by Deb Scott
It’s Thursday, and time to post links to this week’s poems (or leave us your poem, verbatim, in the comments).
Last week’s prompt borrowed words from one of my favorite poets, William Stafford, specifically from the first stanza of “An Oregon Message.” Not everyone is a Stafford fan, but I am, and I hope you’ll poke around the Poetry Foundation site, read about him and a few of his poems. But right now it’s your turn to share your words, whether or not you used many, or any, of the ones Bill used.
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Deb Scott is community and news director for Read Write Poem. She also co-manages the Read Write Poem Virtual Book Tour. In her other life she loves to hunt for treasure and tends to leave holes in her backyard (don’t blame her dog). Deb blogs at Stoney Moss.













My poem this week is titled:
“GOLDEN MEAN“
Stafford! I would not have guessed. I love the big reveal here and the information you share on Stafford. See? Our prompts are fun *and* educational!
Deb Scott replied:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Hey thanks, but you’re being modest. Using words from a published poet’s poem was your idea. One I really, really liked.
Fun, educational, and “builds strong bodies eight ways!”
And thanks for taking these Read Write (Word) Prompts over, Deb. I really like where you’re taking them.
Deb Scott replied:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:07 am
You’re welcome. Wordles are addictive.
I missed the last two prompts
but I managed to squeeze this week’s one in: Undeliverable
http://rallentanda.blogspot.com
’slipping through the cracks’
I managed to get all 18 words in. It’s a much different animal than Stafford’s original:
Hit
Deb Scott replied:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:08 am
I am sure all of ours are! The flexibility of words amazes me.
My humble poem here.
in the beginning
http://poemsotherwise.blogspot.com/2009/12/stars-and-meteors.html
Well, I hope Mr. Stafford would approve… Apocalyptic
I wrote a series based on these words. Most of my posts are password-protected; just message me or a leave a comment on the site if you’d like to get the password. from the series that is open to anyone to read.
Thanks for a great assignment, Deb. Still haven’t read the poem as I hope to write one more in this series…
Deb Scott replied:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:34 am
I’m glad you liked it. And glad you grouped them, too.
Oops. Kinda flubbed that html tag.
You’ll find mine here:
http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/victims
I have not done the prompt as of now. But I wanted to share this poem, I wrote in a few minutes:
ode to Percy Bisque Silley
Well Deb, you’ve tickled my appreciation more than I ever would have guessed! William Stafford was the man who changed my attitude totally about poetry and writing! (My blog as well has two pages devoted to him, including all the poem links that I know.)
My prompt response is… Winter pebbles.
Deb Scott replied:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Cool!
Son I love you
I managed to use ten words.
http://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2009/12/dawning.html
I went my usual minimalist route (one word, “abiding”), Intron Moment
I used all the words, too and called it “twas.”
http://therer2doors.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/twas/
I used some of the words but got distracted…
http://keepingsecrets-karen.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-moon.html
“December 25, 1969″ uses the word “moved” –
http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com/
I squeezed in all of the words. Hopefully, it doesn’t sound forced.
Mine is called:
http://digitalcalabash.blogspot.com/2009/12/space-time-continuum.html
I just joined read write poem last week and this is my first prompt! Really enjoying the site and the community so far. Here is my humble attempt: http://poetrypunxprose.blogspot.com/2009/12/stars-are-meteors.html
Needs some more work – Will look at it again in a few…
I never felt safer
My offering for this week (I’ve been away too long):
http://ravenswingpoetry.com/2009/12/15/litany-to-a-melancholic/
I actually managed to write to the prompt this week!
Night Feeding
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2009/12/read-write-prompt-105-borrowed-words.html
Apologies to everyone else who’s posting poems — with a newborn I can barely manage to write a poem a week, but I don’t have the time/space to read all of y’all’s work. Soon, I hope.
Deb Scott replied:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Congratulations, Rachel!!! I think it’s fantastic you are writing at all with a new born. Glad to see you here.
“I See it, A Shell” inspired by the Wordle and the incredible “seeing” of my son, Samuel.
http://juliejordanscott.typepad.com/jjspoetry/2009/12/i-see-it-a-shell-said-precious-samuel-get-your-poem-on-105.html
Mine is weird – title – “Warning”
http://djvorreyer.wordpress.com/
Surprised by Bodies is mine.
Geminids 12.13.09
Grabbed the words and went Under the Radar
HIRONDO RUSTICA SHOW
T’is not the Scarlet Tanager with thick gray bill
Displaying it’s greenish-yellow winter coat
Nor the sociable Cedar Waxwing, in forest still
That stirs the strings of my heart and mind,both
T’is not the Black-Crested tufted Titmouse
Sporting pale forehead, feasting on fruit seeds
Alas, t’is the long-winged barn Swallows around my house
With their deeply forked tails, master flyers indeed
Flashing blue-black when seen from above
Their aerial acrobatics stretching eye’s reaction time
Cinnamon or buffy-white undercarriage you have to love
Puttng on an exhibition that soothes the soul like a good wine
Arriving at dusk, first one, then countless numbers to see
Feeding onwing, elegantly dodging one another
Diving, climbing, feasting on river bounty
T’is the swallow show, above the Mohawk River
Given freely to you and me
I had thought a poem based on a list of words would come out sounding forced and would be perhaps stunted in its meaning, but it came out a lot better than I’d expected. I guess restriction really does breed creativity.
Anyway, here’s my poem: Matt
Thanks, Deb. I don’t know what it is about the wordles that kicks me into overdrive, but again–more than one. One’s a little odd and dense and, while it doesn’t use all the words, the one I like.[as bending trees are safer in the wind (orrery with aged women in its heart)]. The other hits ‘em all and is kind of quirky-sad and odd. For lack of a better title, it is PRECIPICE, PRECIOUS, *ping*
A handful of the words got scattered through this one. http://patteran.typepad.com
Love at First Snight
If it feels unfinished to you, it does to me as well…
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/?p=318
But…there it is…whatever it is.
Here is a revision of an earlier poem I wrote, inspired by Kipling: When
I lost count but mine is posted. Thank you!
Poem for RWP #105
Won’t
May Sarton wrote,
psychic pain? Sit it out.
Be like the trees
that give up their
leaves easily in the fall,
retreat into their roots
for renewal and sleep.
I have learned
this lesson
with confusion—
let it hang there and
things have a way
of sorting themselves out.
But when something
gnaws at me
and I don’t know or
won’t know what it is . . .
Oh, there’s the rub isn’t it?
Won’t know.
Here’s mine being posted a little later than usual.
Living In The Eastern Woodlands. My poem is Morpheous, Meteors and Magic
Viewing the Meteor Showers
The hottest, thickest most humid night of the year
Curled together on a blanket beneath some trees
Where clouds of noisy insects have gathered to
Serenade the piercing of the atmosphere this
Dense and blackest of all nights.
No wind stirs the shadows at our backs.
We lean forward, scoping the uncluttered
bowl of sky
All we see are the dim abiding stars
Until a flash of brightnes, a pin-prick
Penetrates the blackness like a tear
That pulls across the horizon swift as
A neglected searchlight beam – then
Arcing quickly to the ground.
It disappears,
But wait! Another flash and then some more
Crazy in their patterns, curled short and
Swooping long – we haven’t moved
From our safer sanctuary. Let the radar
Capture these wild rides, the ground will
Only yield crusty shells while the stars
Remain cool and aloof in their abiding sky.
My poem is here, my very first ReadWritePoem prompt effort:
http://meditativemeanderings.blogspot.com/2009/12/get-your-poem-on-readwritepoem.html
A few constructive comments are welcome but not a wholesale ripping and tearing apart, please.
You can find In the Flat Field at my new website – http://www.poems.elizabethenslin.com – where I’ll be posting most poetry drafts from now on. The hitch is that the drafts are password protected, so you’ll need to go there, get my email address or leave a comment on the welcome post, so I can send you a password. It will be good for all future poems.
http://birdswordpoetry.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/read-write-poem-prompt-105/
not sure if I’m done
better late than never, i guess.
The Resting Step
Here’s my first attempt at Read Write Prompt. It was an interesting effort.
Where I Live
http://slstellingstories.com/2009/12/where-i-live/
Oooops! I posted this under the original prompt post yesterday. Here it is again…
http://freckledwriter.blogspot.com/2009/12/moon.html
A little bit closer to deadline this week:
“For Anansi”
http://makeda42.livejournal.com/48394.html
Here is mine…late again….but time with grandchildren a priority…anyways using some of the words
LEGENDARY STARS AND OLD CARS
http://waynepitchko.blogspot.com
I’m going back over these prompts I missed when I was on holiday (hence the very, very late post. This one is called ‘Gravity’
[...] Geminids 12.13.09 2009 December 17 tags: Photography, Poetry, Read Write Poem by zouxzoux Read Write Prompt #105 is a wordle. The words I chose to use in this poem are moon, stars and meteor. Read other Read Write poets here. [...]