Poetry Prompt | 17 year itch

I'm visiting my family and friends in West Virginia. There's been a lot of things going on here, horrible flooding, strange weather, but one thing I'd like to concentrate on today is something much lighter. The cicadas.

Cicadas are these bugs that have different variations. The particular one that infested West Virginia this year comes around every 17 years. They live underground, dormant, until it's their time to shine and mate. The horrifying screech the males emit as their mating call. In fact, if you're mowing your lawn, they think that sound is the mating call and swarm around you. They're not harmful, except to your vegetation and if you're me, you're sanity.

For this week's poetry prompt, let's take a look at something that happens on a regular schedule periodically. It could be an imagining of Haley's Comet coming again (It passes Earth every 75 years) or something that occurs much more often, like a woman's menstrual cycle. This is definitely a different type of prompt, but I think it can definitely be a fun one. Play around with the idea of cycles and things happening on a schedule. See what happens.

Tamara Woods writes, because she can’t imagine any other life. She grew up in the poorest state in the U.S., West Virginia, as a laid-off coal miner’s daughter. She learned from this that money isn’t the root of all happiness, but it sure makes it easier. One fateful 5 at a youth workshop she learned both the art of stolen kisses and being open in her poetry: lessons she’s never forgotten. Tamara’s poetry is spoken word with a heavy emphasis on things that we all know and do. Her fiction hits on darker, uncomfortable subjects, because she’s a firm believer that stories can be beautiful without being pretty. She is the Editor of The Reverie Journal, online poetry site. She is the moderator of #writestuff a writing tweetchat that's every Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST. Find her poetry on her blog, PenPaperPad. Connect on Social Media: Follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook, and check out her book and writing videos on YouTube.

Remember the time- Poetry Prompt

I'm going to guess during this last year you've lost someone or something important to you. A loved one, a family pet, your free time, hairline, even your old clunker that has limped across the finish line into the junk yard of the sky. This person or thing has left behind something in your life. An empty space.

I propose today you write about the quality you most remember about them. A piece of music, scent, the way you could eat everything and your waistline wouldn't budge, it can be virtually anything. The beauty of these poems is we get to learn a little about you and you revisit a good time in your past.



Write a narrative poem about that. It can be as serious or playful as you want it to be. Tell your story. Here's more information on this style.

Tamara Woods writes, because she can’t imagine any other life. She grew up in the poorest state in the U.S., West Virginia, as a laid-off coal miner’s daughter. She learned from this that money isn’t the root of all happiness, but it sure makes it easier. One fateful 5 at a youth workshop she learned both the art of stolen kisses and being open in her poetry: lessons she’s never forgotten. Tamara’s poetry is spoken word with a heavy emphasis on things that we all know and do. Her fiction hits on darker, uncomfortable subjects, because she’s a firm believer that stories can be beautiful without being pretty. She is the Editor of The Reverie Journal, online poetry site. She is the moderator of #writestuff a writing tweetchat that's every Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST. Find her poetry on her blog, PenPaperPad. Connect on Social Media: Follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook, and check out her book and writing videos on YouTube.

Poetry Prompts - A Crooked Path

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” ― Gautama Buddha, Sayings Of Buddha

Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net by Lorisa Koshkina

I'm walking a new path the last few weeks, major changes happening and life has been a little shaky for me. As soon as I saw this photo I knew I needed to share that with you and make it the prompt for the week.

Poetry Prompt:

Write for ten minutes about the path that you're on, is it straight, curvy, is there no path at all? How do you feel about the path that you're on?

Word Prompts:

trail
pathway
walkway
track
lane
alley
passage

May you uncover your truth as you play with your words.




Peace,
Morgan Dragonwillow
Read, Dance, Write, Repeat.

Morgan Dragonwillow is a poet, author, encourager, and facilitator of magical circles. She is team leader at @StoryDam, #OctPoWriMo and #PoetsonthePage You can find her Playing with Words and dancing on her blog.

Yes she is on Google+ too!

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OctPoWriMo Poetry Prompt Day 16: Once Upon A Time...

One of the purposes of poetry is to tell stories. 

Today’s prompt is both simple and familiar.

Remember the beginning of every fairy tale?

Once Upon a Time… is your prompt and

the traditional ending -

..." and they lived happily ever after" may now become whatever you please.

.. "and they….(fill in the ending of your choice.)"

You may begin with the actual words and end with the actual words OR you may decide this is a prompt you just can’t get into and move along to a different theme entirely.

 
You may also elect to use the image prompts to further stir your creative pot. All of these images are in the public domain so feel free to use to your heart's content!

 

Share your poetry with us by linking up. Make sure you visit your neighbors one or two before and after. If you are last on the list go back to the beginning of the list. If you are the first few on the list please go back to the day before and visit the last on the list if you haven't already. Have fun!

-- Julie Jordan Scott

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming Fall and Winter, 2014 and beyond. 

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

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© 2014

On the Eve of OctPoWriMo 2014: Write Poetry & Be Swept Up in Gratitude

On the eve of OctPoWriMo2014, I sat in a Denny’s restaurant, reading from The Best American Poetry 2014.  It is a carefully curated volume of poetry, each poem within a masterpiece among masterpieces.

It was later than I hoped it would be but the evening had run long and I had laughed and cried and sketched and written on-and-off throughout the day as I watched my grandson and fussed over my daughter and marveled at my son’s growing independence.

Finally, I sat down and read a poem of Erin Belieu, “With Birds.”

I have never heard of Ms. Belieu but reading her poem I immediately I felt kinship with her. She and I share interests, we share passion and I imagine as I come to know more of her words I will discover more synchronicity.

Immediately I felt swept up in gratitude.

This is one of the things the experience of poetry has become for me: a gleaning of gratitude for other poets from now and from the past, especially the ones as honored and revered as the ones in this collection I have now devoted to be my companion throughout OctPoWriMo2014.

That’s a big part of OctPoWriMo, afterall: companionship.

We choose to write 31 poems in 31 days. 

We commit to the artform and to one another throughout the month. 

We celebrate each stanza written.

We choose whether or not we continue and I like to think we celebrate both sides of that spectrum - that victory is not in writing daily or even completing 31 poems. The poetry victory is simply in showing up at the page with the poetry when you can with the intention of being present however that ends up looking to you when we sit here, a month from now, on the eve of November.

Maybe then it will be your turn to sit at Denny’s and be swept up in gratitude.

Let’s devote ourselves right now to love one another’s words, heart and especially one another’s showing up.

Some of us will blog and tweet and facebook and some of us will scribble in our notebook away from prying eyes and it is up to each and all of us to be with the each and all of the others.

Even in writing these words I am swept up in gratitude again.

It is the eve of OctPoWriMo2013. 

I am so grateful we are both-we are all - here.

-- Julie Jordan Scott

Poetry Prompt Day 18: And the Poetry Runs Through It

I used to strongly believe in writer’s block. 

I don’t believe in writers block so much anymore. I believe there are times when the words are tougher to come by and there are times when language isn’t flowing and there is time when any word combinations that show themselves on the page are too clumsy or just plain old bad writing that I throw my hands in the air in disgust. Usually I go for a walk or watch Project Runway on my DVR. Sometimes I even wash dishes or declutter.

Now, however, it’s different.

I’ve discovered the key, the secret, the be-all-end-all to all my writing troubles.

It is simply this: I discovered the joy of writing really badly.

It is waving the white flag to the muses and they respond, immediately, by pouring the most funky words possible from my hands to the page.

Sometimes, they stay funky and silly – which is good.

Sometimes, they turn the corner and I discover I really am quite a decent writer.

Here is your task, as strange as it may seem.

Today, write a really bad poem.

Yes, I said write a really bad poem.

Naturally we all have different definitions of really bad poetry. I may, for example, write a bawdy limerick simply because to me, a limerick is normally…. really horrific poetry.

For you, it could be writing a poem almost entirely of adjectives and adverbs or concepts that are not definable. It could be too sing songy or just going nowhere except… usually into the trash can.

Just give it your best worst.

Have some fun.

My only request is this: give it your best shot to be terrible. If you keep the right attitude, I will be surprised if you don’t surprise yourself.

Quotes:

"The old writer’s rule applies: Have the courage to write badly.”

Joshua Wolf Shenk


"Push away the sense of shame from writing badly, and just get the words out. "

Mona Simpson

 
Word Prompt:  Lousy

Sentence Prompt: I thought I would write a lousy poem, so here.....

I look forward to read your horrible, worst, most ridiculous poems EVER!

Have a great weekend!

-- Julie Jordan Scott