Exercise #2

1. Make a list of objects from your past. Make them concise and specific. (Exp: a broken vase, a new Pontiac Vibe, a T-Shirt floating in a pool). List about 5 of them.

2. Your poem will have 5 stanzas of three lines each. The first line of your stanza will start: "I come from ___________" with one of the subjects in the blank. The next two lines of the stanza are free reign for you to follow up the original statement.

Example:

I come from a broken vase
the creases in my hands sharp and reflective
my ribs stretching across, wishing they could harness a bouquet

...and repeat 4 more times. Go!

2/30 William - From an old prompt, but a new poem

Execute. Command.

During the bloody sunset, my still-born twin told me I come from a sickle blade of executioners. Our hands, large and terminal. Two sets, one visible except to victims. We live in torsos, the hollowed out spines of men born of gallows and mischief. In the throats of liars, the railroad track wrists of thieves, their fingers sprawl out like fleshy firecrackers when bone is kissed by cleaver. The light we see in strangulation cannot be simulated, the growth of a knotted rope from the back of a husband slayer’s neck is a progress few can speak. My heart is a hornets’ nest of moans. A wild dog with a filthy coat, that has learned to forgo the carrot for the swing of the stick. When I speak, you can hear the scythe scraping the back of my teeth, the hardened glaciers in my gums, pinning spirits back onto my tongue. My apologies are always post-mortem, falling upon the ears of those that no longer need them.

NaPoWrMo Challenge: William 1/30

Cannon

The first time a man is shot out of a cannon, he will not remember the heat
the searing of his elbows against iron walls
He won’t recall the flash of daylight sprinting to his origin
He may not even remember the low end conversation
Of the bang itself. What will stay with him
Is the silence
The absence of anything before his explosion
The way the white sucked at his skin
Like his 9 year old forearms by the vacuum attachment

I never took you for cannon
your mouth a flash of opportunity and reconstruction. I pray the monuments of lesser
are never flattered by your explanations. At your best you are collapsed towers
and brick dust. A concert of open fire hydrants responding to your outburst
I hope to be the white between your words. My name an explosion when it leaves
your iron clad lips. Sing. Please sing me. I have never been chord or wrecking ball

30/30 Starts on THURSDAY!

Yes, April is upon us. That means for poets, its 30/30 time! 30 poems in 30 days people that's the challenge. As for having a safe place to post them on-line for critique from your peers, you can put them up right here.

so starting Thursday, lets get on it!

Writing Prompt / Exercise #1 (for 2010)

Ingredients:

1. First off pick from 1 of 3 people. A 24 year old female Runway model, a 63 year old grandmother or a teenage boy. Write that person at the top of your sheet.

2. Split your sheet into two halves and label the categories - "Cause" and "Effect".

3. Here are your causes - Unbuckled seatbelt, Open Bedroom Window, snowy driveway, first date, unattended stove, declaration of college major, breached firewall (computer), a present from a secret admirer, missed appointment, 3 consecutive hours on the internet.

4. Now, list an effect for each cause. Be descriptive, but not necessarily wordy, ie...a hand lifeless on the car hood or a pregnancy notification delayed.

5. After finishing the list, take the person you identified in #1 and write a poem using at least 5 of the effects you listed. You must use the effects to only describe the attributes of the person. For example; 'her smile was a hand lifeless on the car hood' or 'she laughed like a pregnancy notification delayed'.

Have at it!