Please read this page [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

How did your poems progress? Did they pop with power and persuasion? Did they perk up with all the peppy P-words? Well, pony up and participate! Pull out the links to your p-p-p-poems and post them in the comments below. Personally, I am pleased as punch to see your pretty verses.

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.

Jessica Fox-Wilson is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem. Her work includes the Read Write (Word) Prompts every month and the Just One (Book) Thing column. Visit her at her blog, Everything Feeds Process.

And now for the prompt: While [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

Before we dive into the prompt, I should note that I am stepping away from my writing responsibilities here at Read Write Poem due to increased responsibilities in my day job. I am deeply thankful to the Read Write Poem community for their support of my writing.

And now for the prompt: While pondering the plenitude of pretty words that the people of the Wordle Word Bank proffered, it appeared that many of the words began with “P.” Pleased with this pleasant development, I picked through the piles, just to produce a perfectly P-themed prompt. Whew!

Do you want to play along? All you need to do is pick up your pens (or pencils) and craft a poem, including as many of these P-words as you can.  If you’re really psyched, you can add a few alliterative P-words of your own.  Then, next Thursday, pass by here to share your p-p-p-poem.  As a reminder, please reserve the comments of this post for discussion of this prompt and preserve your poem for Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post.

Poets Mark, Katie, Rallentada, Neil, James and Kathy helped to prepare our list of P-words, so you should peruse their blogs and praise their philanthropy.  If you’d like to participate in providing words, join us at the Wordle Word Bank. We can always use more words, P-related or not.

Good luck!

Jessica Fox-Wilson is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem. Her work includes the Read Write (Word) Prompts every month and the Just One (Book) Thing column. Visit her at her blog, Everything Feeds Process.

Yellowrocket, by Todd Boss

Todd Boss’ first book of poems, Yellowrocket, is firmly rooted in a sense of place. The book centers on the landscape of the upper Midwest. As such, its poems [...]]]> by Jesssica Fox-Wilson

Yellowrocket, by Todd Boss

“Nature aches at the seams with both tenderness and savagery, which makes it a divine puzzle, a great work of art.”

Todd Boss’ first book of poems, Yellowrocket, is firmly rooted in a sense of place. The book centers on the landscape of the upper Midwest. As such, its poems are populated with images of farmsteads delineated on maps, violent storms wreaking havoc on a harvest and stands of trees that line the edges of properties. Mingled with these poems are poems that examine the workings of personal relationships — between husbands and wives and fathers and sons.

Several poems throughout the book combine these two seemingly separate themes. For instance, in a poem that appears near the end of the collection, “What Yesterday Appeared a Scar,” the narrator ponders his marriage while watching a frozen lake. He writes: “ … My sorrow / is tomorrow’s only season, / and it comes on now // like this cold thaw comes / upon the lake / or like the soft song one sings to sing / the past to sleep / only to keep it wide awake.” In images such as these, the beauty and austerity of the landscape mirrors the narrator’s sense of sorrow and longing.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Todd Boss about his writing about landscapes and relationships and how those two are connected for him.

Yellowrocket includes poems that examine the natural landscapes of the narrator’s childhood home, as well as poems that explore the shape of intimate relationships, such as those between a husband and wife. In what ways has writing about external landscapes informed your writing about emotional landscapes?

I guess it’s all bound up in my understanding of “God,” or whatever you want to call the creative forces behind the universe.

It’s negligence to call it science, I think. Nature is more than a confluence of geological forces; we are of the same stuff, and so we are mirrored in nature, and vice versa. Therefore, nature has two brains, a right and a left. It has a soul and it speaks and thinks and has ideas about itself, though perhaps none of these are conscious.

Nature aches at the seams with both tenderness and savagery, which makes it a divine puzzle, a great work of art. Maybe all nature writing is ekphrasis.

Nature exhibits both conservative and liberal tendencies. Maybe all nature writing is peacemaking except that which fails to be truthful.

To write truthfully about nature is to write about a conflicted chaos of personalities, deities, impulses and relationships. Any exploration of nature’s aspects is also by default an exploration of one’s own, since we have only our own to explore from.

So I guess I must excuse myself from your question. My writing about the natural world does not “inform” my writing about emotional landscapes. They are in fact the same thing. In poems about my turbulent marriage, my wife is cast variously as a force of nature, an absence, a wild rose, etc. Meanwhile, my poems cast nature as a dark muse, an oncoming train, a bridal couple. And then god keeps reappearing, as a poker player and a lousy poet.

It’s possible to think of ourselves as the consciousness of the planet. Nobody makes any sense of it but us, after all. And yet, our consciousness itself was bestowed upon us. Some want to think this happened by chance, but then isn’t chance the responsible divinity? We are all religious. We all believe in something, for even nothing is something. I believe that to write about the world is to study the sacred (the mystery) and the profane (the self), and that no conversation about one can preclude the other.

Order Yellowrocket from Amazon. Find out more about his work at his website.

Todd Boss grew up on a cattle farm in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, and attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN and received his MFA from University of Alaska-Anchorage. His poetry has appeared in many journals, including The New Yorker, Poets & Writers, Prairie Schooner, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Boss lives and works in the Twin Cities.

Please read this [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

How did those words serve you? Did you create a masterpiece? Did you veer off into unknown territory? Were you able to use them all?  Share your work with our lovely 13 words in the comments section of this post. I can’t wait to see what you all came up with!

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.

Jessica Fox-Wilson is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem. Her work includes the Read Write (Word) Prompts every month and the Just One (Book) Thing column. Visit her at her blog, Everything Feeds Process.

Group members Dana, Mark, Rallentanda, Katie, Jill and Nathan posted these creative words on the group’s wire. I’ve [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

Welcome, one and all, to another word-obsessed writing prompt. This week’s words were collected in a novel way — through the Wordle Word Bank, a new group on the newly expanded Read Write Poem member site.

Group members Dana, Mark, Rallentanda, Katie, Jill and Nathan posted these creative words on the group’s wire. I’ve incorporated them into this week’s writing prompt.

To participate in the prompt, simply fold some (or all) of these words into an original poem of your choice. During next Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post, share your link with the group. To keep things orderly, we do ask that you wait to share your links until the Get Your Poem On post goes up. Talk all you want here about the prompt — just save your links so they are all in one place and more people will see your work (and so mass confusion won’t ensue).

If you would like to contribute words for future wordle prompts, please join us over at the Wordle Word Bank group. Every so often, I’ll post requests for different types of words, and I’ll use those words in a future Read Write (Word) Prompt.

Happy writing!

Jessica Fox-Wilson is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem. Her work includes the Read Write (Word) Prompts every month and the Just One (Book) Thing column. Visit her at her blog, Everything Feeds Process.

Cradle Song, by Stacey Lynn Brown

Just One (Book) Thing, and its sister column, Just One (Chapbook) Thing, are two of the new columns we’re sharing each month here at Read Write Poem. The idea of [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

Cradle Song, by Stacey Lynn Brown

“The literal truth of a poem is much less important to me than its emotional core and relevance.”

Just One (Book) Thing, and its sister column, Just One (Chapbook) Thing, are two of the new columns we’re sharing each month here at Read Write Poem. The idea of the columns is to share books and chapbooks with our participants in a fresh way. Rather than doing a book review or a long-form interview, I will read a poetry collection every month, and Nathan Moore will read a chapbook collection every month. Then we’ll ask each author one single question — the one thing we really want to know, and share with you, after experiencing each work.

We hope you find the Just One Thing columns to be entertaining and informative. And we hope the authors’ responses to our questions make you want to pick up their collections and find out more about their work.

For the inaugural Just One (Book) Thing interview, I chose to interview Stacey Lynn Brown, author of the debut collection Cradle Song (C&R Press, 2009). The book is ambitious, a collection of 41 linked poems that tell the story of a young, Southern white girl raised by an African-American nursemaid and caregiver. All the poems are written in persona, using the voices of the young girl, the nursemaid and the girl’s mother. Through these voices, Brown reveals the undercurrent of race, class and gender that has shaped these three women’s lives.

The use of persona in the book is remarkable because each character is distinct, from the tough-talking Gaither (the nursemaid) to the quietly rebellious mother. Brown captures the cadences and emotions of each character, without drifting into sentimentality or stereotype. Instead, the reader feels drawn into these characters’ worlds, watching as their relationships shift, evolve and strain as they age.

Considering her use of persona for a full-length book, I chose to ask the author about the strengths and limitations of the character’s perspective, in contrast to the autobiographical “I.” Below is my question and her response.

What do you feel you can accomplish by writing in persona that you cannot accomplish by writing in an autobiographical voice?

As with any construct in poetry, there are limitations and possibilities inherent in both persona and the autobiographical “I,” but I don’t actually see them as being mutually exclusive. Each one relies upon and, to some degree, incorporates the other. An autobiographical poem isn’t necessarily striving to represent or replicate the author in full. Instead, it creates a version of the author that is not unlike a persona. Similarly, a straight-ahead persona poem relies upon the poet’s own personal experience and his or her self-awareness and knowledge of the human condition to be accessible and resonant.

What I was hoping to do in Cradle Song was to navigate the space between the two by incorporating both. I wanted to create a more fully realized portrait of a time and place by presenting different perspectives on the events that are discussed. So there are poems in the narrator’s voice, which is a closer, more autobiographical voice that skips back and forth between the child-like and the adult, and there are poems that are written as “memories,” stories that were told to me in the voices of the people who told them. While they are technically persona poems in that they represent a speaker other than the author, they exist somewhere in the space between the imagined and the remembered.

My hope with any poem, regardless of its construct, is that it accomplishes some level of emotional truth — not that it follows the arc of what really happened but rather that it reveal something important about why those things that happened, or didn’t happen, matter. The literal truth of a poem is much less important to me than its emotional core and relevance. Like Richard Hugo said, “You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything.” If you can write a poem that reveals and resonates emotionally, it accomplishes its goal, regardless of how real or imagined the speaker might be.

Order Cradle Song from C&R Press. Learn more about Stacey Lynn Brown by visiting her website and blog. Read sample poems from Cradle Song here.

Jessica Fox-Wilson is a columnist for Read Write Poem. Her work includes the Read Write Word prompts every month and the Just One (Book) Thing column. Visit her at her blog, Everything Feeds Process.

Please, link back here in your posts, either with a hyperlink to Read Write Poem or by using the badge [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

We hope you had fun working with this week’s Wordle prompt. Did you use all the words? Only some? Some and then some? We can’t wait to see how you put the words together.

Please, link back here in your posts, either with a hyperlink to Read Write Poem or by using the badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps our “internet health” when you link in every post you contribute to the project. And please add “Read Write Poem” in your tags, if you don’t mind.

For the new folks: Please take a few moments to read the the About page and our Copyrights page. If you have any questions about the project after reading through those pages, email us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.

If you want to play along, all you need to do is use as many (or as few) of the words as you [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

It’s that time again, to revel in our donated words and create masterpieces from their syllables. So, let’s get started! This week’s words came from generous souls Fiona, Michelle and Sam.

If you want to play along, all you need to do is use as many (or as few) of the words as you like and create your very own poem out of them. After that, you can share your brilliance in the comments Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post.

Please, please, please save your poems until then. Since this prompt will serve as our weekly prompt, we really want your poem to get as much attention as possible.

If you want to help out with the Read Write Word prompt, we can really use your words. Please send a list of your favorite words to info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org. We’d love to use them in a future prompt.

Now, get writing!

Jessica Fox-Wilson is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem. Her work includes the Read Write (Word) Prompts every month and the Just One (Book) Thing column. Visit her at her blog, Everything Feeds Process.

Please, link back here in your posts, either with a hyperlink to Read Write Poem or by using the badge in your post. Sidebar links [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

We hope you had fun working with Beth and Claudia’s words this week. I can’t wait to see what everyone came up with using their exciting and interesting combinations.

Please, link back here in your posts, either with a hyperlink to Read Write Poem or by using the badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps our “internet health” when you link in every post you contribute to the project. And please add “Read Write Poem” in your tags, if you don’t mind.

For the new folks: Please take a few moments to read the About pages, including our Copyrights page. If you have any questions about the project after reading through those pages, email us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.

To play along, all you have to do is borrow some (or all) of these words and use them in a [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

It’s time again to revel in some donated words and make some poems out of them. This week’s words were given to us by Jill, with some extra ones thrown in for fun.

To play along, all you have to do is borrow some (or all) of these words and use them in a poem. Once you’re done, you can either post a link to it in the comments here or wait until Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post. That’s all there is.

If you’d like to donate some words of your own, simply email them to info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.

Participating in the Read [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

How is your month going? Are you holding fast to your NaPoWriMo commitment? Are you supporting your online friends as they strive to write a poem every day? If you need a little inspiration for your poems this week, perhaps these words can help, supplied by generous Beth and Claudia.

Participating in the Read Write Word prompt is simple. Try to incorporate as many (or as few) of the words below into a poem this week. Then you can provide a link to your poem in the comments of this post. Or, if you prefer, you can wait until Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post.

If you would like to help with the Read Write Word prompts, simply email a list of words you like to info at readwritepoem dot org. Enjoy!

All of our Read Write Word images are created using the Wordle site.

Maybe you should use some of the words supplied by Sam and Danielle for one of your inaugural NaPoWriMo masterpieces. Even if you don’t plan on participating in the NaPoWriMo challenge, why not use as many [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

Here we are, on the eve of NaPoWriMo. Do you know what poems you plan on writing?

Maybe you should use some of the words supplied by Sam and Danielle for one of your inaugural NaPoWriMo masterpieces. Even if you don’t plan on participating in the NaPoWriMo challenge, why not use as many (or as few) of these words as you want for a new poem? Once you’ve created your poem, feel free to link in the comments here or wait for Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post.

If you would like to help fuel your fellow writer’s NaPoWriMo poems, start thinking about your favorite words and jot them down. Rumor has it Jill might just have something up her sleeve!

All of our pretty word collages are crafted at the Wordle site.

This week’s new words come from Michelle and Fiona. You should stop by and thank [...]]]> by Jessica Fox-Wilson

About a week ago, Deb put out a call on Facebook for more words, and boy-howdy did you guys respond! Thank you so much for all of the donated words. I am so grateful to have a fresh supply.

This week’s new words come from Michelle and Fiona. You should stop by and thank them for their generosity.

To participate in the Read Write Word prompt, all you have do is use as many of the words as you can in a poem. You can choose to link your poem here in the comments or wait until Thursday’s Get Your Poem On post. It’s up to you.

If you want to follow Michelle and Fiona’s good examples and donate words, we can always use more. Simply email a list of your favorite words to info at readwritepoem dot org.

Image provided by Wordle