This morning, a group of EthicalEla writers will be gathering at the NCTE green couch in the Anaheim Convention Center at 9:00 PCT to write. Some members of group are here in person for a presentation we gave yesterday on different poetry forms and the ways we can use writing in our classes. Join us if you’re here. If not, check back later for pictures of our time together and join the writers in the link below. I’ve been writing through Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths this month, so I’ve asked him to come along on this month’s journey with us. I’m posting the full prompt below, and the link to the site here: http://www.ethicalela.com/the-monostitch-one-line-poem/
The Monostitch: One-Line Poem
Our Hosts
Kim Johnson, Ed.D., lives in Williamson, Georgia, where she serves as District Literacy Specialist for Pike County Schools. She enjoys writing, reading, traveling, camping, and spending time with her husband and three rescue schnoodles – Boo Radley (TKAM), Fitz (F. Scott Fitzgerald), and Ollie (Mary Oliver). You can follow her blog, Common Threads: patchwork prose and verse, at www.kimhaynesjohnson.com.
Kyle Vaughn is the author of Calamity Gospel (forthcoming from Cerasus Poetry, 2023), The Alpinist Searches Lonely Places (Belle Point Press, 2022), and Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises (NCTE Books, 2018), and is the co-author/co-photographer of A New Light in Kalighat (American Councils for International Education, 2013). His poems have appeared in journals such as The Journal, A-Minor, The Boiler, Drunken Boat, Poetry East, Vinyl, the museum of americana (2022 Best of the Net nomination), and The Shore (2021 Pushcart Prize nomination). He teaches English and is the Director of the Writing Center at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas. Find him at www.kylevaughn.org / twitter: @krv75 / insta: @kylev75
Inspiration
In his book Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, Kyle Vaughn challenges writers to create Monostitch poems (one-line poems), stating, “I believe strongly in the power of a small poem…as a zenith of brief, bursting expression.” One-line poems aren’t easier than others to write – but the strong sense of connection between a title and a poem of one line inspires the writer to consider the relationship between the title and the word.
Process
Write a one-line poem today, bringing your life to paper through a pen ready to capture your moment or thought, wherever you are.
Kim’s Poem
Vintage Serro Scotty
cloud and aquamarine dream with #1 problem: no potty
Your turn.
Common Threads 