a planet with long views

IMPROMPTU #7
with the Found Poetry Review for National Poetry Month

The Prompt
The Brazilian poet Manuel Bandeira created the cento “Anthology” (see below) using lines from his own poems, instead of employing the traditional method of cento-construction (in which you build a poem entirely out of lines from other people’s poems). Following his example, write a cento that is a self-portrait, or anthology of your life, utilizing lines and fragments from your own work.
Or, alternatively, create a “self-portrait” cento using lines and fragments from

1. other people’s poems (the traditional method), or
2. song lyrics, or
3. prose (fiction and/or nonfiction)

*To see the basic stipulations for writing a traditional cento, see http://myenchiridion.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

The Poem

dan woke up
he is six years old
and he lives in a house with two cats

humans built the kitchen
bacon, eggs, mushrooms,
whipped cream, earl grey

she made them all
some elderly woman
every sunday afternoon at 5am

down the road ben woke up
to find his kitchen in a cloud of bread flour
Muriel and Beatrice created this great blizzard
they called it a donut shop

outside, three teenagers pulled beets
from the garden
they dreamt of opening a tapas bar
and calling it Norman's

a curious neighborhood
from the cats' perspectives
but the raccoons paid no attention.

Greater

IMPOMPTU #5
with the Found Poetry Review for National Poetry Month

The Prompt
Ok, here’s the prompt: pick a song that you find dynamic. Track its moves. Try to replicate that movement with a poem.

The Process
Sarah's awesome prompt is... well, very involved. I am taking a baby step towards the goal, by taking a song's lyrics and replacing them. I asked my husband to pick a song. He chose "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" by Weezer.... I am translated part of the song.

The Poem

Greater
I fit to keep it neat like I just won't dance
But soon you'll be stitching in a signature

We're like a team with a magical dream
I howl like a wolf when You fill the moon

You get the moon and I get the ground
We've had the plot to take on the world

We've taken this all the way
and Curse on them for trying to take us down

retraction

IMPOMPTU #6
with the Found Poetry Review for National Poetry Month

One of the Prompts9.
Write a prose poem of five sentences. The first sentence should include a pronoun ( not “I”) doing something that itself includes an image/object. The 2^nd sentence should have a different pronoun doing something else with the same image/object. The 3^rd sentence should be a statement about this image/object. For the 4^th sentence, write a simile that is unrelated. In the 5^th, use “I” and relate part of the simile to the original statement. I know this all sounds rather clinical, but here by way of example is one I wrote:

The Problem

A woman accidentally walks into the men’s room. A man deliberately walks into the women’s room. I don’t believe in dialectics but abide by them nonetheless. It is like a painting of someone sheathing a sword. The problem is it is also like a painting of someone unsheathing a sword.

 

 

 

The Poem

 

we retracted the comments about the fish. they took the fish back anyway. the fish was not what was asked for. it was like getting a futon instead of a table. I wouldn't know what to do with it, I already have a bed and a couch.

 

 

L A N G U A G E

IMPOMPTU #3
with the Found Poetry Review for National Poetry Month

Prompt
Stare at a word until the letters start to discorporate. You will find that letter cohesion, the letter glue that keeps letters stuck inside a word, is disrupted and dissolves. Fragments of letters will dislodge too. You are then free to visually interpret or document the life of letters outside their word existence as loosely or succinctly as possible.

L A N G U A G E

language

languish language language languish land squish land switch

i immediately heard the word language. and i immediately heard the limitations in it.

i only know how to say thank you in seven languages. there is so much more to learn.

learn language. learn limits.

and our learning has limits and our length has breath. and this too is in the language of things.

Oulipost Warmup

As part of national poetry month, I have been gently coerced into a 30-day writing challenge wherein I'll be provided daily poetry prompts via The Found Poetry Review's Oulipost Project. 

To start the project, I've been asked to answer five questions...

1. What Excites You About Oulipost?
I have not written from prompts for a while and I look forward to the potential these prompts will unlock for me.  I am always looking for inspiration and new ideas to help stretch my poetry muscles.

2. What, If Anything, About Oulipost Scares You?
At first I was nervous about selecting a newspaper source because I do not usually read a daily paper.  Having done a little looking around, I have found a locally sourced news website that I like well enough.
Now I am only nervous about keeping up with the routine of writing a daily poem.  I hope to keep up with everyone else's work too if at all possible.

3. Have You Written Experimental or Found Poetry Before? If So, Tell Us About It.
Yes.  I can think of a few examples where I dabbled in experimental/found poetry, let me show you some...
Apples-to-Apples Poems - I had a few lovely friends over for tea and a game of Apples-to-Apples.  Once the game was over, I used the words each player had acquired to compose a series of couplets.  The bold words are the words that appeared on the cards.
Poems Inspired by Pictures or the The Ekphrasis Project - simply writing a poem inspired by an image.  I am not sure if this counts as experimental or found.
Give a Title, Get a Poem - I do this quite regularly where I ask friends on facebook to suggest a title for a poem, then I write a poem with that title for that person.  It's a fun way to engage others in my writing.
Facebook Status Stolen Poem - This was particularly fun.  For a few days, I went on facebook and stole status updates from friends and turned them into poems without them knowing.  This project got a lot of cool feedback.
the Love Poem Project - I haven't finished this particular project yet (and I started it over two years ago), but I have been "translating" English language poems into English for a while now.  It is my favorite method of transforming poetry into something new.  In fact, a poetry friend and I translated a George Oppen poem over and over again to create a chap book called Origami Shipwreck.

4.  What Newspaper Will Serve As Your Source Text?
CapeCodToday.com and New Scientist when appropriate.

5. Who Is Your Spirit Oulipian?
Raymond Queneau, if only because he is the one I know.  I am beginning to read more about him (and by him).  I look forward to introducing him into my work both as a role model and as a character.

many dresses in february

i had a little tea party today with some lovely friends.  here are a couple of pictures of us in all our dresses.  we drank tea, ate sweet treats, and played games.  harry potter clue wasn't as rousing as hoped.  curses ended in many laughs as usual (and i won, ha!).  but the poetry below the pictures is the result of our several hour long apples-to-apples.

(this one is a little dark, but i'm putting it up because jack is kissing Adelaide!)

Katy
we are slightly misunderstood
those in porcelain cups

appetizing each other's egos
with sweet compliments

coy with white smiles
tricking onlookers with snappy retorts


Adelaide
the radiant crossing of bridges
on white horses

splashing across great widths
of juicy tropical landscapes

halted by the cravings
of steeds for chewy snacks

amongst the shade of palms
and packs of cuddly critters

seen only in a dream
in the mind of George Washington


Liz
the sound of something like
"uSuperufluousu" slipped

through the keyhole of an old door
in an almost nasty tone

as if it were something
other than normal being said

behind scenic wooden doors
of an old castle in the hills

stuffy with stone and cement
on every wall

no hint of inspirational design
or luxurious consideration

yet something magical
slips through the door with it

a scary rhythm to the voice
enchanting the listeners

into dysfunctional chaos
dimming and turning

each obtuse stone
turned


Erin
the curious sound
of leaf blowers in winter

mark the desperate type
of homeowner

fuzzy on snow etiquette
and clearing the drive way

trying too hard to look sexy
while shoveling and scraping

thinking unthoughtful thoughts
of legendary historians

with senseless abandon
for reality to the point of absurd

yet exciting transcendence
all the while clearing snow


Danielle
dead leaves fall from hearty trees
with dreamy affectations for the ground

stirring the balance of the ground
furious with pine needles

attended by oddly cute rodents
with puffy tails and cranky dispositions

running from peek hole to peek hole
with a sense of cosmic urgency

confused by the deviation
of regular weather patterns

Cat
risky big business
taking on starlets

with eyes that glow virtuous
against mirror glass

the mold is too twisted
to adjust for profits

no matter how dirty
the bathwater

it's never hot enough
to make right

the sting of a sensual
encounter with lawyers