by Carolee Sherwood and Jill Crammond Wickham
Hang onto your witch’s hats, kiddies, we’re in for a ride! This month’s Poetry Mini-Challenge is “the body,” and we’re going to stick with it for a while: seven days to be exact! You can take your body poems anywhere you’d like, but since it’s October, the most wonderfully grotesque month, why not make your writing a little twisted? Get a little blood and guts on your typing fingers.
Transform into a monster (your own version of a werewolf) or play Frankenstein and build a monster (or seven of them). Explore the workings of the body, not rhetorically, but as though you are scooping out a pumpkin. You don’t have to take this in a guy-with-chainsaw-horror-flick direction (though you could). The mystery and spirit of Halloween — and the body — can be just as delightful as they can be frightening.
How it works
Every day for seven days (yes, seven!), write a poem about the body in the context of October, whatever that conjures up for you. We know seven days is a challenge, but “challenge” is in the title of this series, after all, and here’s what we’re thinking: Let’s make a big poetry push this month before the holy-crap-it’s-nearly-the-holidays (aka November) procrastination kicks in.
As you write, visit the forums for the October Poetry Mini-Challenge. They will be marked #1, #2, #3 and so on — one for each poem you write for this challenge. Jump into the forums and post links to your poems (or the text of the poems themselves if you don’t have a blog). Try to make it all the way to #7 and visit the forums to cheer each other on.
About the poetry mini-challenge
If you’ve signed on to Read Write Poem recently or if you missed the other challenges, you’re welcome to visit the original post for background.
Here’s the short version: a mini-challenge is a poetry-writing, poetry-reading or poetry-process prompt that you respond to with a new poem each day for a set number of days. The idea isn’t to warm up the poetry muscles, it’s to feel the burn. Go deeper. Explore further. Pass the place you may have stopped initially. See what comes next. And as if that weren’t juicy enough, you do all of it with the support and encouragement of the other crazy hardworking Read Write Poem members who take on the challenge.
Note: Please save the comments section of this post for discussion on or questions about the process. The poems and links go in the forums associated with the Poetry Mini-Challenge group, located here.
Carolee Sherwood is a painter, mixed-media artist and poet. This moody mother of three boys shares her writing at her site, Carolee Sherwood, and is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem.
Jill Crammond Wickham has discovered that the frantic pace of motherhood has driven her to write more, not less. Jill writes at Mom Trying to Write and is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem.
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Great idea for writing — I should try this!
This looks exciting; I’ll do my best, but I think it’ll be difficult this month, as I’ve just started a new job. I might postpone starting it for a little while, until I’m settled in.
This is going to eat me up, and I’m no small morsel.
One of the charities I admire is Operation Smile, dedicated to repairing the cleft palates/lips of children in disadvantaged societies. Children with cleft palates/lips can’t eat, speak, or smile properly. I intend to write a series of short, respectful poems about this tragedy.
nathan — hope you’ll join us!
(i’m using the challenge to break myself of my latest habit, which is not writing poems.)
damian — join in when you can. we tend to go a couple days over. work it in however you can!
barbara — i’m betting you’ll do just great!
therese — that’s a great direction to go with the prompt!
Good luck everyone! I can’t wait to see what direction everyone takes with this challenge! This is always my favorite time of year to write, and I’ve been feeling off. Hopefully this will give me a push!
and i’ve posted the forums for your poems. they’re there waiting for you, the poor things, all empty at the moment.
for example, here’s a link to the first one to help you find your way.
if you’re not already a member of the group, be sure to join!
Therese: we used to do a lot of work with them for service projects at my high school, an excellent idea!
Sounds like an awesome challenge… I have a few other bits lined up for the month, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to post seven in a row, but I’ll definitely make an effort for the end of the month. Good luck to all!
Therese L. Broderick replied:
October 6th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Joseph — So great to hear of your service project! A worthy cause. Perhaps you would like to write an Operation Smile poem, too? You’d have more first-hand experience than I do.
You got me thinking of body parts. It’s just the start!
I have been in a writing group, exploring the body, specifically, for more than a year. I think I will revisit some of that prose for inspiration.
So grateful for another Mini-Challenge to stir the juices… I am devoted to completing a poem a day in October so this gives me fodder for that… yay!
[...] A free-write that goes too far and not far enough for because of the crazy inventive ladies of October, who have given a one week challenge. [...]
I like the forum topic titles — Body #1, etc.
like csi rwp.
CSI RWP. very good!
oh, the carnage!
This is intriguing…hopefully I will have the time this week to fit it in. Life is getting in the way lately…
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