Tag: Poetic Asides

• April poetry, day 2

  Jorge Teaches the Preterit Tense

  Saturday night, a pub crawl with a group
  of Latin American exchange students.
  We stroll along the Savannah River,
  cobbled streets, neon flashing
  in puddles and dark currents.

  Inside Luna Loca I dance techno beat salsa
  with Jorge. Guapo, fuerte, de Venezuela.
  It doesn’t matter that he wears three gold chains
  or leaves his shirt unbuttoned a few too many holes.
  A warm arm around my waist, he kisses me.
  His tongue tastes like ice cubes, rum and Coke.
  Hmm, me gustaba, I tell him. I was liking that.
  No, you say me gustó, it pleased me,
  and he kisses me again.

  ***
  My prompt is up at Read Write Poem – to pick some words from one subject area to write about another. I started with geographical terms and grammar terms, but discarded all those words except in the title. The other idea behind this poem came from Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides, which suggests that we write an Outsider poem.

  

  April 2, 2009

  napowrimo 2009, Poetic Asides, read write poem

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• April poetry challenge day 1

  Birth of the Sun

  Across the bathroom floor,
  the house shrouded
  in a caul of night,
  I lie face up.
  In spite of cool tiles
  against bare skin,
  my five-year-old body
  arcs from fever.
  Mother and Father
  crouch over me, swab my torso
  with rubbing alcohol.
  My heart turns to lava,
  leaks out my pores, swirls
  into a mass above my parents’ backs.
  There is no movement toward the light –
  I am the source.
  ***

  Day 1 of napowrimo at Read Write Poem and Poetic Asides. I’m trying to do both challenges, because I’m an over achiever like that. Today’s prompt from Poetic Asides is to write an origin poem. Jill’s prompt is to make up a metaphor and include it in the poem.

  Jill has asked us to gather 50 words as part of this month of poetry writing. If you have a cool word or two you’d like to donate to my personal cause, please leave it here in the comments section. Thanks!

  

  April 1, 2009

  napowrimo 2009, Poetic Asides, read write poem

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• Poetry news

  • Jo and I are beginning a new reading period for the third issue of ouroboros review, ending Sunday, May 3, and due to be released in July. We’ll take a break for the summer, and then resume reading in the fall for a winter issue.

  • It’s a happy day – Deb Scott and I have a poem up at qarrtsiluni for their Mutating the Signature series, edited by Dana and Nathan, who now have a blog together with the same name as this current edition of qarrtsiluni. Thanks to Dave Bonta, Dana, and Nathan for making it happen.

  • Jill, Carolee and I have written thirty prompts for the month of April, which has been dubbed National Poetry Writing Month on the web. It’s also National Poetry Month in the United States. As if we needed a month to celebrate poetry! You can go to Read Write Poem every day next month to find a new idea to inspire your writing. Because of a conversation we had with Michelle McGrane, we have dubbed ourselves The Madwomen who Stand Outside the Supermarket Passing out Poems to People. We we also be in your pockets the day you need to carry around a poem in your pocket. So look out.

  • Poet Robert Lee Brewer, who runs a poetry blog for Writer’s Digest called Poetic Asides, has announced a poetry marathon for the month of April. He’ll be posting a prompt a day, and will choose his top favorite poems posted on his site for each day. And there’s more. He and a group of distinguished judges, including Marky Doty, Collin Kelley, Nick Flynn, Shaindel Beers, and Dorianne Laux, will choose the top fifty poems from these entries to be included in an e-chap anthology. April is going to be a frenzy of poems.

  March 25, 2009

  ouroboros review, Poetic Asides, qarrtsiluni

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