WordParty Poetry Challenge - Writing Prompt #6

Day #6
by Bear


Prompt:  This prompt is inspired by the work of Carol Ann Duffy.  She is a Scottish poet who writes in the voice of historic and fictional women, many whom often have famous husbands.  Write a poem from the point of view of a historical women who had a more famous husband or brother.  (i.e. Abigail Adams, Lil Armstrong, Marion Aldrin, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Constanze Mozart, Michelle Obama, Christopher Columbus' wife Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, Lauren Bacall etc)

Two of the poems below are by Duffy. The first example is a poem from Shakespeare's Wife's perspective.  The second is Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.

Anne Hathaway

by Carol Ann Duffy

The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed
a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love -
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed.

Havisham

by Carol Ann Duffy 

Beloved sweetheart bastard.  Not a day since then
I haven't wished him dead.  Prayed for it
so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes,

ropes on the backs of my hands I could strangle with.

Spinster. I stink and remember.  Whole days
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

to me?  Puce curses that are sounds not words.

Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till  suddenly bite awake. Love's

hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face.  Bang.  I stabbed at a wedding cake.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.

Don't think it's only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.

WordParty Poetry Challenge – Writing Prompt #5

Day #5

Poetry-in-Translation

by Ingrid 

Translate a poem written in another language to English without using a dictionary. Yes, that means look at a poem in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, or whatever language you choose and try to find your own meaning behind the words—perhaps they sound sensual, argumentative, sorrowful or perhaps you can’t even read them out loud but you can delve into how the language is written and looks on the page.

Suggested poets: Wisława Szymborska, Pablo Neruda, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Matsuo Bashō, Marjorie Agosin, and Hafiz.

Don’t forget to send us your poems if you are keeping up with the challenge:

wordparty@gmail.com

WordParty Poetry Challenge – Writing Prompt #4

Day #4

This one is courtesy of Jenn Barone:

Write about being a woman if you are a man, write about being a man if you are a woman, or write about what you would be like as a mixture of the sexes.

WordParty Poetry Challenge – Writing Prompt #3

Day #3

Write a “portrait” of a person you don’t know very well, but find intriguing. In your poem imagine their real or secret life. Remember to use detail, description and/or images.

Perhaps the tattooed barista at your local café, the man who runs by your apartment every morning in the neon vest and blinking headlamp, or the little boy at the bus stop who is always wearing a Spiderman costume.

Have fun with it!

WordParty Poetry Challenge - Writing Prompt #2

Day #2

This was prompt was created by Bear Toffoli, who often graces the stage of the WordParty with his poetry!

For National Poetry Month I thought we could all try the time honored tradition of writing a poem about poetry.   To help get the ball rolling, here is a selection of beginnings of poems all about poems/poetry I have gathered.   Take one of these and start your own poem about poetry with it.   Or for a real challenge you can try to end your poem with one of these lines.  Origins of the lines and their poets are listed below.

1.      I'm working on a poem that's so true, I can't show it to anyone

2.      Poetry is the supreme fiction, Madame.

3.      Writing poems about writing poems

         is like rolling bales of hay in Texas.

4.      There once was a love poem

5.      The plum without the snow isn’t very special

        The snow without the poem is simply commonplace

6.      The form of the poem subsided.  It enters another poem.

7.      The trouble with poetry, I realized

8.      In a poem, one line may hide another line.

9.      When a poem

        speaks by itself,

        it has a spark

10. In the old days a poet once said

11. The great poems

       of our elders in many

       tongues we struggled

12. “What mighty strong poems.” He said.


Credits:

1.       Lloyd Schwartz  from “A True Poem”

2.       Wallace Stevens  from “The High-Toned Old Christian Woman”

3.       Ruth Stone  from “Always On The Train”

4.       Jane Hirshfield from “There Once Was A Love Poem”

5.       Lu-Mei P’o  from “The Snow And The Plum –II”

6.       Barbara Guest  from “The Past”

7.       Billy Collins  from “The Trouble With Poetry: A Poem Of Explanation”

8.       Kenneth Koch  from “One Train May Hide Another”

9.       Elaine Equi  from “National Poetry Month”

10.     Ko Un  from “In The Old Days A Poet Once Said”

11.      Hayden Carruth  from “Endnote”

12.     Ellen Bass  from “Mighty Strong Poems”

April is National Poetry & Jazz Appreciation Month

Take the 2012 WordParty Poetry challenge: Write a poem-a-day.

Yes, we know that is a tall order, so we will be posting prompts throughout the month to get the creative sparks flying. The point is to reset your creative muse, make writing an everyday a habit. Challenge yourself to write a poem whether it be short haiku or a long lyric poem commit yourself and get writing!

Check out our blog for the prompts, commentary and other tid-bits as we go through the month.

If you are a regular at the WordParty, feel free to send your responses to our prompts to wordparty@gmail.com We would love to see what writing comes out of the challenge! Bring your poems with you to read at our open-mic on April 17.

To get us started, let’s begin with this prompt:

• Go to your local bookstore and find the most unfamiliar and strangest section. (Finance? Science? Cooking?)
• Take notice the covers of the books, titles, any photos that catch you.
• Use this as a jumping off point to write a poem about something unfamiliar.
• For example, the weight-loss book with the read and yellow letters. Or, Suze Orman’s startled eyes which promise to get your finances in order.

Get going, April 1st is just around the corner! 

March 2012 WordParty - This One is for the Ladies

We celebrated the month of March with the theme of Women’s History Month, poets came to read their poetry for and about women! Our first featured poet, the luminescent Susan Browne electrified the audience with her reading of “Braless” from her book Buddha’s Dogs. We also especially loved the poem “Dear John.”

Nova Jazz was SMOKIN’ hot and the poets were ecstatic to have them perform during the entire night! Thanks Daniel, Geordie, Leslie, Oliver, Sheldon & Herman.

Our beloved drummer, Geordie Vanderbosch celebrated his birthday with multiple cakes and brownies, and he read a poem by Jayne Cortez “If the Drum is a Woman.” See it here!

In addition, we had many of our other regulars, Rusty Rebar, CaraVida, Nicole Henaras, Ted Walker and Justice Morrighan who read amazing poetry throughout the night. 

We’ll be back in April to celebrate National Poetry Month with a poetry challenge, and our featured poet, Jack Hirschman!