Tag: open write

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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

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Day 4 of the August 2024 Open Write at www.ethicalela.com

Today’s host for Day 4 of the August Open write at http://www.ethicalela.com is Jeanie White of Missouri, who inspires us to write postcard poems. You can read her full prompt here.

Jeania encourages us to think of ourselves as a sock in a suitcase and somewhere we might find ourselves, or to write from a place we have never been. She encourages us to use one of the short forms – a form that would fit on a postcard.

I’m choosing an acrostic, in which the place I most want to visit reads vertically and each letter starts a new line.

Travel Fever

I want to pack my bags, go where it’s

Cold – to soak in thermal springs, to

Explore an ice cave in the

Land of Ice and Fire

Aurora Borealis dancing as the

Northern Lights

Delight the eyes and soul

Facts retrieved from: https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/facts-about-iceland/

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August Open Write: Day 3 with Leilya Pitre of Louisiana

Image generated with AI with the tell-tale six fingers on a hand…..

Our host at http://www.ethicalela.com today for Day 3 of August’s Open Write is Leilya Pitre, who inspires us to write Lune poems focused on the Monday Blues. You can read her full prompt here.

One of Leilya’s coping strategies is “to plan something enjoyable for Monday. ” She asks us to think of what helps us get through trying days and to write a poem about it – specifically, a lune.

Leilya explains: “A lune poem, also known as an American haiku, is a short three-line poem. Lune poetry originated when American poets noticed that writing a haiku in English didn’t quite capture the essence of the Japanese form. Japanese words typically have more syllables, allowing for fewer words overall, so English poets adapted the form to better suit the language.

Poet Robert Kelly first created the lune in the 1960s. After some experimenting, he stopped on a 13-syllable poem with a 5-3-5 syllable structure: 5 syllables in the first line, 3 syllables in the second, and 5 syllables in the final line. Later, poet Jack Collom introduced a word-count variant of the lune that is more popular today: three words in the first line, five in the second, and three in the last (3-5-3 words).”

Happy Planner Stickers

Monday morning blues

start Sunday,

checking the boxes

*** ***. ***

but Happy Planners

bring forth smiles

(colorful stickers) 🙂



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100-Syllable Book Cover Reveal

that moment when you

see your book cover

for the first time with

your group of writing

friends and hold back tears

for all the waiting,

for all the writing,

for all the hours spent

anticipating

what you always but

never dreamed so real

and possible and

finally right here

here it is, set to

launch September 2

stay tuned for the link

to our stories, to

our wounds, to our hearts,

to our healing words

Cheers for Words That Mend!

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Day 2 of July Open Write with Jennifer Jowett of Michigan

Today’s host for the second day of the July Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com is Jennifer Jowett of Michigan, who inspires us to write poems of loss. You can read Jennifer’s entire prompt here.

Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.com

Get Lost

I keep showing them to the exit
but they refuse to leave, to make
themselves scarce once and for all
they’re like Velcro leeches
sacked-out partiers
who won’t get lost
they stick with
me, these
pounds

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Day 1 of July Open Write with Denise Krebs of California

Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com for the July 2024 Open Write, Day 1, is Denise Krebs of California. She inspires us to write septercet poems on any topic we choose. Also called a blackjack poem for the 21 syllables in each stanza, the poem features stanzas of three lines with 7 syllables on each line. You can read Denise’s full prompt here. I’ll be presenting with Denise at this year’s NCTE Convention in Boston in November, and I’m proud to call her a friend!

Goddess of No

Harold Monro held me charmed

Overheard on a Salt Marsh

Gold-leaf’d Childcraft Volume 1

Over and over again

In my closet (with flashlight)

I read those words on repeat

Utterly spellbound, transfixed

Give them me. No. Give them me.

Grew up wearing green glass beads.

The nymph to the goblin: No!

He’ll lie in the mud and howl

for beads on her silver ring

She stole them out of the moon.

He’ll howl in a deep lagoon

(like so many creeps out there).

In the best illustration

the goblin’s fingers spark truth:

it’s sexual harassment.

this primer poem for girls

who could read between the lines

Give them me. No. Give them me.

better than a fair daughter

better than the voices of winds

better than stars or water

Harold Monro held me charmed

Give them me. No. Give them me.

I am a Goddess of No.

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Open Write June Day 5 with Jessica Wiley/ Day 155 of The Stafford Challenge

Today marks 155 days that those in The Stafford Challenge began a yearlong quest to write one poem each day for a whole year. Last night, we celebrated with poet Jessica Jacobs of North Carolina via Zoom, listening to her share her writing retreat to the desert of Arizona as she wrote about the art of Georgia O’Keefe. When writing group days intersect, it’s always interesting to see how several ideas can combine into one poem and fit in all of the spaces.

Jessica Wiley is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the final day of June’s Open Write for 2024. She inspires us to write poems by taking the spines of books and using them as lines. You can read her full prompt here.

My Reading Life

Life’s Greatest Treasure

Big Magic

Some Much-Loved Poems

Bear in the Back Seat

An Unexpected Guest

Living with Haints

Dead Uncles