read write prompt #33: wordplay is the new black

I was over at Via Negativa recently, where Dave Bonta created an outstanding poem using the method given at ShuffleWords.

Basically, you take the words given to you, move them around on your screen and come up with a poem. It’s sort of like refrigerator magnet poetry but the word choices must be better, since Dave’s poem is so fantastic. Or maybe the word choices aren’t any better, and Dave just knows how to write a killer poem given any set of limitations.

This got me thinking: Why not have the Read Write Poem community use ShuffleWords to create their poems this week? And then I got to thinking a little more: Why not invite participants to engage in any kind of word-limiting exercise for their poems this week. Some examples might include cutting words out of magazines and limiting yourself to those words for your poem. You could even make a collage, scan it and post it on your blog for the next Get Your Poem On.

The above options don’t float your boat? What about picking out random words you see during your day, writing them down then using those words, and those words only, for a poem? Or, pluck words from a book for your poem. Or what about this: Use the random words that rattle around in your head all day. I’ll provide some examples from the track playing in my own head right now: noodle, rickety, spun, froth, boat, cannon, spire, train, feather, crow, brand, element, jargon.

There’s no limit to the number of word you can gather for your poem, just make sure you restrict yourself to only the words you collect using whatever means of collection you have chosen. So if you are pulling a bunch of words out of a book, and you suddenly realize you want the word “boa” in your poem but it’s not one of your words, well that’s just too bad, so sad.

Just kidding. We are somewhat loose with the rules around here, and nobody’s getting graded after all. So minor infringements are tolerated.

Oh, another collaborative way you can approach this project is to let someone else pick out your list, and then you run with that list to make your poem.

One caveat: Since we are restricting ourselves to only the words we collect, it would be wise to gather up a nice bundle. And don’t forget about things like “a,” “an,” “the” and “of” to name a few, otherwise you will find yourself sitting down to write and unable to make any of the oh-so-important connections and associations between words.

If anyone wants to jump into the comments section and throw out a big old list of words that other participants can use for their poems, that would be super excellent. (And in the collaborative spirit!) Just remember the a, an, the, of, in, on, -ly, -ed kinds of words in whatever list you leave.

So, to sum up. You can create your poem using:

  • ShuffleWords
  • Words clipped from magazines
  • Words taken from a book
  • Words you see out in the big wide world
  • Words that flit about in your head throughout the day
  • Someone else’s list of words, including those participants leave in the comments section
  • Whatever method you come up with that is to your liking
  • BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! In super exciting late-breaking Read Write Poem news: We just set up a Read Write Poem account on Twitter to which every single Read Write Poem participant will be given access (if they want access, that is). This is a grand experiment where (we hope) participants will chat, throw prompt ideas out there, ask poetry-related questions and collaborate with one another (such as leaving lists of words for other participants to use).

    The only glitch is you only get 140 characters over there per “tweet,” which is a considerable limitation. But there are ways around it. For example, you might want to pose a question on the RWP Twitter account and ask others to respond to it on their blogs.

    To access the account, e-mail us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org and we’ll hook you up. Just remember to play nice, which I am sure you all will. We don’t want any fights breaking out on the Twitterground.

    (Also, please note that of course you can interact with the RWP Twitter feed from your own Twitter account, but we thought it would be cooler to also give every participant access to the actual RWP account. This is a community, after all, and every single person in the community is part of the whole.)

    (Also also, if you have your own Twitter account — and if you don’t now is a good time to set one up — please do add Read Write Poem’s Twitter account to your list. We’ll be using our followers list to determine who we should be following over on Twitter.)

    ~Dana.

    1. When we are most near « Steer Forth! - June 25, 2008

    [...] A poem pretty much in the vein of Gertrude Stein written using Shuffle Words. As proposed by read write prompt #33. [...]

    2. James Steerforth - June 25, 2008

    Here’s When we are most near, written using Shuffle Words.

    3. Dave - June 25, 2008

    Dana, I’m blushing (not that anyone could tell, what with all this damn facial hair I have). I was actually going to suggest ShuffleWords for a prompt here. There are a couple of other online magnetic poetry sites (see the Wikipedia article on magnetic poetry) but this is the only one that lets you save your work as a page with its own link, for those who don’t want to bother with making a screenshot. Also, the arrangement of words into alphabetic order makes them easy to find.

    4. Read Write Poem - June 25, 2008

    Hi James,

    Come back in the early hours next week (Monday) where you’ll find the Get Your Poem On post…that’s where you leave your link.

    5. Christine - June 25, 2008

    Fun prompt, Dana. i like the spontaneous aspect of it, just seeing what the word god will offer up.

    6. Catherine - June 26, 2008

    Dana, can you explain Twitter in more detail for the ignorant among us, so I can see just why I should (or should not) join up?
    Despite having a science background I find all the new ways of using the web just plain confusing

    7. Dana - June 26, 2008

    Catherine, I am not sure how to describe it. It’s basically a place to post short-and-sweet updates. People use it for staying in touch with each other.

    We were thinking that instead of RWP just using it to post things like “New prompt up on RWP,” and that sort of thing, perhaps it would be a place any RWP participant could go to “tweet” about anything poetry-related.

    To get a feel for Twitter, you could visit my page:

    http://twitter.com/mygorgeous

    Or Deb’s page:

    https://twitter.com/stoneymoss

    Hope that helps.

    8. Carole - June 27, 2008

    I’ve received a link to Read Write Poem on Facebook. It’s possible to get from there to Twitter. As yet I haven’t tried twittering.

    9. Beloved Dreamer-Melanie - June 28, 2008

    Sorry left in wrong place. Here is my shuffleword poem saved as # 186

    my poem

    love-bd

    10. The Artist « Raven’s Wing Poetry - June 29, 2008

    [...] poem was written for Read Write Poem Prompt #33: Wordplay is the New Black. We were encouraged in this word limiting exercise to find a way to compose poems out of a limited [...]

    11. read write poem #8: shufflewords (currently untitled, of course) « pro tempore - June 29, 2008

    [...] RWP piece written using Dana’s suggestion: Shuffle Words.  It was interesting to work with such limitations—overall I found it [...]

    12. gautami tripathy - June 30, 2008

    If the Get Your Poem #34 comments are losed, where do we put our links?

    http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2008/06/from-palms-of-my-hand-you-stand-tall.html

    13. Read Write Poem - June 30, 2008

    We’ll open it back up in just a few hours. Promise!

    14. Beloved Dreamer-Melanie - June 30, 2008

    I don’t know if this going to work or if I am doing it right.

    Saturday, June 28, 2008
    Old Love

    my poem>

    love-bd

    15. Beloved Dreamer-Melanie - June 30, 2008

    Did not work. I really don’t know where we are to put our links!!!!!!!!!!!!! I posted it once before and you have not explained what is going on. If you want to read it, look above or go to my web page. I really don’t know what you want us to do.

    http://www.beloveddreamer.com

    -bd

    16. Fly in a Broken Window « Via Negativa - June 30, 2008

    [...] was honored to have inspired the prompt at Read Write Poem this week with my “Blue Jeans” magnetic poem. You can find links to [...]

    17. Just fence me in at Magpie Days - July 1, 2008

    [...] full of words in this state of mind is just a waste of perfectly good words. So this week’s prompt encouraging us to use a word-limiting exercise to create our poems was perfect for me. Working with [...]

    18. Holly Mac - July 1, 2008

    Here’s my Shufflewords link.

    http://hollyannam.blogspot.com/2008/07/among-them.html

    FYI: This was much needed. I haven’t written anything since January. Thanks!!!


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