Tag: open write

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November Open Write Day 1: An Invitation

Today, I’m your host at http://www.ethicalela.com to kick off the November Open Write. Please come join me at that site to share your own poem and to read the poems of others!

On the last day of October’s Open Write, I shared this poem:

An Invitation

save the date: November 16

you may choose to arrive by stretch limousine

we’ll be gathering in style for a writer’s retreat

whether castle or cabin or on your own street

we’ll spend the day writing in fantasy places

day one: a packing list poem ~ what’s in our suitcases?

so gather your words ~ select them with flair

I’ll be the door greeter to welcome you there!

you’ll need your location and writing utensil

something to wear, and perhaps a spare pencil

we’ll all need a critter (think Hogwarts style)

and a snack to share to write all the while

and then let’s bring one thing – a gift for the group

something to make us all laugh, cry, or hoot

what’ll it be? oh, I can’t wait to see ~

here’s a basket of tickets – take some – they’re free!

let’s keep Donnetta’s theme words sparking and growing

return in November, keep writing ongoing!

I offered a glimpse of today’s prompt, encouraging writers to think of a fantasy writing retreat and these aspects: location, clothing, writing utensil, critter, snacks, and a gift for others.

Today, I offer this poem to inspire others to write poems about a fantasy writing retreat. Come join us, and share yours on the ethicalela website!

Location: I’m arriving by Oz-graced Yellow Brick Road

to this heavy oak castle door with just an armload

Clothes: wearing overalls under my farm-writing cape

this magical cloak of virtual escape

with shimmery amber-hued dragonfly wings

and chicken foot bracelets and beetle leg rings

just a suitcase, you see, for this week here together

with all of my writing pals ~ birds of a feather

Utensil: and speaking of feathers, I’ve brought my quill pen

plucked from the wing of a feisty owl hen

Snacks: I’ve sugar-spun cauldrony crinkles for snacks

shaved off curled spikes from chameleons’ backs

Critter Companion: made easier by Razor, my pink crocodile

I walk on a bling-leash, in true Funny Farm style

Group Gift: and one more thing: I bring a group gift ~

truth glasses for all, to see things others miss

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Paint Chip Poems: Day 4 of the October Open Write

with special thanks to Two Writing Teachers at Slice of Life

Seana Hurd Wright of Los Angeles is our host for Day 4 of October’s Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Seana shares her process, which you can read fully here, or the synopsis here: Choose 4 -8 colors and brainstorm names of the many synonyms and color shades that are similar to the ones you chose. Write a poem or short story, in any form, using colors and as much figurative language as you’d like. I decided to choose two main colors, red and blue.  Then I selected various shades and hues that compliment them.  Then I selected a topic and enjoyed playing with words.  

I took my inspiration from a friend’s Facebook post. He shared photos of a long-held tradition in Bluffton, South Carolina, a town where I used to live. Each October, a gathering of paddlers all dress as witches and take to the waterways at sunset to greet autumn in style. It’s quite a sight to see, full of color and peaceful festivity. This year, a tour boat passed by and someone on the boat blasted the song “Witchy Woman” as they passed, bringing laughter and setting the mood.

Witches’ Paddle

On October Sunset they ride

Onyx-caped waterproof witches

paddle out on Supermoon tide

admiring autumn’s swell riches

photo taken from a friend’s Facebook post
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Bop ‘Til You Drop: Day 3 of October’s Open Write

Seen on Facebook – I borrowed this post from a friend.

Wendy Everard of New York is our host for Day 3 of October’s Open Write, inspiring us to write Bop poems. You can read her full prompt here.

The Process

Here are the basic rules for The Bop:

  • 3 stanzas
  • Each stanza is followed by a refrain
  • First stanza is 6 lines long and presents a problem
  • Second stanza is 8 lines long and explores or expands the problem
  • Third stanza is 6 lines long and either presents a solution or documents the failed attempt to resolve the problem

My poem is inspired by a friend’s Facebook post. She’d found Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake donuts and thought it would be a good idea to share ~ to tempt her friends, of whom I am surely the most temptable.

Little Debbie Donut Bop

{the problem:}

in a word:

willpower!

why?

Who made these

Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake Donuts?

{expand the problem:}

oh, that’s easy to expand:

just open the bag.

eat.

weight increases.

waist and hips expand.

arms expand.

thighs expand.

{the failed attempt to resolve the problem:}

taste bud EXPLOSION!!

the sugar-grit of green glittery garland

white snow-pearl smoothness

red-ribbony-wrapped tinseling

savoring the sensations of Christmas in October

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Ode to Change: Day 2 of October’s Open Write

Our host for Day 2 of the October Open Write is a group of students at Aquinas College in Michigan, inspiring us today to write odes to change. Stefani Boutelier, an instructor at AC, leads them in their prompt offering today, which you can read in its entirety here.

Ode to Letting Go in Chained Haiku

the leaves show us how
on our morning driveway walks
straight into the sun

how to let things go
bidding the branches goodbye
flitting to forest

floor beneath, seeking,
stirring, gathering in groups
with others who’ve held

onto things for far
too long to know weightlessness
untethered freedom

to roll on gentle
breeze to take to bright blue skies
on blustery gusts

to change their small view
and see the whole world anew. ~
a new perspective

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Questionable Products – October Open Write Day 1 of 5

Scott McCloskey from Michigan is our host today for the first day of our October Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. He inspires us to write Questionable Products Poems – the kind with a slant of an ode to something that raises our eyebrows in wonder, disgust, or utter surprise. You can read his full prompt here. Be sure to check out the links, too, at the bottom – for those strange things we all need.

My Mark on the World

speaking of unboxing gifts

I’m inventing the next big thing

because of all the things that 

annoy me like the partially squeezed 

twisted toothpaste tubes or 

velcroed soap with melded slices sticking

like a bloodletting leech to a larger bar or

handwarmer mugs that brand palms or

already-used weekly sandwich bags or

damp half-paper towels drying to be recycled or

all those other quirks like the holy

t-shirts because they’re good for tractoring

what annoys me the most is the simple

kitchen dishtowel that never

-do you hear me?  never – 

and I mean never, ever, ever not once

not once –

makes it back to the oven handle

where it is supposed to hang out

unless I put it there myself

it’s not really even a dishtowel, per se,

it playfully pops behinds and serves as a napkin

for powdered donuts and

wipes counter messes and

occasionally dries a dish

but it naps, crumpled in comfort on counters

on the table

on the bar

on the coffee table

and so I’m inventing one

with invisible GPS homing strings 

to draw it back 

to where it goes

so that I will have left 

my mark in this world

right in the hearts of 

kitchens all over 

the world

in the smiles of wives

worldwide

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Open Write September Day 5

Barb Edler of Iowa is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the final day of our September Open Write. She encourages us to celebrate our writing group through poetry of any form today. You can read her full prompt here and read the poems of others. On the heels of a celebration of the Labor Day launch of our books Words that Mend and 90 Ways of Community earlier this week, I can’t think of a better way to write today than in thanksgiving and heartfelt gratitude for a group of writers who make a difference in how we live and how we think.

If you don’t have a writing group, I encourage you to find one ~ and you can use this one as a great model for a face to face group in your own corner of the world after spending a few hours looking back at the prompts and the feedback. Get the books, read them, and feel the deep need to fix places you never knew were broken. Too many of us have lost our footing and found ourselves floundering and then discovered the power of writing and what it can do. Today is a day to celebrate the power of the pen and the ways it connects us with others. Anna Roseboro said it best at our celebration: if poetry can do this for us, imagine what it can do for our students. We all need poetry and writing in our lives.

Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

Belonging

we step from shadows

into glowing candlelight

from our scars

we discover soothing balm

from mourning and grief

into reassurance there is

reason to go on

we come from loneliness

to take a hand of belonging

from disconnectedness

to welcoming acceptance

we leave our fears

step into the fold of peace

we leave disappointments

find spiritual hope

we feel our hearts

pulled at the words

someone else’s

shadows

scars

mourning

grief

loneliness

disconnectedness

fears

disappointments

are our own moments

our own memories

and we know

we know

we know

this is no ordinary

writing group

these are

our lifelines

our people

our friends

our family

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Open Write September Day 4

Our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the September Open Write is Larin of Oklahoma. She inspires us to write “I Thought You Should Know” poems in any form of our choice. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems of others.

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers at Slice of Life

To the Craftsman in Kentucky Who Made the Secretariat

I thought you should know

this piece has been in my family

since 1966, and we won’t give it up~

it sits in the dining room by the table

here in the heat of Georgia

with a fake plant on top since I

can’t keep real ones alive

like the matriarchs did

and I only wish I could rewind

time through all its days and

relive some of the simplest

moments next to it

through the years

as hash browns fried,

cinnamon toast browned,

bacon sizzled,

teaspoons swirled in steaming mugs

and family talked

~ really talked ~

in those hours like they’d have forever

only they didn’t

and we don’t

which is why, Craftsman, your

work of art is safe with us

turning back the years

in ghostly oak

memories

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Open Write September Day 3 – Decades of Music Poetry

Today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the third day of the September Open Write, Tammi Belko of Ohio is our host. She inspires us to write music of the decade poems by creating new original poetry from borrowed lines of favorite songs, mashed up like a Cento poem all from lyrics. You can read her full prompt here.

Photo by Anni Roenkae on Pexels.com

When the Moon is in the Seventh House

do you…..YOU….

feel like I do?

would you like to swing on a star,

carry moonbeams home in a jar?

could I have this dance

for the rest of my life?

if it all fell to pieces tomorrow

would you still be mine?

where have all the

cowboys gone?

where have all the flowers gone?

are you going to San Francisco?

do you want to know a secret?

do you promise not to tell?

{{this is the dawning of the

age of Aquarius}}

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Open Write September Day 2

Dave Wooley is our host for Day 2 of the September Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com, inviting us to write poems today about mirrors. Come write with us or read our poems.

Join us today for our book launch party, too! September 22, 2024 – we are having an Online Publication Party to celebrate this bounteous time in our poetry community. Please join us for a live event on Zoom/YouTube at 12 PM PST/2 PM CST/3PM EST and bring friends with you…we are going to celebrate! 

Mirrors

mirrors
of life
in art

Picasso
exhibit
in Nashville
with my
daughter

we sat
admiring
wondering
taking it
all in

then my
birthday~
she sent
blank journals
with
Picasso art
covers
fronts and backs

mirrors

mirrors
of life
these words

conversations
with Fran
we chatted
on writing
on family
on pens
and pencils

then a
Ticonderoga
Noir
Holographic
Hexagon
flat sections

mirrors

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Day 5 of the August Open Write with Anna Roseboro

Anna Roseboro of Michigan is our host today for our fifth and final day of the August Open Write. Anna encourages us to walk through poetry from #VerseLove 2024 and apply the TIME acronym to the elements of a poem and construct a verse about one of our choice. You can read her full prompt here. I chose Stacey Joy’s Our Old Kitchen Table to think about these elements in her poem and to write about each.

Time

Imagery

Music

Emotion

Tabletime Tempos

Through all these tender table times
In games, gatherings, cartoons, showers,
Meals, drumrolls of dice and laughter and tears against
the backdrop of time ticking
Emanating life tempos tintinnabulated and tolled, thus told
around the old kitchen table