Monthly Archives: April 2017

P&W Prompt: Why Is the World So Messy?

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Happy Spring, y’all!  This week’s Poets & Writers’ prompt is inspired by a truly inspiring short film project (if you have a moment, it’s worth the time to watch):

Can girls be robots? How do you make water? What does extinct mean? Children have a curiosity for the world that can often inspire them to ask difficult questions like these from filmmaker Kelly O’Brien’s five-year-old daughter Willow. In the spirit of childish inquisitiveness, write a poem entirely of questions. How might you use a child’s persona to explore your own concerns and wonder for the world?

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P&W Prompt: New Language

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This time last year, when I made the, what some might call “radical,” decision to leave my lucrative, work-from-home, Assistant Professor of English position at Ashford University to take a lectureship offering half of my Ashford salary and requiring a move to deeply conservative Texas, I had high hopes for what that decision would mean.  I’d been with Ashford for four years, and for four years, I’d been swept up into the most corporate, insane, fast paced, high pressure gig I’d ever experienced in my career.

And I hadn’t written a thing.  Not. One. Thing.   Continue reading →

P&W Prompt: Ode to Dinner

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It’s hard to believe it, but this is officially my last “backlog” of exercises from Poets & Writers’ weekly prompts, The Time Is Now.  Assuming I can also write the prompt from this week over the weekend, I am officially (hallelujah!) caught up.  Now….staying caught up will be the next challenge.  Here’s hoping 😉  From March 28, here’s the last back dated prompt:

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P&W Prompt: Poem in Pink

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Moving right along, here’s the prompt from March 14:

A salt lake in Melbourne, Australia recently turned pink due to the growth of algae “in response to very high salt levels, high temperatures, sunlight, and lack of rainfall.” The phenomenon transformed the lake from its natural blue tone to an unusually bright flamingo color. Write a poem that begins by evoking the sensations of one color, and then—gradually or abruptly—turns a strikingly different color, perhaps even pink. How will you manipulate the mood, images, sounds, and rhythms of your language to reflect the color change?  [Click here to jump to the final draft]

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P&W Prompt: Golden Shovel

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Shhhhh….don’t say it too loudly, but I think I’ve actually just caught up with Poets & Writers Magazine’s weekly prompt series, The Time is Now.  Let’s hurry up and get to it before they send me an email with yet another prompt.

Ahem.  CLEARLY I wrote that several weeks ago (when I thought I was going to actually catch up) and then promptly traipsed off in the direction of spring break and forgot all about it.  Nonetheless, poetry marches on.  Here’s the prompt from March 7th:

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