Patchwork Prose and Verse
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths and working my way through the prompts in this book. Today’s poem involves dropping a mouse – a completely unexpected twist – into a poem.
In the Country there in the shadows edging along the barn wall nervous field mouse creeps
Tammi Belko is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Color Personality Poems. You can take a quiz to see your color type. We are writing poems about our discoveries. You can take your own color personality test here.
False Crimson
OMG!
I have become
my mother
who always wore red.
I don’t even like red
except at Christmas
and on teardrop campers.
But here I am,
a Crimson INTJ
bold, direct, adventurous ~
out here killing it.
Apparently I’m friendly
at least on paper
because the truth is?
I’d rather be boondocking
on a rural mountainside
writing by campfire
No other people around
just my 3 schnoodles,
the love of my life,
and me
in our camper
a non-Crimson teardrop
named Walden.
Katrina Morrison of Oklahoma is our host today for Ethicalela.com’s November Open Write, Day 5. She challenges us to write Ekphrastic Poetry, or poems about pieces of art. I chose a painting my father recently gave me by Margaret Keane, famous for her Big Eyes paintings (there’s a movie, too). This one is entitled After the Storm. Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers, too, for giving writers space to share through Slice of Life.
Arkphrastic pairs of every kind must have felt fearful relief when the door opened after the great flood a lone dove fluffs its feathers we're finally here! under the rainbow hope painted in the heavens for fruitful futures elephants trumpet the platformed walk: arrival! just look at those eyes!
I’m hosting today at http://www.ethicalela.com/unphotographed/ with a prompt to write about an unphotographed moment.
Unphotographed
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’s resources are rich and plentiful for exploring various forms of poetry. I discovered his website, where I discovered his exercise Unphotographed. I began thinking of all the ways I use photos to inspire poetry…..and Vaughn reshaped my thinking about all the photographs not taken.
Process
To sharpen descriptive techniques and synesthesia in writing, consider a moment etched in your memory for which there is no photograph. Use sensory details to capture the photograph that doesn’t yet exist – – and breathe snapshot life into a picture of words. Write an unphotographed moment, from corner to corner, whether Polaroid, black and white, sepia, digital, 35 mm with or without filters……whatever the effect. Step into the frame. Take our hands. Bring us to your moment.
Kim’s Poem
Unphotographed Grief
your furrowed brow
thumb and forefinger cradling your chin
your lips quivering like her hand ~ unstoppable
teary eyes fixed on your shoe
on anything
on nothing
you in your chair
in the room
where she drew
her last breath
where her whispers linger
screams
laughs
cries
where there are no words
to hide the thudding drumbeat
of your broken heart
Your turn.
One-Word Poems are on the menu at the Open Write today at http://www.ethicalela.com/one-word-poems/
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 Lighting Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, Kyle Vaughn encourages writers to explore the power of a one-word poem. He describes the process of distilling favorite poems or lines down to one word to create one-word poems. Orlando White says, “The process of writing a one–word poem on the page involves playfulness, along with the willingness to take risks with imagination —much like a toddler who scribbles letters for the first time on paper, using the crayon to draw what a word might look like, and creating language outside the boundaries of standard writing.” (Play and Imagination: On the One-Word Poem by… | Poetry Foundation) This form may seem simple at first, but it could prove to be one of the most challenging forms of poetry we ever write. Let’s try!
Process
The interplay between the title and one word can provide context, illumination, and clarification, emphasizing the importance of title in poetry. The title can be as long as you wish. Write a one-word poem. You may choose to read a favorite poem and then let it simmer down to one distilled word, or you may write one without another poem driving yours. No need for rhyme scheme, either! 🙂
Kim’s Poem
Books, Runways, and Conversations
Portals
Your turn.
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.
Today at NCTE our Ethicalela.com writers’ group presented a round table poetry session.
poeming I’m sharing pictures writers writing side by side poeming their souls
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths and completing the writing exercises daily. Today’s prompt is to write a poetry triathlon – a poem in 3 sections : writing after 1) running while your heartbeat is fast; 2) toying with a machine or mechanism; and 3) in the presence of water.
No Triathl broken ankle folks can't run - we can barely limp our way place to place we fight with the boot velcro-twisted air pumped socks cold toes in winter warmth of epsom salts soothing achy ankle pain please put my bath on
I’ve been reading Lightning Paths by Kyle Vaughn and engaging in the writing exercises daily. Today’s exercise is writing a poem that celebrates activism.
Stop stop dividing us your reign is finished. over. accept it. move on.
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths and completing his daily poetry prompts for the past few weeks. Today’s challenge is to think of the opposite of a manufactured landscape poem and get to the roots of nature in a Reclaiming Our Environment poem.
At the end of the work day when I’m coming home to decompress, I check the mail down at the road and begin the slow crawl up the winding driveway to my house, through the oak grove to the dense pines that line both sides. And there is something I do every afternoon that lowers my blood pressure and pushes my reset button:
Windows Down I put my windows down, listen to the crunch of under-tire gravel then watch from the porch as the leaves let it all go to enjoy the ride
Common Threads 