by Dana Guthrie Martin
Welcome to the first Read Write Poem “Get Your Poem On” post. From now until midnight U.S. Pacific Standard Time one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for this week’s contribution.
We hope many of you took the time to write some American Sentences you want to share today. (And if not that’s cool, too.) We also hope you enjoyed the collaborative exercise we did on the comments section of Wednesday’s post. We’ve posted the resulting poem at the end of this post.
Please take a few moments to read the the about page, the recently updated code of conduct and our copyrights page. If you have any questions about the project after reading through these pages, please e-mail us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.
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Our American Sentence
Oh me first, let me see, that’s eight, but that might be more than one sentence.
The American Sentence has seventeen syllables—period.
She once told me GIRTH was an acronym for God It’s Really Thick Hon!
my lawn’s frosty fingers plead with morning rays: “sun, take away our fears.”
Your intoxicating spice lingered in my bed three days and three nights.
Deb hangs her head, greasy hair hanging. No homework again. Now, no home.
You can sit on your porch here and watch your dog run away for three days.
Ghosts try to weave into reality zigzagging through mini blinds.
Fall leaves please, I concentrate and squint, hoping for snowfall and reindeer.
Wicked thoughts between Chardonnay and pizza blond delivers wife waits.
In the street- you drop my hand when a man walks by: I want to reach out.
At the doctor’s, confounded by forms: not single, not married.
Ghosts, fall leaves and your hands all remind me of sweat: I can’t forgive that.
I was only three cocktails or a stay away from execution.
May I now present a man, a wife, two children, a stock Christmas card.
My hair, unwoven, remembers how it feels to be held in a braid.
Police helicopter hovers overhead while I sit drinking my wine.
This is very intriguing, like a haiku without the end breaks.
As I write the cat stares at my efforts – clearly he is unimpressed.
All public transport grinds to a halt to call Sarkozy’s bluff – who blinks?
Twin-sentence problems can be fixed with the magic of semicolons.
Last year’s gloves hide camouflaged under lint piles of a hundred worries.
In separate compartments, still, we all travel along the same tracks.
Tempted to attempt my very first American sentence, curiosity conquers fear of mess-up.
More shit from my pencil; how come I can’t write like Allen Ginsberg?
Jets blast, geese cronk, wind rushes scarlet leaves: sound layers above my head.
Staring in her blue eyes, he says: You will always just be my lover.
It rains in the desert while I’m on the beach; the beach, of course, is dry.
I pulled shut the door as soon as I realized where my keys remained.
congealed oats- stuck to the walls of glass- reminder of my gelled life?
Spilled mocha on my blue winter coat. Rain washed it clean – but not me.
Life is transitory; let your joy and your melancholy take turns.
Everything should be as easy to erase as cheap pink nail polish.
She took nothing but crumbs, the dregs, left-overs, and tears: then she complained.
Memo to Ginsberg:
writing haiku in three lines
IS American.
sit…stay…down…over…good girl…daddy loves when you are obedient!
a cup of tea this chilly fall night, I simply sip the cold away.
Here is my contribution for the week. Thanks everyone for being part of the project and helping to make the first Get Your Poem On a success.
[...] at Read Write Poem over the last few days. It’s worth a gander. (Just scroll to the bottom of this post.) Filed under: american sentences, collaborative poetry, read. write. poem. [...]
I am hooked on American Sentences!
http://watercolorblues.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/more-american-sentences/
I tried working the line I contributed in that colloborative post.
into a poem consisting of American sentences.
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2007/11/congealed-read-write-poem-monday-poetry.html
I write a lot of haiku so thought this would be a breeze…….but they’re trickier than they look.
http://abroadsthoughtsfromhome.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-sentences.html
I posted the one I wrote for the site and a couple more:
http://mingyun.org/2007/11/19/american-sentences/
I wrote one a day based on my trip to the UK, so here are my British American Sentences
(There is a bonus sentence, not connected with the trip, in the previous day’s post)
My first
I’m afraid I didn’t feel qualified to write American Sentences so I wrote Australian ones instead (too lazy and too much of ratbag to count syllabubbles)
http://gingatao.wordpress.com/2007/11/17/australian-sentences/
Hi everyone,
I posted the one I did for the group poem plus I wrote three more.
Rose
xo
http://dewyknickers.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/seventeen/
i didn’t have as much time as i would have liked to have had to play with this… it was really fun tho’…..
here’s mine:http://justpaisley.why-paisley.com/?p=276
I gave American sentences a whirl here…
oops.. i messed up the link…. i’ll try again……
“american sentence”
Here’s a link to the American Sentences page I started in October. The 4 on the top I wrote since last week.
http://mariacristina.wordpress.com/american-sentences/
http://eatsbugs.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/whipcrack-111907/
Not full of American Sentences, but I think I did okay.
Comments are always welcome!
I’ve posted some American Holiday sentences on Crafty Green Poet and that post also links to some sentences that aren’t American on my other blog. You can read them starting at: http://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-holiday-sentences.html
Hello!
Here are mine, a smattering of American Sentences from …deb.
What fun; I’m addicted.
Thanks for the great opening prompt. Here’s my experiments with the form. I’ll be back after work to see everyone else’s work.
Embarassed to see my cranky haiku included in the montage, but delighted with the line that follows it. And for my money, the most American of all the sentences above is this one: “You can sit on your porch here and watch your dog run away for three days.” It has that whole Mark Twain, tall-tale thing going on.
Then again, anything having to do with porches feels poetic to me. Like my new daily discipline, which may or may not constitute poetry – The Morning Porch.
Here’s mine, I am not so sure I have got this right, but wanted to post anyway to gather comments and improve upon it, this is a really interesting form of poetry, feel free to rip it apart and give me your opinions.
Green Thoughts
(And of course “the most American of the sentences” was actually written by a New Zealander. Cool!)
(Oops, no, the other Catherine: http://poetrychook.blogspot.com/
Yep, it’s Monday.)
a-single-sentence-of-17-syllables-thank-you-a-ginsberg
[...] November 19, 2007 in Poetry, poems, read write poetry a single sentence of 17 syllables, thank you A. Ginsberg [...]
Here is a post with some of my American Sentance attempts!
http://soyouthinkican.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/american-sentances/
I really like our poem! It speaks to the things Ginsberg often wrote his about and also to the act of writing them. I especially like that the lines about girth and the icy morning grass fingers were next to one another.
Okay. Here’s my Mexicali Rose, guys. (Good job on our American Sentences poem! It bent my head.) Just click on my name–I still cannot make a link.
Pepek,
Here’s your link:
http://myunclepepeksjournal.blogspot.com/2007/11/nablopomo-2.html
To make it, just go to your previous posts, listed in your sidebar, click on the latest one (the one you are sharing for Read Write Poem), and then once the page loads, copy the entire URL from the top of your browser window and paste it into your comment.
I LOVE American Sentences…and took on this “challenge”, raising it (and dodging my inner-critic) by only giving myself five minutes to write five of them. Go ahead, you know you want to try it!
Love,
D.
http://cdeliascarpitti.blogspot.com/2007/11/burning-friday-right-before-my-boy-o.html
Thank you. I sill try–although words like browser window and paste in into whatever are still like newspeak to me…. I don’t have–oh, wait, Yes I do. Nevermind. Thanks again.
Copy the entire URL. Hm. I’ll work on it. Don’t want to take up more space here!
here’s a collaborative piece by witchy and jilly:
I can see your breath
(that’s my working title; jill may go in a different direction.)
Mine builds on the one I posted before.
BTW, I read the collaborative one and it makes a weird kind of sense!
Links have been giving me fits, too, but I’ll try.
http://lindaspoetry.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-sentences.html
Here are my sentences:
http://beccasbyline.blogspot.com/2007/11/read-write-poem-american-sentences.html
If anyone wants to write some American Sentences with me this week collaboratively by way of e-mail, let me know. We could post them on our sites and then post a link here to them. Just shoot me an e-mail here at the project ~ info (at) readwriteoem (at) org.
I tried to write two American sentences:
http://shewritespoetry.blogspot.com/2007/11/putting-pen-to-page-this-life-making.html
I missed the deadline for the corporate post – I never remember if we’re eight hours in front or eight hours behind! Anyway, here’s my attempt.
http://sewina.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-sentence.html
Here’s mine.
Congrats on the new baby.
http://quietaboutalotofthings.blogspot.com/2007/11/read-write-poem.html
Yippee!
http://stoneymoss.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-sentence.html
Fun exercise!
Stop by!
http://wordherd.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/read-write-poem-american-sentences/
I have to admit that my “most American of all sentences” was actually something a friend of my daughter’s told her. And she wasn’t American, (not from the US anyway), she was from Saskatchewan. I guess Canada is closer to the US than New Zealand is.
I added the word “here” to make it seventeen syllables
Catherine, Canada is North American, so it works. (American Sentences work anywhere, though, if you ask me.)
Read Write Poem-American Sentences…
Four ancient women, memories gone, sit silently, watching TV. Inhabitants of their own small world, everyone…
Jack from monkeyboy AND I collaborated a bit on some American Sentences. Here’s a link to his site:
http://mingyun.org/2007/11/19/american-sentences/
The small amount of collaboration left me wanting to work together with someone else. Monkeyboy has business to attend to!
I seem to be running late, as a rule. But here are my American Sentences. They were more challenging than I thought they’d be!
http://thisgirlremembers.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/american-sentences/
[...] I should mention that the first Get Your Poem On post at ReadWritePoem is up and waiting for your beat-inspired sentences a la Ginsberg. Oddly, my [...]
Well my American sentences were up on time, but couldn’t post the link while traveling. Here it is:
http://parisparfait.typepad.com/paris_parfait/2007/11/american-sent-1.html
Participating in the very first ReadWritePoem prompt, here are several linked American Sentences:
http://catiporter.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/american-sentences/
Glad and I wrote some American Sentences together. You can see them here and here.
[...] used that experience as impetus for my inaugural Read Write Poem prompt poem. The prompt was to write an American Sentence, a la Ginsberg. So far it looks like almost 50 people have. By which I mean there are almost 50 [...]
Amid the rambling, a poem takes the form of a short sentence here.
Here is my attempt at American Sentences:
http://withserendipity.wordpress.com
I’ve finally had a chance to give the American Sentence a try. I have a few of them up at:
http://havingwrit.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-sentences.html
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