NaPoWriMo Day 30: Because we’ve spent our month looking at poets in English translation, today I’d like you to try your hand at a translation of your own. If you know a foreign language, you could take a crack at translating a poem by a poet writing in that language. If you don’t know a … Continue reading The Den of the Half Far To Go Hemline
NaPoWriMo 2016
A Memoir This Does Not Make, But It Tells a Tale
NaPoWriMo Day 29: Poet and artist Joe Brainard is probably best remembers for his book-length poem/memoir, I Remember. The book consists of a series of statements, all beginning with the phrase “I remember.” I remember... “Here she comes, here she comes, oh she slipped back in,” as her 8-year-old brother greeted his baby sister into the … Continue reading A Memoir This Does Not Make, But It Tells a Tale
From Found to Lost
NaPoWriMo Day 28: Today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that tells a story. But here’s the twist – the story should be told backwards. The first line should say what happened last, and work its way through the past until you get to the beginning. Now, the story doesn’t have to be … Continue reading From Found to Lost
“Lordy Help ‘er!”
NaPoWriMo Day 26: Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates a call and response. Calls-and-responses are used in many sermons and hymns (and also in sea chanties!), in which the preacher or singer asks a question or makes an exclamation, and the audience responds with a specific, pre-determined response. (Think: Can … Continue reading “Lordy Help ‘er!”
An Unusual Pairing With Beautiful Results
NaPoWriMo Day 25: Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that begins with a line from another poem (not necessarily the first one), but then goes elsewhere with it. This will work best if you just start with a line of poetry you remember, but without looking up the whole original poem. … Continue reading An Unusual Pairing With Beautiful Results
Mr. Bubble Frets Not Who He Touches
NaPoWriMo Day 23: Today, I challenge you to write a sonnet. Traditionally, sonnets are 14-line poems, with ten syllables per line, written in iambs (i.e., with a meter in which an unstressed syllable is followed by one stressed syllable, and so on). There are several traditional rhyme schemes, including the Petrarchan, Spenserian, and Shakespearean sonnets. But … Continue reading Mr. Bubble Frets Not Who He Touches
Rooted
NaPoWriMo Day 22: Today’s prompt comes to us from Gloria Gonsalves, who also suggested our prompt for Day Seven. Today, Gloria challenges us all to write a poem in honor of Earth Day. This could be about your own backyard, a national park, or anything from a maple tree to a humpback whale. Happy writing! Opening … Continue reading Rooted
The Sky is Not Falling, I Simply Failed Physics
NaPoWriMo Day 21: Just as Rosa Jamila’s poems often sound like they come out of a myth or fairy tale (and not always one with a happy ending), today I challenge you to write a poem in the voice of minor character from a fairy tale or myth. Instead of writing from the point of … Continue reading The Sky is Not Falling, I Simply Failed Physics
The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports
NaPoWriMo Day 20: Today’s prompt comes to us fromVince Gotera, who suggests a prompt very much in keeping with our poet in translation, a “kenning” poem. Kennings were riddle-like metaphors used in the Norse sagas. Basically, they are ways of calling something not by its actual name, but by a sort of clever, off-kilter description … Continue reading The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports
How to (almost) Kiss
NaPoWriMo Day 19: Many years ago, “didactic” poetry was very common – in other words, poetry that explicitly sought to instruct the reader in some kind of skill or knowledge, whether moral, philosophical, or practical. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write the latter kind of “how to” poem – a didactic poem that … Continue reading How to (almost) Kiss
Just L Poetry 