Archive for the 'Tom' Category



Repetition is one of the pillars of poetry. Sometimes the repetition is of words and phrases (as in sestinas, ghazals, or villanelles), sometimes it’s a repetition of sound (rhyme, alliteration, assonance), sometimes the rhythm of the words (which we most clearly see in formal meters like iambic pentameter). All these types of repetition are used [...]

I suppose I should start by apologizing for the cliché, but your prompt this week is to repeat yourself poetically. Repetition is one of the most important concepts in poetry. Songwriters understand this with their catchy choruses and repetition is very common in verse forms. Villanelles, sestinas, rondeaux and pantoum are all built on repetition. [...]

Without making any judgments about the value of obsession in poetry, the villanelle is an excellent vehicle for obsession. The repeated use of the refrains force the poem to keep circling and grabbing onto a very small set of ideas. This repetition is the key element of the villanelle.
Villanelle of Change
by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Since Persia [...]

get your poem on #10

From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for this week’s contribution.
Be sure to check back through the week and see what others have written in response to this prompt or inspirations from other sources: Read Write Poem!
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Please [...]

The pendulum of poetic taste has swung in many directions over the years. While much surviving poetry comes to us in anthologies - and is given to us as representative - we really have no way of knowing what all the poets from any given time period were writing. Today, with so many poets able to participate [...]

get your poem on #4

From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for this week’s contribution.
Please take a few moments to read the the about page, the code of conduct and our copyrights page. If you have any questions about the project [...]

Poetry has a strange dual-identity. Historically, and certainly currently, much of poetry existed to be spoken or performed. It had a rhythm and timing in the delivery, the speech or chanting of the poet being the form of the poem.
Rendered on the page, poems still have a rhythm (even if it is not patterned) and [...]




WEEKLY READ WRITE PROMPT

Aug. 18, 2008 — The current Get Your Poem On post is here. This is where you leave us a link to your blog, this week in response to Juliet's prompt to be in the moment.

POLL DANCE

Aug. 17, 2008 —This time the poll dance is a collaboration. Meet the Funnelcakes. And the monkeys.

There's a new poll up. But you can keep talking to or about the Funnelcakes for a while.


RANDOM PROMPTS

A different word or phrase will appear here each time you visit the site or refresh the page. Your current prompt is — squall


RANDOM WRITING TIP

Pretend an event in your life needs explanation. Write the rules for this event as if it were a board game. How many players are there? What is the objective of the game? How do you win? How do you get home? You could also apply this process to a dream, and use the dream as the foundation for the poem.


RANDOM READING TIP

Slow down when you read, even when you're reading silently to yourself. Focus on visualizing the characters' world -- the details make a difference and deliver us to that place where we suspend our own reality. Don't cheat yourself!


RANDOM COLLABORATING TIP

Use instant messaging to write a poem with a collaborator by taking turns one word, one phrase or one line at a time. With group chat, you can do this with more than one partner.

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