by Nathan Moore
We had dozens of interesting interpretations for the image used in this week’s Read Write Prompt. Did you see one person carrying a heavy load that the other may or may not help lift? Or did you see two siblings divided by circumstance, the sadness and longing evident in their body language? Those are just two interpretations members gave. What was yours?
Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work.
Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing. .
If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.
If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.
Nathan Moore is community director and a columnist for Read Write Poem. In his spare time, he plays with his children and with fire. Never at the same time. He blogs at Exhaust Fumes and French Fries.
I don’t feel comfortable being this early, with one of my weakest poems yet: Ghostwife.
I kept it very simple this week:
Per-happy Spins
Went with something short this week, thinking it would be faster, but it took me just as long to tweak it anyway. Drawn From the Same Mould
My poem based on this week’s prompt is titled:
“War in Heaven“
Here is mine using this sweeks prompt
Closing Time
http://www.waynepitchko.blogspot.com
Finding Her Picture
Great prompt!
I went with vignettes and a summing up alluding to the image,
misses and scores, a tally
A vidpoem for obvious reasons…
http://www.ohikulkevaa.org/?p=1413
rallentanda replied:
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:45 am
I’m so disappointed I couldn’t get the sound to work on my computer…looked so interesting!
A poem based on prompt 94
For the 7
The Whopper Tales (Pt 2)
Bored Stiff
A motley mix in Doctor’s surgery today
Therese Avila Albany’s patron poet is downcast
constantly wrestling with Ravenwing her goth
guardian angel whose heavy bovver boots are
preventing Therese’s levitational take off
causing stress ruffled and broken feathers
hardly gets high at all these days
floating about the ceilings singing Ave Maria
is definitely a pursuit of the past
her religious ectasy days it seems are over
Lady Lulu Fraser Green militant environmentalist
in her suit of recycled maple leaves checks out
the other patients for synthetic fibres
Prof. Tumani Trips from India here to give a
lecture on toe mutilation sin/cos disorder and
Ms. Barbara Binghamton ex marine Dr.Coolton’s
capable receptionist in much demand by medicos
for her skill in crash tackling patients
attempting to leave the surgery without payment
runs the practice like a military operation
sharpening pencils with weaponry zeal and loading the staple gun in combat mode
In the surgery pulitzer prize winning poet Dr Coolton anaemic white etheral figure, a good
example of reckless and indiscriminate blood
donation bored stiff rigid by hypochondriacs
and shirkers manufacturing symptoms to get
time off work is lost in the ether, transfixed
with esoteric thought contemplating his next
masterpiece completely oblivious to his
patient Nathan seated opposite
Nate, a sweet sensitive new age Dad doing it
tough,lives in a shoe at the bottom of his
mother’s garden has so many children ‘cos he
didn’t know what not to do becomes infuriated
at Cool’s comatosed countenance,turns beet red all over blood vessels popping setting off
dangerous hypertensive alarm bells vision blurred blinded by rage he Loses It
Ms. Binghamton rolls her eyes and sighs at yet
another outburst third time this week and it’s only Thursday strides in, pencils drawn,staple
gun at the ready and charges
Just another day at the office
gautami tripathy replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 3:58 am
LOL!
Actually I think the sin/cos disorder is the best disorder there is!
Derrick replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 4:30 am
Hi Rall,
Sounds like a practice to avoid on a busy Thursday! And someone should give Nate a collection of Paternal Poetry Positions.
Cynthia Short replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 7:42 am
Great as usual! Poor ol’ Nathan got the worst of it..all those darn kids! Love your description of Dr. Coolton, bored stiff rigid by hypochondriacs! ha!
barbara_y replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 10:57 am
There was a time when I carried ten pens in my pocket protector. And used every one for something different.
Nathan replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 12:42 pm
New age? Most of the time it’s more like old age, I think.
Great work, Rallentanda.
David Moolten replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Touche. Very witty, well imagined and sustained. I suppose one would need an ex-marine receptionist under the circumstances. Remind me not to divulge any further personal details about myself…
Linda Fraser replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I spent the whole week visiting trees in the north of southern Ontario while you were composing this. Red leaves, yellow leaves…. =D. Your poem is so fun, your highness. I really enjoyed reading it. Merci.
mark Stratton replied:
October 4th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Suureal and fun. Thoroughly enjoyed this…
http://poemsotherwise.blogspot.com/2009/09/blend.html
Red or white? I couldn’t make up my mind.
You’ll find mine in this post:
http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/knowledge-2
It wasn’t easy, but here it is.
My Angel, My Devil
Just about made it-
http://conversationsinmid-air.blogspot.com/2009/10/thin-red-line.html
I think I rambled on!
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2009/10/let-red-bleed.html
Here’s my contribution this week.
http://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/revolution.html
Rallentanda replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 11:54 am
Hi Derrick
Hmmm…2 solutions to this mood state
1. Medication or
2.Lots of frolicking and cavorting on a tropical island in the South Pacific
derrick replied:
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:10 am
Hi Rall,
Given the current conditions in the South Pacific, I’ll take the medication, thanks!
I saw one dominating and the other dominated.
http://patteran.typepad.com
Here’s mine:
Foosball
I will be very busy Oct. 1-4 at a non-poetry conference. I regret that I won’t have time to read all your poems or acknowledge blog comments. So I am passing on this round.
it’s been awhile since I’ve played foosball…
http://therer2doors.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/all-four-rows/
I am not a dove bearing an olive branch, I am the sword of destruction, the destroyer…hey, wait, do I hear music, well alrighty then, let’s all Change chairs, hug difference.
Here’s mine: Scene from a Bar that Closed Ten Years Ago.
Solar Plexis: http://zouxzoux.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/solar-plexis/
Had a hard time with this one this week. Worked on the struggle a little to much I think. Need a good solid critic on this – Visiting Day
My poem for this week is entitles, “Manifest Destiny”. Hope you like it..and hope it makes you think a bit…
http://cynthiashort.blogspot.com
Great prompt.Here is mine: (I was thinking to title it the Devil, though it may be to obvious…)
Anaïs: Readwritepoem #94
Not particularly pleased with it, but here it is anyway. Even the bastard poems deserve some love…
Speed Dating
Choose your lucky —–l
Sometimes the dilemma of choosing
between doing the easy bad thing and
the difficult but ultimately right good
deed was pictured in cartoons, usually
In the colorful Sunday funny papers.
There was this character who couldn’t make
Up his mind – do the right thing or the wrong -
So he stood there with a cartoon devil next
To his ear. The devil always dressed in red,
Horns on his head, pitchfork in hand. “Do this,”
He would whisper to the uncomfortable soul.
“Nobody will know the difference. You’ll be
rich.and famous.” Floating above the other ear, an
angelic figure with a.white gown, wings, a little halo.
She whispered what the character didn’t want
to do, but knew was the Right Thing. This
dilemma was supposed to be funny. Everyone who
Looked at it was supposed to laugh.
Our paper devil still wears red. The horns and pitchfork
Are gone and no one is expected to laugh. Not
At our modern devil, sleeked back hair, stylish
Clothes, a gentleman of success.
The angel has almost disappeared. The halo and
Wings are gone and she’s practically transparent.
Look, you can see right through her. Some
One might even laugh! It’s gone grim, not funny
this age-old choice of the uncomfortable
Good versus the instant gratification evil.
What about those fuzzy balls? Are they the
The new thought balloons? Those bars, too –
What do they tell us? Behind bars, sealed in,
What we choose will last forever? This game
Of life – life is still a game? Pick your color,
You are the player and the pawn.
Lots of luck!
David Moolten replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I like how you divide the poem in terms of time and innocence into two stanzas, and how in the second stanza the sentences are more gritty, more terse, fitting the ominous evolution of things. The questions, open-ended as they are become a thread of hope, of things yet undefined or undecided.
Linda Fraser replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
I enjoyed your poem and the questions you posed. Instant gratification is a strong force to be reckoned with these days. The choices aren’t nearly as clear as red and white foosball players. Thanks for this great poem, Marian.
I didn’t start out writing this in response to the prompt but while i was writing the prompt image popped into my head and it made me think of some sports event with a referee using a megaphone and so i was inspired to used the word megaphone.
http://projectartpoetica.com/blog/2009/09/warm-cello-bird/
Precarious:
http://juliejordanscott.typepad.com/jjspoetry/2009/09/readwritepoem-94-precarious.html
They look like Cellmates
Hm, it’s not liking my html. Let’s try it this way:
http://knockingfrominside.blogspot.com/2009/09/cellmates.html
My poem:
http://paperdreams-jgc.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-finished-early-massive-artillery.html
Mine is unfinished…but I welcome comments, thoughts and such.
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/?p=230
I went a bit sinister and speculative: Perfectly Aligned.
Cynthia Short replied:
October 1st, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I could not find where to make a comment on your blog site, so here it is! I loved your piece..yes it was very dark and tortured, and that is what made it very good! The repeating of the word “correctly” after the first few times really became upsetting, which was perfect.
Mine is called The Invisible Hand.
Here is mine “How to Play the Game”
http://djvorreyer.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/rwp-image-prompt-94/
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Brother, brother
http://bearlyaudible.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/brother-brother/
well nathan this image coupled with my current bradbury reading produced Degrees of Separation, it was the placement and color that really pulled the trigger.
http://beatnikprose.blogspot.com/2009/10/degrees-of-separation.html
enjoy-
lawrence
Thanks for the prompt!
Nadir of a Summit
Living In The Eastern Woodlands. My poem is Puttin’ on the Jitz
Tried rocking the prompt this week, but it didn’t fly right. Here’s something else I cobbled together:
Jubilee Year
Thanks for the photo prompt, Nathan. I’ll keep plugging away at it and maybe things’ll assemble themselves.
Once again I didn’t manage to write to the prompt, but I did write a poem this week even so:
Permeable
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2009/10/permeable-a-poem-for-sukkot.html
Photo: Thomas Hawk
Face off.
I am not the definer of space
you are my boundary
you my shadow
you my opponent
my nemesis.
In my steel sprung tension
I face you
sin red viewing holy white
we cannot touch
or fall in love
but dance to the vagueries
of dextrous demi-gods.
http://monthofapril2008.blogspot.com/2009/10/riddle-of-life.html
[...] This is for Read Write Poem’s Prompt # 94. It’s an image prompt. A detail shot of the red and blue players on a foosball table called “My Angel and My Devil” by Thomas Hawk. Check out other people’s responses to the prompt here. [...]