read write prompt #74: hyperlink your poetry
by Juliet Wilson
I read a discussion somewhere recently about how most online poetry doesn’t take advantage of the unique opportunities offered by being online, particularly hyperlinks. (Sorry, I don’t know where this discussion is, otherwise I’d link to it!) Being aware that most of my blog readers aren’t in the UK, I regularly use hyperlinks in my poems to direct readers to pages showing the birds I so often write about, as in this haiku:
leaves unfurl -
the chaffinch’s chest brighter
than yesterday
But there must be so much more potential than this! So I’m suggesting that in this week’s challenge you think about how you can use hyperlinks to add depth to your poetry. Perhaps to save explaining a reference, you can just add a link, or perhaps you can link to a series of photos that complement your words. This offers good opportunities to collaborate, too.
Whatever you write, remember to come back next week to Get Your Poem On and share your work.
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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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Hello fellow poets,
I participated in Napowrimo and was hoping we could share a bit about our experiences of the month. I posted a bit about my experience here if you’d like to join in.
-Mallery
P.S. Great prompt, I am going to have fun with this one!
Hmm, I’m not sure, my experience of reading poems is always lessened if they include hyperlinks. I wonder if it takes the depth out of the poem, makes it go sideways and outwards instead – ? I appreciate though that it is another shapeshifting poetry undergoes at the leading edge, and I’m usually not up with the latest trends.
Great prompt Juliet, I look forward to having a play around with it. I see Sarah’s point as part of the challenge of the ‘hyperlink poetry’ form
I do appreciate hyperlinks and see them quite often but it seems like a lot of work. Or maybe I just don’t know how to do them right. What is the process? Sorry, I’m still a novice computer user! I figured out how to leave a link to my poems but it took a while to learn that < href, etc. stuff. Is there an easier way?
Sarah – I agree with you, like Claire, I find that part of the challenge. Sometimes it seems to me as though its a distraction to include hyperlinks in poetry, sometimes it seems like an underused resource for adding depth and texture….
Linda – Blogger lets you add hyperlinks quite easily, you just highlight the word or phrase you want to add a link to, then in the toolbar there’s a nice little hyperlink tool which you select, which will bring up a little box in which you paste the address of the site you want to link to. (Feel free to contact me if that doesn’t make sense!)
Actually, since I am using Safari on a Mac, which is not fully supported by Blogger, the hyperlink tool is not available. At least, it wasn’t last time I checked, maybe they have fixed it but in the meantime I got used to having to type in all the html myself, it is quite quick once you get past the initial learning phase.
I just checked and found I have the hyperlink tool after all
Thanks, Juliet, I’m going to try that! i figured there was an easier way!
Yes I know this is the wrong place to link to my poem, but I’ll be out of town next week so here it is:
http://foundcraftygreenart.blogspot.com/2009/04/scots-in-malawi.html
I look forward to reading everyone’s contributions
If your software doesn’t let you make links easily, this website does. Easy Hyperlinks
Hello,
This is the first time I’ve used one of your word prompts to have a go with – and I don’t claim to be a poet!
Not sure what the form should be but just letting you know. Thanks!
wow…i made one poem during NaPoWriMo, linking it to some lovely pictures…i hope it’ll be fine if i’ll post it this thursday…but i’ll make new one as well.
thanks for the prompt…
This is a conversation I had in college; I referenced something very obscure, and some folks in the workshop felt that not knowing the definition lessened the poem, but my argument was that if you did a google search, the correct context was the first search results; if you wanted to know what it meant, it would be very easy to find. Plus, it was what I wanted to use; I didn’t feel like I should change it when it was so easy to figure out what it is. Alas, traditionists felt like it was lazy to do such a thing.
I invented a word (or term) that’s in Urban Dictionary: mood link (like mood ring), whose color “takes on” a feature or characteristic of its link target. I’ve used this in some of my poems. (The UD editors allowed it in after about two months!)
[...] This was written for two Read Write Poem Prompts this week – Read Write Word # 16 and Read Write Prompt # 74: Hyperlink Your Poetry. I used some of the words in the first prompt and added hyperlinks to some pictures, Wikipedia [...]
[...] week’s Read Write Poem prompt (#74: Hyperlink Your Poetry) was to hyperlink a poem and try to add a bit of depth. I wanted to try to hyperlink every word so [...]