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!”
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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
Seeking Punctuation
NaPoWriMo Day 24: Today I challenge you to write a “mix-and-match” poem in which you mingle fancy vocabulary with distinctly un-fancy words. First, spend five minutes writing a list of overly poetic words – words that you think just sound too high-flown to really be used by anyone in everyday speech. Examples might be vesper, … Continue reading Seeking Punctuation
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
Personal Life, Politics, and Pinot Blanc – I Would Die 4 U
I have been pondering my personal life, politics, and Pinot Blanc… After all, aren’t they the same thing? ~ Just L (March 9, 2012) “I believe that every single event in life that happens is an opportunity to choose love over fear.” ~Oprah Winfrey It was one of those days when I was reminded how precious life is. Prince … Continue reading Personal Life, Politics, and Pinot Blanc – I Would Die 4 U
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
You might be broke up
If you've had one trip to Mexico Two Brazilian waxes Three birthday bouquets delivered to your home And more strange men kiss you than you can count on two hands* Since your last date with your boyfriend You might be broke up. ~Just L (April 21, 2016) *Not really, but it rhymes #abouthim
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 