#NationalPoetryMonth’16 Round-up (Day 16)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, 30dpc, 32 Poems, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Amit Majmudar, Amy Lowell, Anchor & Plume, Apparatus Magazine, Bustle, Elisa Diaz Castelo, Fishouse, Found Poetry Review, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Indian Country, Indiana Humanities, Jo Bell, Kate Foley, Marge Piercy, Mariah Wilson, native american poetry, NotaLiteraryJournal, NPM16, Peggy Freydburg, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry and tech, poetry prompts, poetry t-shirts, QuillsEdge Press, Sylvia Plath, The Writer's Center, Theodora Goss, Tracy K Smith, Winter Tangerine, women poets

DAY SIXTEEN of the best prompts, poems and news from your  #NaPoWriMo/#NPM16/#NaPoMo /#NationalPoetryMonth/#poemaday hashtags.

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Almanac Questionaire prompt”
NotaLiteraryJournal’s “Who Holds Your Hand prompt”
Indiana Humanities’ “Past & Present Meet prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Food Establishment prompt”
The Writer’s Center “Elevator prompt”
Mariah Wilson’s “Guilty Pleasure/Food prompts”
QuillsEdge Press’ “In Winter I Dream of ___ prompt”
Found Poetry’s “Field of Stars prompt”
Apparatus Mag’s “Farmer’s Market prompt”
Imaginary Garden’s “Remains prompt”
30dpc “Spring Has Sprung prompt”
Kate Foley’s “Best Dream prompt”
Jo Bell’s “Work prompt”
Winter Tangerine’s “Message in a Bottle prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Peggy Freydburg “Chorus of Cells”
Amit Majmudar “Recombinant Fairy Tale”
Elisa Díaz Castelo “Ode to the Radiator”
Sylvia Plath “Morning Song”
Tracy K. Smith “The Nobodies”
Amy Lowell “The Peddler of Flowers”
Theodora Goss “Swan Girls”
Aimee Nezhukumatathil “The Body”
Marge Piercy “Leftovers” (w/ commentary)

Miscellaneous

Poetry and Tech: A Happy Collision (MIT)
Poetry Made Me Do It T-shirts from Anchor& Plume
11th Century Wise-Cracking Poet Invented the Listicle As We Know It (Bustle)
Indian Country’s Native Selections for National Poetry Month Part One & Two

**Poets, if you would like to be featured in 2sDay Poems, have your collection reviewed, guest post in the Poetry Lab or blog on any of the Thoughts on Poetry topics, including Foremother Friday or Small Press Interviews, drop me a line at  bonesparkblog@yahoo.com.

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 18)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 52 blog, Anita Endrezze, Apparatus Magazine, Boston Poetry Slam, Chuck Perkins, craft talks, CryptoPo, Ellen Moody, Garrett Hongo, Harriet blog, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Jo Pitkin, Joy Harjo, lunch poems, Lyn Hejinian, Marge Piercy, Michael Dwayne Smith, mslexia, Negative Capability Press, New Orleans poet, pink ink press, Poem a Day, poet interviews, Poetic Asides, poetry foremothers, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, poetry prompts, the language inside, Wendy Pratt, Wild Violet, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY EIGHTEEN of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Urgent Journey prompt”
REWIND 52 blog’s “HOME prompt after Zepeda, Figura or Sheryl St. Germaine”
REWIND Boston Poetry Slam “Urban Myth prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Vowels Poems “
Negative Capability Press’ “Bernadette Mayer Experiments prompt”
Pink Ink Press’ “Personifying the Muse prompt”
Flashbang Writing Studio’s “Twitter Poems”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Exploring Music prompt”
The Language Inside’s “Holiday rituals & traditions prompt”
Imaginary Garden w/ Real Toads’ “Words of Nimoy or Pratchett prompt”
Mslexia’s “Eavesdrop prompt”
Wild Violet’s “P is for Prose Poems”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Marge Piercy| “The Scent of Apple Cake”
Jo Pitkin| “Luna Moths”
Anita Endrezze| “This is a Poem About Indians”
Wendy Pratt| “Nan Hardwick Turns Into a Hare”
Joy Harjo| “Insomnia and the Seven Steps to Grace”
Garrett Hongo| “I Got Heaven…”
Michael Dwayne Smith| “How to Grieve”
Chuck Perkins| “Jack”

Miscellaneous

Post-Poetry, Part 1: CryptoPo at Harriet Blog
30 Poetry Foremothers presented by Ellen Moody
Lunch Poems: Lyn Hejinian

Ladies with Cats (2sday Poems)

Tags

2sDay Poems, After the Fall: Poems Old & New, Curse of the Cat Woman, Edward Field, ladies with cats, Marge Piercy, Mars and Her Children, The Cat's Song

Paws with me a moment, friends, and enjoy these very different poems about ladies with cats:

THE CAT’S SONG

by Marge Piercy

Mine, says the cat, putting out his paw of darkness.
My lover, my friend, my slave, my toy, says
the cat making on your chest his gesture of drawing
milk from his mother’s forgotten breasts.

Let us walk in the woods, says the cat.
I’ll teach you to read the tabloid of scents,
to fade into shadow, wait like a trap, to hunt.
Now I lay this plump warm mouse on your mat.

You feed me, I try to feed you, we are friends,
says the cat, although I am more equal than you.
Can you leap twenty times the height of your body?
Can you run up and down trees? Jump between roofs?

Let us rub our bodies together and talk of touch.
My emotions are pure as salt crystals and as hard.
My lusts glow like my eyes. I sing to you in the mornings
walking round and round your bed and into your face.

Come I will teach you to dance as naturally…

FULL TEXT HERE
from Mars and Her Children

 

CURSE OF THE CAT WOMAN

by Edward Field

It sometimes happens
that the woman you meet and fall in love with
is of that strange Transylvanian people
with an affinity for cats.

You take her to a restaurant, say, or a show,
on an ordinary date, being attracted
by the glitter in her slitty eyes and her catlike walk,
and afterwards of course you take her in your arms
and she turns into a black panther
and bites you to death.

Or perhaps you are saved in the nick of time
and she is tormented by the knowledge of her tendency:
That she daren’t hug a man
unless she wants to risk clawing him up.

This puts you both in a difficult position,
panting lovers who are prevented from touching
not by bars but by circumstance:
You have terrible fights and say cruel things
for having the hots does not give you a sweet temper.

One night you are walking down a dark street…

FULL TEXT HERE
from After the Fall: Poems Old & New

AY COLORES!! Juicy, Juicy Color Bytes for Poets and Painters

Tags

Aimee Bender, Audre Lord, Belle Journal, color, contemporary artists, Diane Lockwood, Marge Piercy, margo roby, Pablo Neruda, poetry prompt, Ruth Stone, Sylvia Plath, W.S. Merwin, William Sitting Bull

So, I’m a big fan of Margo Roby’s Wordgathering blog and her Poem Tryout for today was all about color. And since I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic myself:

1) because I’m highly anticipating Aimee Bender’s new collection of short stories, The Color Master and 2) because I just put together a collection of my own art for Belle Journal [will link to the gallery when it’s up],

I have decided to give you a selection of poems and paintings to complement Margo’s post.

First a sampling of some contemporary art:

Profile on Red by Delia Parvu

Fire Horses by Maria Spencer

Image #29 by William Sitting Bull

Large White Flowers in Vase by Susanna Shap

Image #32 by William Sitting Bull

Flirting with a violin by Anna Razumovskaya

And now the poems:

Ode to Wine by Pablo Neruda

Colors Passing Through Us by Marge Piercy

The Summer He Left by Diane Lockward  [You have to scroll]

Tulips by Sylvia Plath

White on White by Ruth Stone   [Ignore the nasty comment. Someone please send me a better link if you can find it.]

Separation by W.S. Merwin

Coal by Audre Lord

And that should be enough to get you going for now.  I’m sure I’ve left some really good poems out. If you have one, please post in the comments.

C.A.