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!

Writing Wrongs first Full Year '09

Writing Wrongs had a pretty good year, for it being the first full year of its existence. The audience stayed up for the most part with a consistency I couldn't have really expected. We had some great features, I mean great. I'd have to say that my favorite features of the year were Blair and Brian Ellis, though we had so many just destroy the spot. I'm quite sure Rachel gave the best feature nobody saw (as part of an experimented Saturday night show, a spectacle I plan to make amends for in 2010). Some of our shows were so packed, we had to steal chairs from the coffee shop itself and we would still have a standing room. I saw so much growth amongst poets this year that I hope it becomes a trend for years to come. As far as slamming goes, here's how it went down

Women of the World Poetry Slam '09
Rep: Barbara Fant


If you've got a problem with Barbara Fant, then you're a horrible human being that needs to question your existence. Yeah, I said it. People LOVE Barb and that's before they hear her actually recite a poem. Then it just gets stalkerish. At any rate, this was Barb's second WOWPS appearance and she finished 24th overall

National Poetry Slam '09
Team Members: Wyk McGowan (1st), William Evans (4th), Barbara Fant (2nd), Mike 'Spike' Cowell (3rd), Ethan Rivera (1st)


This team was pretty fun. We should've had more than we did. This team did well. We should've done better. I'll chalk that up as my shortcoming for not utilizing the prep time the best in having our team ready to perform like we could've. Nevertheless, we finished 27th (out of 68 teams). Its the best finish for a Columbus team since 2004. I'm quite sure its a top five finish for Columbus' history. A nice building block, especially for the first year of Writing Wrongs being in competition

Individual World Poetry Slam
Representative: Ethan Rivera


Ethan was the lightning rod for Writing Wrongs for the duration of the year. He showed the most growth and work ethic in making himself a better poet and it showed when he won our IWPS slam-off pretty easily. He finished 76th at IWPS, which I know disappointed him initially, but it became evident that he was learning on the fly and earning the respect and admiration of his peers. His poetry will be a force to deal with in '10.

So many crazy things are set to pop off this upcoming year, I'm definitely happy to have such a great seat for the show that Writing Wrongs will be.

Exercise #11

Tell the story of your birth from your father's perspective.
You are not allowed to use 'you' or 'I'. It should be your father's voice, not you in your father's voice if that makes sense. A couple things to consider: What kind of man was your father? Was he there? How empathetic was he? What about his relationship with your mother before or after you? Don't be scared to go there with this one.

Exercise #10

Take a look at this picture



What would be the last Will and Testament to the person living here? What was their occupation? How long did they live there? Any children? Are they alone in the house? Who built the house? What would the promise if they survive?

Writing Prompt / Exercise #9

He was a tree that was easy to forget...

Ethan's prompt 6

If you told me our
last hug was a lie
I would gargle arsenic
to get the taste out.
Sand your name
from the surface,
sweep up that feeling
and place it under my bed
where I keep all of the things
I am afraid of.
I keep nightmares beneath
my dreams.
Why should your heart
be any different?
I would blame love poems on you.
Find spiders stretching
to the corners of your picture frames.
Fill trash cans
with your puppet strings.
I would apologize
for making you pretend
that this was what you wanted.
You created a beautiful
painting on my chest.
You may erase the pencil marks
but I will keep
these graphite scars
as a reminder
to not look down.
That love is a a tight rope walk
you can never prepare for.
If it was a lie
then it was a good one.
I won't regret believing it
because I was not built
to hate you.