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.

 

 

wonder market for monsters

IMPOMPTU #4
with the Found Poetry Review for National Poetry Month
Prompt: WordBlocks
Words have multiple meanings. Meanings have multiple words. I think of wordblocks as a single-word stand-in to express multiple meanings, or an ambiguity of meanings. I use them in my writing all the time, and often generate them as a warm-up exercise before I write.

1. Write a word.
2. Make a list of other words that are related to this word, in meaning or in spelling.
3. Combine these words into one wordblock sharing letters. (See pictures for example)
4. Keep rearranging, adding, or subtracting words until you have a wordblock you like aesthetically both visually, and linguistically. A wordblock rarely looks great on the first try. Wordblocks have vast potential both handwritten, and typeset either digitally or with moveable letterpress type.
5. Your wordblock can stand alone as a one-word poem, or be placed in a sentence. Try stringing multiple word blocks together. The result is a sentence that provides multiple ways to navigate it.

See Examples Given Here

so i made this thing....

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.

Letter from the Illuminati

IMPROMPTU #2
with the Found Poetry Review for National Poetry Month
The Prompt
This prompt is modeled after that project. You can start with any piece of junk mail or advertising, or any legal document or bureaucratic form (it’s tax time!). Choose a few sentences. Remove the nouns. Replace them with:

• words from a poem you’ve abandoned
• words from one or more poems you love (by anyone, yourself included)
• any other source that works

From there, work what you’ve got into a poem.


Note
My husband and I just renewed a particular policy. Can you guess what kind of policy from the poem? ....

LETTER FROM THE ILLUMINATI

With respect to the Majority,

You may claim that abandonment benefits loss.
You may call your local House.
But you have Selected.

So now you have Reflected?
You cause Volcanic Eruptions to Damage us?

To expect your best is your business.
Only your obligation is our priority.

And you will Pay your Share
when we pay for the glass roof and hidden rot.

This was made clear upon signing. You have already
Paid in Full.

Your obligation and Your risk, these are our Delight.

We know You will renew your policy.

Thank you.
The Trampoline Dog of Law

--REFORMERS--

IMPROMPTU #1
with the Found Poetry Review for National Poetry Month

the prompt:

 
 

the pages:

 

 

the remainders:

work done is by master. eleven were in on the government. according to the mechanic undergoing storm assembling. complete steam undergoing repairs and work and work and two and thirty-two repairs machinery. found all the coal approximately. making consumption. all used for the power. at the three men, one man, each man acting. were during making the consumption total water. to which chargeable. consumption, adjustment, attention, the end. adjustment, the attention, which the government of the occasion of country. enough has to end in view, the three big indicated in this. and need is this and need as now the whole is necessary as to quick unhealthy. healthy if the interests changes are going change. country government will be through the community. some will be merely the methods. minds need and goods we keep. heads and these things in a little army. the task of everybody out by labor four asked the government the sum. press principle in the construction for construction for operation. for made in construction the dock state. France sailed from France the two other. the battleship and five peace of powers is remains until in and terms to second this determination to press the past will wagon. funds for operation a necessary expenditure for the country. line is as a remedy for the slow when the refund to consequence expiration of the resolution without excuse is urged to present aid. to secure government, government between a necessary and improving condition based on that than any to know wagon and government. bad and by during stormy November. cleared in the week.

 

the poem:

work done well is by a master.

 

eleven were in on the government. according to the mechanic --

which is undergoing stormproof assembling.

 

complete. reformers steam ahead. undergoing repairs

and work and work and work and work and two and thirty-two repairs --

 

machinery work. or so they found all the coal --

approximately.

 

making consumption for government. all used for the power.

at the three men, one man, each man acting.

 

as if power were working.

were making the consumption total.

 

to which the men are chargeable.

consumption, adjustment, attention, --

 

the end. adjustment, the attention,

unto which the government  --

 

of the occasion of country

is enough  and has the end in view.

 

the three big indications in this.

is this and need  --

 

as now the whole is necessary

as to quick unhealthy.

 

healthy if the interests of men

change and are going to change for good.

 

country government will be through the community.

some men will be merely become the methods.

 

government minds need --

and goods men keep.

 

heads and these things --

as in a little army -- these are the tasks of everybody --

 

out by labor.

 

four asked the government

the sum. press principle --

 

in the construction for construction

for operation. for made in construction --

 

the dock state of France

sailed from France to the two others.

 

the battleship and five peace of powers

remains until --

 

in and of terms to second this determination

to press the past will of men like a wagon.

 

funds for operation are a necessary expenditure --

 

for the country. line is as a remedy  --

for the slow when the refund to consequence expiration --

 

of the resolution without excuse

is urged to present aid.

 

to secure government,

government between a necessary and improving --

condition

 

based on that which more than any

to know the will of men as if by wagon --

 

and government.

bad and by doing so during a stormy November.

 

but cleared in the week.

 

the notes:

upon lifitng the text, i inserted my own punctuation, namely the period. in the manifestation of the text as a poem, words were added to benefit the narrative, and breaks were added to benefit the breath. as this is my first erasure piece, and outside my comfort zone, as it were, i brought the content into familiarity via couplets, of which i am very comfortable.