read write prompt #19: go green!
by Blythe
As Juliet mentioned on Monday, this Friday — March 21 — is World Poetry Day.
So I thought we could all take some time to go green this week. Laud the beauty of nature, decry the ruin of the earth, or simply ponder all the things we throw away and ask yourself this fundamental question: what is trash? There are many directions you could take this prompt: Get inspired by a news story on the environment, spend time in nature trying to make new observations or imagine the state of our environment at some point in the future.
Ideas for collaboration:
- Keep a list of everything you throw away for a day. Exchange lists with a partner, and write a poem based on each other’s lists. (You can also try a variance of this on your own, but people may think it odd if you ask about what they have thrown away or find you poking around in their wastebasket.)
- Reduce, reuse, and recycle! Choose a poem you have written that you would be happy for a partner to deconstruct and reassemble. Exchange and reassemble each other’s poems -– bonus points if you choose poems with an environmental theme as fodder.
- Partner up and give each other assignments in contradiction. Choose something environmentally themed (like recycling or landfills) and a disparate subject (like relationships or dance), and combine the two in a poem.
Whatever you do this week, try mixing in a little poem and a little green this week. The earth will thank you.
Come back Monday after midnight and find the Get Your Poem On post to leave a comment for us, with a link to your poem the week, whether it is green or any other color.
Update: We’ve dropped the link to the blog posting environmental poetry for World Poetry Day, not because we don’t support that cause, but because the blogger hadn’t given satisfactory credit to one of our participants. Giving credit for work shouldn’t be such a tricky thing; it would be very simple to add the writer’s name at the end of the poem and not rely only on the writer’s name being in the title post with a “link back.” It’s always smart to refresh your knowledge about copyrights — we have a quick look, with some links, on our “on copyrights” tab.
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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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This is great, Blythe. I might be ashamed to admit what I throw away, even though I recycle as much as I can! This is a great way to raise consciousness, and is also a wonderful avenue for metaphorical thinking, an aspect of poetry I’m always eager to improve.
Christine: I know what you mean. I think it’s also really interesting to discover the odd objects in someone else’s trash: medical bills, concert tickets for a show that has not yet taken place, recently cut and discarded dreadlocks. Ever since I read about cops going through people’s trash as a kid, I’ve wondered what my trash says about me.
Kind of strange, I know.
If anyone wants to collaborate, let me know!
April is National Poetry Month. In the past, blogging poets have done NaPoWriMo — a poem a month for 30 days. Last year I stuttered to a start and a stop, and since lost track of who is inciting and managing this effort.
Anyone know?
Anyone up for it?
Blythe, I’m interested in collaborating, but really am clueless about how to go about it. (I love the stuff you noted! Wow. Today, mine would have been pretty boring, but too much even at that. Too boring. Yuck.
)
SB, funny you should mention that. January will post up something next Tuesday (a week before 4/1) about NaPoWriMo and we’ll do a few things around here for encouragement! Jan will also write something about National Poetry Month for her 2nd Thursday of the month column.
I’ll (Deb) also ask the team – or ANY of our participants – to send word prompt ideas and we can refresh the randomizer and help those who participate in NaPoWriMo with ideas (I know I used the Poetry Thursday prompt randomizer a lot last April).
Send those ideas to:
tips (at) readwritepoem (dot) org
And get yourself in gear!
Oh, excellent! I’m always so pleased when other people take this on.
I hope to post a poem a day, but not necessarily write a new one every day, as I will be working on another project as well. But I’ve always enjoyed seeing what folks do with this.
I left a link of one of my poems on that link here for celebrating World Poetry Day in anticipation of Earth Day.
Milou did not even bother to show my link in the comments section and posted my whole poem on her blog without giving me credits. I do see a link back but that is not enough for me. I even told jeques to leave a link on that blog and his poem is to published without credits.
Then she went and posted the link on her blog for MY poem on Witers Island! Rob did remove it after I brought into his notice.
Repeated reminders and emails to her has not helped. I am kind of shocked.
I thought I would let you know of this.
Thanks for letting us know, Gautami.
It’s critical that our work stay ours, unless we have given our specific written permission otherwise. Milou’s apparently not playing by the rules; I can’t speak to her motives or intent (the blog says Milou’s only nine), but the result is the same: not good. Writers must have the credit of their name clearly linked to their work. (For more about published work copyright, go to our on copyrights tab.)
I’ll amend Juliet’s post with a note of caution (and on my own personal blog, too.)
…deb
Gautami, I’m sorry about that. My poem was credited with my name at the bottom when I had sent it in. If at that stage there had been an issue with Milou crediting the author, I wouldn’t have recommended her site.
Thanks deb, for taking this seriously.
Juliet, It is not your fault. In fact, it is no ones fault. As a concept, that is good one. As long as we follow the copyright rules.
I mentioned this here because, I thought I should let you know about this.
I felt bad as I had told Jeques too, about it. Now she has put our names on the title field. However, for two days that was not so. I had sent her an email and left numerous comments on her posts. None of mine are showing as she moderates it. Needless to say, she did not reply to any..not even to my email.
As Jeques says, lessons learnt!
BTW, I loved doing this exercise. I like to recycle, reuse and reduce!
Thanks for this!
i have lots of “green” poems–now to figure out which to post! or maybe i’ll get a new one written–just spent a week in yosemite valley–how’s that for inspiring??
how funny–there’s that picture of my son again…
i’m at http://artpredator.wordpress.com
[...] response to the Read Write Poem prompt, “Go green!” Links to other responses may be found [...]
[...] response to the Read Write Poem prompt, “Go green!” Links to other responses may be found [...]