read write prompt #5: a novel prompt
by Christine Swint
There’s a room in my house I like to call “my room,” a la Virginia Woolf’s essay, “A Room of One’s Own.” In truth the space also serves as a storage room for family art projects, files, junk mail waiting for the shredder, winter clothes and books that keep trickling into our house, as well as a guest bedroom for Grandma.
Today, thinking about writing prompts, I looked at the shelves where an odd array of novels and volumes of history lean haphazardly. My eyes trained on The Grapes of Wrath, a story that had me in tears when I first read it years ago. It’s a novel my son read last summer and one that’s also close to my husband’s heart. It’s part of my life’s mythology.
Here’s the prompt I came up with:
- Choose a book that calls to you.
- Go to the end of several chapters, and find the final noun or verb.
- Make a list of 10 or so words, and then write a 10- to 20-line poem using those words.
- Maybe the feeling or tone of your poem will come from your emotional connection to the book you choose. Maybe not.
And, if you’d like to collaborate on this prompt:
- Find your book and look for five words.
- Ask a friend to look through the same book and find five more words.
- Each of you writes five or so lines.
- Now combine the lines, alternating between yours and your friend’s lines.
For my poem, I worked solo. I found 11 nouns, and I ended up writing a free verse poem about laborers living in Mexico. The theme of my poem is the misery of poverty and the callousness of the ruling class, a definite connection to Steinbeck.
Here are Steinbeck’s words incorporated into my poem: men, truck, dust, buildings, hunters, head, jail, cars, west, windows.
Happy word hunting!
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Wear it loud, wear it proud! Display the Read Write Poem badge on your site. Just click here or on the image above to get the code! read write poem news- yes, yes, here’s another virtual book tour stop for ‘a walk through the memory palace’
February 6, 2010 | 11:37 amFind the latest tour stop for Pamela Johnson Parker’s debut collection, A Walk Through the Memory Palace at Jillypoet, Jill Crammond Wickham’s blog, where you can find an interview with Pamela that discusses how she creates manuscripts.
Previous stops include Daniel Romo at his blog, Peyote Soliloquies and James Brush at his blog, Coyote Mercury.
You can find all our plans for the tour here.
- the best of the web is in our ranks
February 6, 2010 | 11:35 amSarah J. Sloat’s poem,”Attending the Tasting” (published in The Literary Bohemian) has been selected for Best of the Web 2010. Congratulations, Sarah!
- another (w00t!) read write poem member on the joe milford poetry show
February 6, 2010 | 11:34 amOn the Joe Milford Poetry Show tomorrow (Feb. 6): W.F. Roby at 9 AM (PST). Find the show here!
Joe describes Will as a “great language poet and bad-ass.”
- ‘literary podcasting made simple with wordpress.com’
February 6, 2010 | 11:33 amDave Bonta has published a how-to article that might be of interest to WordPress users: “Literary Podcasting Made Simple with WordPress.com,” based on his and Beth Adams’ experience at Qarrtsiluni.
Thanks, Dave, for continuing to help make the community aware of technological resources that can expand our art.
- the latest (virtual) book tour stop for ‘a walk through the memory palace’
February 3, 2010 | 3:53 pmThe latest tour stop has been posted for Pamela Johnson Parker’s debut collection, A Walk Through the Memory Palace. Find out how Daniel Romo responded to the work at his blog, Peyote Soliloquies.
James Brush provided our first tour stop at his blog, Coyote Mercury.
You can find all our plans for the tour here.
- planning for napowrimo in april, and you are invited!
February 2, 2010 | 6:12 pmHello, hello dear Read Write Poem community members! We are in the planning stages for NaPoWriMo. (What? Is that a groan I hear, or an excited exclamation?)
We are planning another prompt-every-day for those folks who love to write a daily poem in April (which is, as most of you know, National Poetry Month in the United States — although there is an international following of writing poetry every day in April, too, so it is not just about the States).
Anyway! This is a call for prompts because we want to run your ideas, one every day, in April. So here’s what to do:
- Prompts must be no more than 250 words, and we will take the first 30 that we receive.
- Include “NaPoWriMo Prompt” in the subject line of your email as well as your username (e.g., the name you use when you log in) so we can match you up with your prompt and give you the link love.
- Email your submission (in the body of the email — no attachments please) to prompts (at) readwritepoem (dot) org!
We’ll let you know when we’ve got the 30, but don’t delay because it takes a lot of time to format the posts and we want to be ready come April Fools’ Day. Woohoo!
- new senior contributors at read write poem
February 2, 2010 | 11:51 amWe are thrilled to announce that Ren Powell and Dave Jarecki are moving into the senior contributor role at Read Write Poem. Both have been writing feverishly for the site, as well as providing ideas for content and for the community as a whole. In short, they make this site a more lively, and better, place.
Ren and Dave will fill the roles vacated by Carolee Sherwood and Jill Crammond Wickham, who have moved into the manager role.
Everyone please thank Ren and Dave for their hard work and commitment to Read Write Poem.
- rounding out the virtual book tour of sarah j. sloat’s ‘in the voice of a minor saint’
January 31, 2010 | 1:53 pmOur last stop on the Virtual Book Tour of Sarah J. Sloat’s In the Voice of a Minor Saint is with Ren Powell. Find Ren’s review at More Babel.
Joseph Harker provided our first stop in December, and you can find David Moolten’s review at Edible Detritus. David’s was followed by Dave Jarecki’s. Dave’s review is at his blog. Find Jill Crammond Wickham’s at Jillypoet: Mom Trying to Write.
In case you missed the introduction, we are (virtually) hosting Sarah J. Sloat’s In the Voice of a Minor Saint. For complete tour information, such as how you can get your own copy of the collection or how you can get involved in future tours, read this post.
- make your own book: get off the computer and onto the paper
January 30, 2010 | 4:19 pmBeth Adams has posted her latest project at The Cassandra Pages. “A Handmade Book” may not explicate all the details of bookbinding, but Beth shows readers the “Secret Belgian Binding.” It’s a beautiful as well as inspiring post.
If you would like more detailed instructions, Google “secret Belgian bookbinding” and find sites such as this one. Or look for a local book arts class for hands-on instruction.
As Beth says, ” … it did me good to get away from the computer and feel my hands at work!”
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Ah, very interested in this exercise. I recently reread The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danicat. If you haven’t read it, do. It is beautifully written. It’s the story of slaughtered Haitian cane workers in the Dominican Republic. I’m going to revisit it for inspiration for this prompt.
Great, Susan. I haven’t read it, so I’ll put it on my list. I’m going to look through another book, one of my faves, The Windup Bird Chronicles. I’ll post my words here. If anyone wants to collaborate, just send me an email, or leave a comment on my blog.
Again, going against the flow. Here is my work based on last week’s prompt. I’ll try to get the new one up soon.
http://eatsbugs.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/numbers-121307/
And we’ll go ahead and post that poem now…
Prompted from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
http://eatsbugs.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/regina-121307/
Hi Derek,
The link isn’t working. The Handmaid’s Tale should be required reading. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
You should also read Atwood’s Penelopiad
I also loved the Handmaid’s Tale. That would be a great book for gleaning words.
I am in the midst of reading Atwood’s The Blind Assassin! Another one I recommend after The Handmaid’s Tale.
I picked Blind Assassin one off the shelf for my mother, who is a die-hard romance reader. I’m trying to break her out. I don’t even know if she read that one.
And try the link again. I edited the time stamp on it so it would show up the next day, so it might have been broken for a while.
Here | snapshot poem…
Once again, the lines are too long for the format, so I’ve done it as an image (click to bring it up larger.) The text, with broken lines, is below the cut: This week was a novel prompt: Make a list of 10 or so words – the final words from chapters of…
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