also thinking that Juxtaposition is what we use as writers. Juxtaposition isn't limited to just the visual arts, but to literary as well. We can Juxtapose a character in a setting and see how the story plays out. We Juxtapose two characters or two families or generations into a story to evoke those same senses as visual arts: tension, meaning, definition, and familiarity or dissimilarity.
J is for Juxtaposition.
I did a little wandering around the internet, looking for images others put up to represent Juxtaposition. Here are a few I found...
I've done National Poetry Month for the past three years. But not this year. This year - as you may have noticed - I'm doing the Blogging A to Z Challenge. If you missed my first post about it, you may have wondered why I have a letter block each day, and why some of the topics were chosen.
Not that I can really tell you why I chose the topics, unless that's already in the post itself. Which some of them are. But some are random, as in 'what's the first thing which pops into your head with the prompt of the letter "E".' That one was completely random and fun: Eclectically Ergonomic Elephants. Ha!
But even though I'm not writing a poem a day this month, I am posting prompts intended for poetry, every day on my related site, The Writing Vein Playground. The prompts could also be used for writing. Or making art. Or dancing. I have a few friends who are writing a poem a day so these have been created with them in mind, but are open for anyone to use, of course! You can find them and see what I discover each day over at The Writing Vein Playground. And if you use them, feel free to post your poem or flash writing in the comments section.
So far this month every prompt has been a picture, one is a video. I suspect that will continue; I may or may not add word prompts as the month progresses. Each post does include a link to the place online, usually an article, where I found the pictures if you want to read more about it. But wait until after you've written your piece!
April 7
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No A to Z Challenge post today. Sundays are days off in their format. Although you can see that I have already developed the daily posting habit, so here you go!
And a bonus random photo from my own collection - just because.
I've been posting the Razor's Edge on Fridays for a few years. Or on most Fridays.
My original intent was to post the weekly prompts, keeping them fresh and incorporating music, video, photographs, and word prompts. I've made most Fridays, with a few missed deadlines or vacation absences.
I still support the idea of weekly writing prompts. But I also feel like the essence of "Razor's Edge" hasn't been met and I'm thinking about this.
I am on vacation this week and didn't get the weekly post put together before I left town.
And I've decided to give "Razor's Edge" a hiatus while I think how I want to proceed. I may bring it back with a new format, or I may do something different.
I will keep posting other things.
Oh, and NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, so you know you'll be reading about those adventures!
It's the middle of the night. You heard a sound outside your window and, after lying in bed debating, you decide to take a look.
From a safe distance.
You pick up the flashlight from your bedside table, press it against your pajamas and click the on/off switch. It clicks. But no light. You return it to the table and walk on your tiptoes to the thick, nearly blackout level dark blue curtains. The sound seems to be gone but you think you hear whispering. Or the wind. Or maybe raccoons hissing at your cat. Or something.
A twig snaps. Too loud to be an animal, you think.
You stand as flat against the wall as you can and lift the edge of the curtain, waiting for your eyes to adjust.
You turn your head and look outside. And there, just feet from your house you see ....
(start the video below, go, write for as long as the music lasts - about 8 minutes)
This week you have another series of pictures to use. Pick one if it inspires you, or use the series of three and tell the story it, or they, brings to mind.
Look at the photos
start the sound video (it's ~10 minutes long)
and using the word prompt : That morning, she noticed that something was different...
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I'm returning cautiously to some event walking. Building up slowly and carefully, paying attention to my back and knee, pushing just a little for fitness sake and not pushing too much to set myself back again. And setting an attainable bar, not reaching for the sky with only a 6 foot ladder.
A few weeks ago I signed up to do a 5k walk, which is a part of a bigger event. I have a friend who is walking (or maybe she's jogging, or a combination, perhaps) the half marathon part of the event. She will start an hour before me and her time for a half marathon is now under 3 hours - yay! But that means I'll cross the finish line maybe 30 minutes before her. Maybe.
And that's okay.
So signing up for this event has kept walking more in my fitness routine than it had been. I am certainly not giving up on swimming; I need that; my body needs swimming; my mind need swimming. But I've been walking more than I had been and I've added distance. Which, obviously, means longer walks.
This week on one of my walks, I was in familiar territory, though I hadn't taken that particular route for a while. It's in an area I tend to drive through or around, but not much walking.
Walking an area brings out sights you don't see from a car. Again, obvious, I know. But I came across this delightful installation. And I thought it would might a nice prompt for this week.
Look at the picture.
What book would you put in the mailbox?
What book would might you discover there?
Or choose to write about the people who live in the house who installed this feature?
Or what book would you write to put into the mailbox?
Today's Razor's Edge is a the following video of a performance piece, "Cassette Memories." I recently saw a performance here in Portland which was curated by Aki Onda, as a part of the T:BA:12 series.
Watch his performance and take the perspective of the performer or of a performance viewer. There are some interesting characters who pass by in this video.
Or perhaps your story is of an outsider, who stumbles on this performance and maybe the story isn't about the performance, but about the experience of watching those who are watching the performance. Or not watching but wander by and wonder.
Let yourself sink into the video and then write. For 8-10 minutes.
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Today's prompt starts with a video of a Contact Improvisation dance. Watch and listen to the dance and then read the prompt below the video.
And, go!
Prompt: Think about the people you've been closest to in your life. Make a list of the top five to seven. Look at the list and let an event come to mind with each of them. Which event feels strongest or evokes the most vivid images? Choose that one.
Tell me about this person. Start with the image which came first to mind and write. Write for 10 minutes.
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Water is important; we all know that. But this week water has been a particularly commanding presence in my life. It started with the discovery of a soaked bathroom rug in the middle of the night, which led to shutting off water to the entire house, and calling a plumber.
All this on the day the Literary Kitchen started another round of Wayward Writers. And we had a date with the youngest member of our family to go to the Pirate Festival. Oh! And Pirates = water. Yet another connection.
The plumber came and went last Saturday and we had a new cold water connection, a new sink drain, and were told we needed to call our insurance. Which we did. And we waited.
For returned calls.
Which came. With anxiety producing predictions of the process. With threats that the potential damage may not be covered. With trying to schedule visits from a disaster recovery contractor and an insurance adjuster and then another visit from the contractor's office. With more promised appointments and visits to be made, with the potential of another team of workers if the samples taken today turn out to contain asbestos or lead paint (our house is over 100 years old; the chances are good).
All this while trying to work. To write a story. To prepare to interpret a wedding on Saturday. To rearrange the interpreter line-up for PCS because one person had to back out for the season.
This momentum, this movement in a new direction while holding our own in the stream of our lives, started with a burst water pipe under the sink and behind a drawer.
Stepping on a soaking wet mat on the way to the toilet in the middle of the night.
Water. Important. And powerful.
So, for you, today's prompt is water related.
This is a relaxing and attractive video of a river. Turn it up so you can hear the water. When you feel yourself letting go a little, feel the edge of tautness slipping away, read the prompt and write.
Or, read the prompt first and then turn on the video. It's 10 minutes in length; the amount of time I'd like you to write.
Today's prompt is a video along with words. The words might be sentence starters, or the essence of a paragraph, or perhaps your writing takes you in a completely different direction. Don't feel compelled to use the exact words, though you can if you like.
The video is about 20 minutes long; it is pieces from a performance.
Watch the video for at least five minutes before you start writing. But I suggest waiting as long as you can to start unless you are pulled to start earlier.
Start by reading the word prompts. Then start the video. Write when you are ready. Write for about 10 minutes.
Go.
[1] Before I forgot what I knew, I thought that ....
