napowrimo #9: your mission
by the Read Write Poem Staff
Read Write Poem member Robert Peake has shared with us a prompt he used recently with one of his established writing groups:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to:
- Use at least twelve words from this list: flap, winter, torch, pail, jug, strum, lever, massage, octopus, marionette, stow, pumice, rug, jam, limp, campfire, startle, wattle, bruise, chimney, tome, talon, fringe, walker;
- Include something that tastes terrible;
- Include some part (from a few words to several lines) of a previous poem that didn’t quite pan out; and
- Include a sound that makes you happy.
Write a poem!
Reminders for everyone
Read the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge Kickoff post for details on how the challenge works — and how you can engage with Read Write Poem this month, no matter what your personal writing challenge is for the month of April.
Please read this page to find out how Read Write Poem’s prompt posts work. Remember that work linked from any post this month 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.
|
read write poem news- read write poem napowrimo anthology
June 20, 2010 | 1:36 pmThe Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Anthology is still in production. Selection, placement, layout and copyediting are taking longer than anticipated. Thank you for your patience. I hope to have the piece completed in July. For those who have emailed asking if they can be included, the May 7 deadline for submission of work stands. Those who met that deadline will be included. Please check the post on this site listing who I received submissions from by that date. If you submitted your work by the May 7 deadline in accordance with our guidelines and your name is not listed, send an email to info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.
- read write poem napowrimo anthology
May 5, 2010 | 3:09 pmRemember that Friday* is the deadline for submitting work to the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Anthology. Check out the guidelines for submission in the main column (to the left). On May 8, we’ll post a news item listing everyone we’ve received work from. If you submitted work and your name is not on that list, please let us know. Thanks!
*I initially said “tomorrow,” but I meant to say “Friday.”
- napowrimo congratulations, and a reminder
April 24, 2010 | 12:05 pmIt’s the final week of the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge! Just 7 days left. With that, a reminder that Read Write Poem will culminate with the anthology featuring work from those who complete the challenge. A post with details for submitting to the anthology will be published May 1. Be sure you remove any information from the site that you want preserved — such as group content and personal messages. Those elements of the site will be removed May 1 as well. The main site will remain up as an archive.
- ‘underlife’ tour at january gill o’neil’s blog
April 20, 2010 | 8:11 pmJanuary Gill O’Neil’s virtual book tour has moved to her site and is underway now. Check out the lineup at Poet Mom.
 Archive for read write poem news »
|
thank you and farewell As of May 1, 2010, Read Write Poem is no longer active.
In late May, an anthology featuring work from those who completed the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge will be published here and on issuu.com.
|
I’m on strike.
azha irving replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 1:02 am
I’m with you Dan!
This should be called the hodgepodge approach.
should be fun…
rob kistner replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 2:12 am
…here is my NaPoWriMo #9 – jazz in a parallel universe…
vivienne Blake replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 4:54 am
These are wonderful: they show what can be done with a hodge podge. I think your haiku could very properly be part of the longer poem, in fact should be the first stanza! I was groaning at the horrible mixture of words, and your poems have given me the courage to have a go.
rob kistner replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Thank you Vivienne…
This is my second offering for this day. A precise, and extremely sobering response to the Robert Peake NaPoWriMo day 9 prompt: That Moon
vivienne Blake replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 4:55 am
These are wonderful: they show what can be done with a hodge podge. I think your haiku could very properly be part of the longer poem, in fact should be the first stanza! I was groaning at the horrible mixture of words, and your poems have given me the courage to have a go.
OK.
Here goes nothing:
Winter in Wattle Cove
Now that’s a chalenge I can sink my brain into!!
sorry…CHALLENGE
Ended up with a kind of Mating Dance
as tempting as it was to try to use octopus, here’s my #9, We Deserve Better:
http://jdmackenzie.blogspot.com/2010/04/we-deserve-better.html
Uma Gowrishankar replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 1:39 am
This is great work JDM , and so quick.Reads beautiful…
(I can’t leave comments in your blog. Can you please activate Name/URL)
I made no sense of this –
http://another2doors.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/dada-paint/
Here’s my NaPoWriMo #9:
12 words chosen, a terrible taste, an awkward unusable phrase, and my favorite sound, all wound up in my new poem.
Enjoy!
Mark
http://babblingoninbabylon.com/blog
For me, this prompt worked like surrealism in a can.
“Secrets”
http://www.redbubble.com/people/nebsy/writing/4969226-napowrimo-9
Dan Rako replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 7:25 am
“I keep so many secrets.”
Great opening!
Marianne McNamara replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 9:15 am
“Secrets” is clever and smart! Wonderful response to the prompt!
Matt Quinn replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Loved the surrealism. You created a fun, enjoyable poem!
pamela sayers replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Nebs,
This is so well done.
Pamela
Evelyn N. Alfred replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
No love for brussel sprouts, eh nebs? I adore them. They don’t love me though…
Jazzzzz
Here’s a rondel about surfing, written for a children’s audience.
True Surfers
True surfers crave the untamed ocean -
Their surfboards ride the rolling swell…
Read the complete poem at http://www.gregoconnell.com
Ahh… now this is the challenge part of the challenge!
The Right Answer.
Ouch, I cudnt spin any sensible stuff. Sad
poemsotherwise.blogspot.com/2010/04/insane.html
pamela sayers replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Insanely good!
Pamela
The product in mine doesn’t make much sense to me: CHING-CHING
Beware rabbits and what they think. Fool you with their wiggly noses they will, thinking they are only cute!
NaPoWriMo #09 Open this box
Thanks for this fun prompt Robert.
‘Uncle and his Mates go camping’
http://rallentanda.blogspot.com
I want to kiss the ice of winter
to hold close the startled chill of darkened days
find the world turned pumice beneath my fingers.
breathe deep the chimney’s song of gum and pine
join the bulky parade of stiff legged walkers
red nosed and flapping like plumed marionettes.
This season holds a torch for fat old lounge chairs
for jamming toes deep in felted slippers
stowing whole days into fringed blankets
strumming lost melodies or drawing forth
the octopus tendrils of an epic tome.
I am home here.
http://crankymango.blogspot.com/2010/04/winter.html
Oh my friggin word. After The Pills at Scrambled, Not Fried.
Sorry. (It’s the pills) I’ll try again: After The Pills at Scrambled, Not Fried
A Ranch Winter
She was slighter than twig, stick girl scrawled
on winter’s pale tome, a balance of the pail
in her hands, she hummed on the fringe of day, an unsteady walker of tightropes
between elms, scattered as campfires.
Her braids frayed loose, cast chimney smoke,
wisps like bruises on her face.
The roof released snow from the tin roof,
the season’s tuning fork in the iron bath,
steady as the strum of fingers, in wait for water, the metal jug empty as a gaping mouth.
At the back door she heard his cough, felt it
in her throat, lodge sour candy that wouldn’t dissolve,
a choke hold on the winter, its lever on a minute, on how it worked her legs to fetch and carry, a rusty marionette in her march to duty.
The twig girl stowed the feeling inside her,
the secret of how she’d grow, swell beyond her place. The sick man barked,and she went inside, tiny blood sprayed from his spit if he laughed, flecks landed on the rug like tiny holes
a pumice stone that absorbed every move his hand ever made.
and today
http://travelsinthefloatingelvis.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-9th.html
Another Day, another challenging prompt!
You guys are quick!
I want to say, I’m going to sleep on it. Man, going to be a tough Friday work day/night and no time to think about this one.. Hmm….
Thanks goodness for the weekend, I should be able to give this one some proper attention tomorrow. In the meantime, here is my day 9 poem – a very rushed effort since it’s rather late here
Love Among the Office Supplies
This one took a little longer!
http://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2010/04/passions-and-napowrimo-day-9.html
Read or listen to today’s poem, “Origins.” It’s a biography of sorts:
http://jasoncrane.org/2010/04/09/poem-origins/
All the best,
Jason
I can do this, I think. I’ll let it marinate for awhile and come back later with something.
http://mothersparrow.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/small-price-3/
Hey, at least we didn’t have to write about love! I used 3/4 of the prompt:
http://daily-yawp.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-9.html
Day 9
It’s Friday !!!!
Todays poems are on facebook and
http://dash30dash.ning.com/profiles/blogs/napowrimo-day-10-including-a
I’m also coming up with writing prompts which at the Dash30 site.
Keep writing!
Chris J.
Campfire Epiloge
http://mmw113.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-9-campfire-epiloge.html
vivienne Blake replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Mar, I like your poem very much, very atmospheric, and the prompt words you have used don’t seem as forced as they can do.
Phew! I’m glad that one’s done. Included in this are odd lines from an unfinished poem “Winter Blues”. Only by the skin of my teeth was I able to include 12 of the horrible words.
Hodge-podge
I’m in a flap, a terrible jam,
startled by this task.
My brain needs a massage – it’s badly bruised -
to get rid of the remnants of winter.
The bitter taste of politics lingers
with the lever of a date
provoking political fever.
Who wants it?
Not me, here on the fringe of events.
What’ll I do but whinge `til it’s over.
If I could sleep until June, I would.
Politics, hiatus in stasis.
But what’s that happy sound ?
the song of a blackbird perched on a pail,
that’s stowed behind the shed.
He’s carrying a torch for his mate,
strumming on his vocal chords,
and Spring is at last unwound.
Linda replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Wow, Viv, you did a really good job! The prompt is just too convoluted, I feel, but you have managed to make sense of it.
Okay, I totally tried this prompt and couldn’t make it work. Instead, I wrote The Language of Poetry.
Great prompt! I loved it!
http://herwordsbloomed.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-9-your-mission.html
vivienne Blake replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 9:20 am
This is lovely, Marianne. The promt words fit well into your theme. Did you start with strum?
Shannon Rayne replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Good job!
hosking replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I agree you wove a wonderful tale.
Some crackers here today so far.
Here’s my attempt:
The Day’s More Crucial Issues
(and yesterday’s one, as I posted it late:
Jesus & Kebabs/Ball Pits)
Back again. This time, a sonnet that conforms to all the aspects of today’s prompt. And I must admit…I’m pretty pleased with this one.
“Sentries on the dark Shakespearean stage,
like some marionette troupe, power-line
puppets; as a sleep-walker, you lumber in the paddock, unaware you ought to summon your collective strength, snap the strings of night…”
Read the full poem at http://www.gregoconnell.com
Thank you for the wonderful prompt, this got my creative juices flowing…
Seagull Soup
Slow to Burn
We stow secrets under the rug,
a lever to keep our passions hidden
beneath the fringe, rotting like discarded liver.
You ask me what is bruised.
Why I grind my teeth against stone.
The answer is not found in words.
The answer flaps like a marionette torched by campfire
startling the neighbors with its crackle
but no one thinks to bring a pail of water
to end her struggle.
A bit of a struggle, doesn’t really flow, but I’ve run out of time. 1am here and its work tomorrow. A challenge is a challenge. I’m learning so much here
http://redshoepoet.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-9.html
Yay! For the first time I’m posting before 2100 or so -and my grades are done. Let Spring Recess begin! Here’s # 9 – challenging prompt:
http://www.synecdochicstuff.blogspot.com/
Right on time with this one. I still need to get a couple done but will ketch up this weekend. Here is my gift for this prompt – The life lived metaphor
Great prompt! Wrote swiftly and smoothly…
http://juliejordanscott.typepad.com/jjspoetry/2010/04/bakersfield-in-april-napowrimo-day-9.html
quite a challenge but on prompt!
http://caroleesherwood.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/napowrimo-9/
I don’t know about you but I’m already feeling the burn.
hello winter
Well, the prompt are getting harder everyday!
Mine: http://ow.ly/1wvrM
Have a nice evening!
What a task
. Here is my attempt.
http://ingeborgsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-april-8th-your-mission.html
Well, I’ve never had any, but I think Octopus Jam would taste terrible.
ps: used all the words.
I gave it a shot. Liked the prompt, but the like didn’t translate.
http://onetimepad.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/tack-into-the-wind/
oh, wow, this is going to be a challenge
At first, it really felt like I was fighting against the prompt (especially the word list), but in the end I’m happy with how the poem turned out, even if it’s slightly pretentious.
The why-are-we-heres, like a spring cold
She Was Chocolate
http://nothinghypothetical.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/she-was-chocolate/
I actually met all the requirements for this prompt. Yay!
http://poemblaze.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/rwp-napowrimo-9/
I’m going with a near first draft ahead of a full day, and in hopes that I have time later to catch up on reading what everyone else has been writing. Here is: Winter Jam.
This one I enjoyed quite a bit:
Sour Milk
http://sadiespoems.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-mission.html
http://bygraceandfaith.tumblr.com/
Here it is…..challenging prompt!!!!!
My poem is done but not finished because I haven’t been able to revise it properly. It’s a nonsense poem.
http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com
This was tough – so many words! I didn’t get them all in, but I did get a sound that I like and something that tastes bad. http://rhiannonproblematising.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/napowrimo-9-campfire-with-driving-related-digression/
Weirdness! But fun to be pushed in this way. The “I” is a made-up person.
http://memali.posterous.com/0930-1
This is Dana’s offering: http://mygorgeoussomewhere.org/2010/04/09/the-shit-treatise/
Yeah! I love boundaries (in poetry prompts, not life)
this may take awhile…look for me later. Title will be Torch
this is a little limp, and if it’s a flop, I don’t blame Robert
a portrait of myself in robert peake’s words
Oh, poo. I didn’t realize I was signed in as nelle.
a portrait of myself in robert peake’s words
okay this one took some work:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978162725
amaranthe replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
nice! I liked it alot
hosking replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Thank you.
here is mine: http://teapartiesonneptune.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/on-fire-after-2am/
haikujunky replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
like this one…so cool to see how the same words are interpreted so differently by everyone!
Wow. That was quite a challenge. Not sure I really completed it, but it was fun.
http://sheiladeethdrabbles.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-napowrimo-9.html
haikujunky replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
very nice sheila! forms can be so useful!
torch
having slipped
out of our clothes out of the world
I mostly want to smell your breath
not the taste of anise like winter,
no hot metal chimney
the roof walker grasps
to save themselves falling,
an octopus too long in
the shallows, dark and limp
but the sound of wind chimes,
the sand colored fringe
on an indigo rug your hand
running down my body
like a lever pulled to green
your palm on my chest
strumming the energy moving
through and through us
a campfire as torch
hawk talon as omen
Did it all but the 12 words.
http://bluehookah.blogspot.com
amaranthe replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
wow! great imagery here! I love it!
haikujunky replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
that was cool, try the words too. they are tough LOL
Here’s mine: http://disorder1313.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/transliteration-of-catullus-vi/
Mission Impossible.
This is sort of a prose poem. Bad smell instead of bad taste. Otherwise on prompt. Weird where those take you.
http://katharinewhitcomb.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-9-domestic-mythology.html
Wow, I actually used the prompt this time! Woot!
http://yearofthebooks.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/poem-a-day-poem-9/