by Deb Scott
This week’s prompt is “aunt,” simply because today is my favorite aunt’s birthday. I call her Aunt B (for Barbara), but she is also known as Babs, Barbie, Sissy, Mom, Mother, Grams, Grandma, Grandmother and Mrs. Linn.
Perhaps you have a favorite aunt (or uncle or cousin). But then, so many families are crazy (fun or lunatic or both) that perhaps your favorite aunt is fictional or imaginary. Maybe your Aunt B (or Bee or Bea) is like Andy and Opie Griffith’s Aunt Bee: a fictional aunt fulfilling a maternal roll.
Do you come from a culture that calls every elder female relative “Auntie” out of respect? Or would you like to cloak yourself with that view and honor someone in your real or imaginary life? Re-create that someone as “Auntie”. Perhaps you have a madcap Auntie Mame alter ego, pounding on the stage door. Let her out.
We won’t be the first poets to write about their aunts. T.S. Eliot had his “Aunt Helen” (1917), Dylan Thomas wrote a critique on poetic style (or was it on snobbery?) to his aunt in “A Letter To My Aunt Discussing The Correct Approach To Modern Poetry” (early 1930s) and Adrienne Rich published “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (1951). Recently John Terpstra penned “Aunt Lucy,” which begins:
Sweet Aunt Lucy, whom I recall most vividly
from Christmases at home, when she sat
at the corner of our couch, smoking
the cigarettes she smoked only then,
Thinking about an aunt at a family event ought to trigger all sorts of real and imagined events and ideas you can write about this week.
A NaPoWriMo chainpoem
If you’d like, post a line here, and count it as one of your daily poems for the month of April. I’ll assemble your lines and re-post it as a poem Tuesday, April 8. (If you are contributing a line please post only that line — no commentary or links — in one comment, otherwise I will get confused. You can make comments, but be clear it is a comment not a line to be added.
Collaboration ideas (sometimes it’s easier to write about someone else’s family than our own)
- Trade a family photo of your aunt(s) with a fellow poet and write about what you see.
- Trade four to six lines with a fellow poet and replace at least two of your lines with theirs.
- Write a poem about Aunt _____ and take out all the important words. Pass it on to a fellow poet to fill in the blanks.
This week let your mind wander to your parents’ sisters –- or anywhere else –- and come back next week, starting after midnight Monday, to Get Your Poem On.
Terpstra, John. (2007). Aunt Lucy. The Antigonish Review #148, 37-1.
by Christine Swint
Here’s the long and short of it …
Can we really write 30 poems in 30 days? Yes, we can!
This past November, I participated in NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. After joining Dana’s group, Read Write Poem, I used the challenge of posting every day to write a poem a day. I was able to write 30 poems by exploring the world of short forms.
In light of the upcoming NaPoWriMo, we thought it would be helpful to round up several short forms for everyone to play with. Who knows, it might become your new favorite way to write!
- Pleiades: This is a modern form invented in 1999 by Craig Tigerman. The Pleiades, named after the constellation also known as the seven sisters from Greek mythology, consists of seven lines of seven syllables each. The title is one word, and each line starts with the same letter as the title.
- Cadae: Another form based on counting syllables, the cadae follows the sequence of the first seven digits of Pi (which equals 3.141592). The first line consists of three syllables, the second one syllable, and so on. You could include several stanzas, or just one. Another variation would be to write three words for the first line, one word for the second line, etc.
- Fib: The fib is similar to the cadae, in that the form is based on a sequence of numbers (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21). It too is a modern form. There are several ways to write a fib, but the most common way I’ve seen is to write a one syllable line for the first two lines, two syllables for the second, etc. This form creates a great visual effect, because the Fibonacci curve found in nature reveals itself on the page. (See Prompt # 11 where we explored this form in Januray.)
You can also read more about the fib at Gottabook, site of author Gregory K., who coined the title “fib”:
- Rothko: I’ve never written a Rothko poem, but I’m going to soon. There are three basic guidelines to writing one: have a Rothko painting in front of you, write three lines of poetry, each containing three words, and include three colors. If you follow this link to About Poetry, you can also read about the Pollock. Maybe you have your own favorite painter. Why not invent your own short form based on that artist’s work?
- Nonet: The nonet contains nine lines. The first line contains nine syllables, the second eight, etc … (9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1).
Besides these forms, you might already enjoy American Sentences, a form Dana brought to us for our first prompt (way back in November).
This is a short but sweet list to get you started. If you have a favorite little form you’d like to share, leave us a link, and we’ll thank you!
by January O’Neil and Deb Scott
Next Tuesday is April Fool’s Day. (You’d think it would end March Madness- the State’s NCAA college basketball championship, but no, the final four is April 5 and the final game is April 7.)
April is National Poetry Month (in the US). Read Write Poem will be supporting you as you celebrate, in a variety of ways. Read on to find out how! — Deb
With the arrival of April comes National Poetry Month, a whole month devoted to poetry. And with that comes the Olympian-like challenge known as National Poetry Writing Month, or NaPoWriMo. The challenge? Write a poem a day for the month of April—30 poems in 30 days. For many of us who have done this in the past, we’re saying to ourselves, “Has it been a year already?” But like childbirth, it’s a pain soon forgotten, yet replaced by the joy of writing enough poems to fill a chapbook.
Why do this? Well, think of it as your way of supplementing the activities of National Poetry Month. This is your contribution to the larger poetry community. And on a personal level, if you’re suffering from lack of motivation or writer’s block, this will force you to chain the Muse to the chair next to you. The pressure is part of the fun.
So this is a roll call of sorts. Let us know you’re participating and why. Be sure to visit other NaPoWriMo-ers because, by golly, they’ll need the support. And don’t worry about skipping a day, because the goal is to write. Don’t think, just do. At the end of month, you’ll look back to see 30 poems in your wake – many of which will be throwaways. But a few may turn into the drafts to start – or finish – that collection you’ve always wanted to write.
If you need help igniting your creativity, check out RWP’s random prompt generator (Christine has uploaded a bunch of new ones!), or check out the prompts from previously weeks to get you through the rough spots.
Warning: NaPoWriMo is not for the faint of heart. But if you’re willing to go for the ride, the journey is worth it. — January.
Deb here again. We’re going to add “NaPoWriMo” behind the blog names in the “Participants tab” of those folks who tell us (in the comments below, or by an email to info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org), that they are doing it this year. (Yup, just like Poetry Thursday did last year.)
We’re also adding a sidebar category – just for April – that will give you a quick link to the latest NaPoWriMo buzz.
The polls might just talk about National Poetry Month activities, too.
And look for a button. A new button (I love buttons) just for NaPoWriMo. I may have to do NaPoWriMo just to be able to get the button. (Bad advice — don’t listen to us — do it because you love poetry.)
Join in right here, in the comments below. You know you want to, no matter what you said last year! (Oh, that’s my line.)
(And for those who don’t want to do NaPoWriMo, no worries – we will be here for you, too. With plenty of non-NaPoWriMo content.)
Additional information about NaPoWriMo
Maureen Thorson started NaPoWriMo and says,
I have been doing this for around five years, and many have followed in my wake! If you plan to participate, go forth and do so! NaPoWriMo is free, requires no license, and wants you to propagate it in new and foreign soils.
Ivy Alvarez has made a number of buttons for NaPoWriMo, including those of an international flavor: IntPoWriMo. We here at Read Write Poem have participants from around the globe. It may be you’d like to use one of Ivy’s, or just ask, and we’ll make a RWP one for you.
Ivy also has some great prompt ideas listed on her blog, for NaPoWriMo 2007.
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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 »
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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.
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