OctPoWriMo Day 7: Writing Poetic Silence

Quote inspiration:

“Silence introduced in a society that worships noise is like the Moon exposing the night. Behind darkness is our fear. Within silence our voice dwells. What is required from both is that we be still. We focus. We listen. We see and we hear. The unexpected emerges.”

Terry Tempest Williams

Your prompt in task form:

Mute or turn off everything that emits sound or delivers sound to you off for five minutes. 

Be silent.

If you must, turn on an inner mantra that speaks silence. Breathe the word in… and out… slowly.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

Write a poem of these five minutes (or more). Allow the unexpected to emerge.  Write it.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

Image prompt:

Choose one or more of the ideas above and write...

 --- Julie Jordan Scott

OctPoWriMo Day 6 - Perfect!

 

"Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare." Rene Descartes

Confession: I am a number nerd. When I realized that this prompt was for day 6, I immediately thought, "Perfect!" Six is the first "perfect" number. For those less mathematically inclined, that just means that if I take all the numbers that will divide evenly into 6 (1, 2, and 3) and add them together (1+2+3) the result is 6. 

Now don't worry. I'm not going to ask you to write about math! Instead, let's explore the idea of "perfect". What does perfect mean to you? Are you a perfectionist? What does your perfect day look like? 

Word Prompts: 

• perfect
• perfection
• perfectionism
• imperfection
• imperfect

Shadow Poetry suggested form: Naani

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~ Amy McGrath is a poet, fiction writer, artist, and student of life. She is working toward a new career as a Creative Arts Therapist where she hopes to share with others the healing power of the creative process. You can read her poetry and see some of her art on her blog - Poetry, Prose, Art, and Creativity. When she's not writing or making art, you can find her reading, listening to a wide range of music (even singing karaoke sometimes), or spending time with her husband Patrick and her two sons.

Autumn poetry-OctPoWriMo Day 5

The wind is taking on a chillier bent. Leaves are rushing to change. People are having pumpkin flavored everything and the Halloween decorations are going up. It's that autumn time of year.

Fall is also the time for harvest when the fruit of labor pops up to nourish our lands. Sunlight shortens and the nights grow longer.

Autumn itself can symbolize the melancholy of change, growing older and even death. There's also the new beginnings that start as well- school sessions, sports beginning to play in the Fall, the fun of Halloween. So many options to chose from.

There's such a beautiful dichotomy of renewal and death. Poets have been using autumn for creative fodder for years. Some classics are John Keats: 'To Autumn' and Robert Frost: 'Gathering Leaves.'

Poetry Prompt:

Here's your challenge (if you chose to accept it): Write a poem influenced by your feelings about autumn. Do you see autumn as a beginning or the beginning of the end?  Chose at least three from this list of words below.

The words:
                              chill
                              renewal
                              death
                              rebirth
                              harvest
                              melancholy
                              aging
                              change

Day 5 is here! Are you ready to write?



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Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia, where she began writing poetry at the age of 12. She shares poetry and short stories on her blog PenPaperPad, is a contributing writer for the online ‘zineLefty Pop and writes articles as a full-time freelance writer. She is editor for an upcoming poetry journal collaboration, and hosts #writestuff TweetChat where writers talk about writing. She is a hillbilly hermit in Honolulu living with her Mathmagician.     

Poetry Prompts Day 4 - Poetry Revolution

“The pen is mightier than the sword!”― Edward Bulwer-Lytton

There is power in words and how we use them. I often write poems about social injustices and needed social change. In this day and age there is plenty of fodder for it, women's rights, LGBT, racism in America, child abuse, sexual abuse, genocide, the Middle East, Religion, and I could go on. 

Many poets in history/herstory have fought for change through their words on the page, through their poetry. 

Here are a few I found on Poems of Protest and Revolution.

• Walt Whitman, “To a Foil’d European Revolutionaire” (1881)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar, “The Haunted Oak” (1903)
• Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “Protest” (1916)
• Carl Sandburg, “I Am the People, the Mob” (1916)

Women have been fighting for a place in poetry probably since the beginning of time. The poets that have predominantly been shared in history have been men and it is past time that the wonderful women poets are allowed to shine. To find those in Herstory, check out Julie Jordan Scott's Literary Grannies. 

Below you will find more recent women poets of our time.

One of the most influential Feminist Poets of this century, Adrienne Rich said, "The mother's battle for her child with sickness, with poverty, with war, with all the forces of exploitation and callousness that cheapen human life needs to become a common human battle, waged in love and in the passion for survival."

You can find the 10 Feminist Poets You Should Know here that include: 

• Maya Angelou
• Anne Waldman
• Carol Ann Duffy
• Margaret Atwood
• Lyn Hejinian
• Alice Walker
• Katha Pollitt
• Susan Howe
• Carolyn Kizer
• Marge Piercy

All poets with a passion for changing the world through poetry.

Poetry Prompts:

When was the last time you took a risk for something you believed in? How do you use your words? What are you creating in the world with your poetry? Choose one or all of these questions and Free write for ten minutes.

Photo by Morgan Dragonwillow

Word Prompts: 

Risk

Revolutionary

Reawaken

Reclaiming

Feeling Words:

Courageous

Energetic

Liberated

Spirited

Watch (and dance) to this video to help motivate your writing.






This is day four here at OctPoWriMo, how are you doing so far? Are you writing daily?

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Morgan Dragonwillow: Writing rebel, stress relief explorer, recovering perfectionist, cooking as therapy, poet & author that (mostly) doesn't let her fears get in the way of her passion for writing and creating. She is team leader at @StoryDam, creatrix of #OctPoWriMo. She lives in Marietta, Ga. with her loving and patient partner, their dog that thinks she's a princess, and the cat that reminds her that she isn't.
You can find her on Google+

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OctPoWriMo Day 3: It's Friday... SWEET!

The weekend is here! Do you have any grand plans? It seems that lately I have as much packed into my weekends as I do in my weekdays.

Weekends can (and in my humble opinion, should) be a time of indulgence in those things that bring sweetness into our lives.





The PROMPT: What brings sweetness into your life? Are you a chocolate lover or a Candy Crush junkie? Perhaps sweet food isn't your thing. What else is sweet to you? What are your indulgences?

WORD PROMPTS: 

• sweet
• candy
• sugar
• indulgence

Shadow Poetry Type: Tri-fall

As always, the prompt is completely optional! What matters it that you're writing and enjoying the journey!

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Photo by Loud Images 

~ Amy McGrath is a poet, fiction writer, artist, and student of life. She is working toward a new career as a Creative Arts Therapist where she hopes to share with others the healing power of the creative process. You can read her poetry and see some of her art on her blog - Poetry, Prose, Art, and Creativity. When she's not writing or making art, you can find her reading, listening to a wide range of music (even singing karaoke sometimes), or spending time with her husband Patrick and her two sons.

OctPoWriMo Day 2: Today is More than Just a Number - It is Your Poem

 “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.”

W.H. Auden

Welcome to Day 2 of OctPoWriMo.

I just got back from shopping and all over the stores there are signs of Halloween, that other celebration in October. I wanted to shout, “There’s poetry, too….”

which brings us to the most simple and perfectly synchronistic poetry prompt ever.

WORD PROMPT: Today, on this second day of OctPoWriMo, we will be inspired by the number and word, “two” or for those contrarians who have an issue about writing numerals, you may run with the adverb I used above in “There’s poetry,too….” or even the preposition, “to” as in “We went to the animal fair… the birds and the bees were there….”

I started playing with this prompt by making lists of “to” and “2” and “too” - you may want to try that as well and discover for yourself where this prompt will lead.

AND as always, the prompt is completely optional.

Quote: “The union of the mathematician and the poet , fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this is surely the ideal.” William James

I don’t usually suggest forms, but given the prompt, How about writing a poem in two lined stanzas? I have called these “couplets” and yet I find so many terms for different things, I’ll stick with the two lined stanza poem instead - at least for now.

Enjoy your poetic day, loves! 

-- Julie Jordan Scott

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. 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    

Be sure to "Like"WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!
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Breaking Out of the Box

Welcome to the third year of OctPoWriMo; 31 Poems in 31 Days! Whether you participated in previous years or are brand new, all are welcome here - younger and older, new to poetry or have been writing it for years - this is the place to be if you love or want to explore poetry.

There aren't many rules:

• Be courteous to your fellow poets.
• Visit, share, and comment on as many participants as you are comfortable with.
• And most of all have fun!

There will be a linky that you can link up to daily regardless if you write to the poetry prompt or not. We are here to encourage and inspire you but where and how you come up with your poems is up to you. 

Poetry Prompts:

The above quote is probably true about most if not all poets (and those that write poetry but don't consider themselves a poet -yet) that they cannot contain themselves, or at least they are working on breaking out of the box, the chrysalis that is holding them in.

What stage are you in, caterpillar, chrysalis, or butterfly?

Do you feel like you are boxed in or are you flying free?

Word prompts:

Chrysalis
Butterfly
Transformation

Shadow Poetry type: Free Verse

Remember all the prompts are suggestions, feel free to let your words flow wherever your muse takes them.

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Morgan Dragonwillow: Writing rebel, stress relief explorer, recovering perfectionist, cooking as therapy, poet & author that (mostly) doesn't let her fears get in the way of her passion for writing and creating. She is team leader at @StoryDam, creatrix of #OctPoWriMo, and you can find her at, A Poet's Kitchen, cooking up simply delicious meals. She lives in Marietta, Ga. with her loving and patient partner, their dog that thinks she's a princess, and the cat that reminds her that she isn't.
You can find her on Google+

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