#NationalPoetryMonth’16 Round-up (Day 2)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, 30dpc, Adele Kenny, Alain Ginsberg, Apparatus Magazine, Audre Lorde, Carolyn Moore, Edward Rathke, Entropy Magazine, Family Friend Poems, Found Poetry Review, Grant Snider, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Influential Poems, Kenneth Koch, Mariah Wilson, Mary Biddinger, Mary Carroll Hackett, Mary Oliver, Natalie Diaz, NotaLiteraryJournal, NPM16, Paula Meehan, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, Poetry comic, poetry prompts, Poetry School, Rasheed Copeland, Stanley Kunitz, The Onion, Winter Tangerine Review, women poets

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

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Family Portrait prompt”
NotaLiteraryJournal’s “Lies That You Used to Believe prompt”
Imaginary Garden’s “Horses prompt”
Mary Carroll-Hackett’s “Body of the planet prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “He said/She said prompt”
Adele Kenny’s “Color RED prompt”
Found Poetry’s “Junk Mail/Gov’t forms Erasure prompt”
30dpc’s “New Beginnings prompt”
Apparatus Mag’s “Ode to TV show prompt”
Poetry School’s “Instagram prompt”
Mariah Wilson’s “Harbingers of Doom Haiku series prompt”
Winter Tangerine’s “Ode to a Stranger prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Mary Oliver’s “Peonies” (video)
Stanley Kunitz “Route Six” (w/audio)
Audre Lorde “Recreation”
Kenneth Koch “To Breath”
Rasheed Copeland “Shrimp and Grits”
Carolyn Moore “How to Housebreak a Shadow”
Alain Ginsberg “Body Becomes Black Hole or Magic Trick in Three Acts”
Paula Meehan “Seed”
Natalie Diaz “Post-Colonial Love Poem”
Mary Biddinger “Hard Labor”

Miscellaneous
Grant Snider’s “Poetic Justice” comic in the NY Times
30 Days to Find the Poet in You (at Family Friend Poems)
National Poetry Month Raises Awareness Of Poetry Prevention (at The Onion)
Edward Rathke shares on Influential Poems at Entropy Mag

**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 22)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 30dpc, Apparatus Magazine, artspeak, C.D. Wright, craft talks, Dead Poets Society, Deep South Magazine, Dorianne Laux, Emily Bedard, Flashbang Writing Studio, Guerilla Poetry, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Lisa Ann Sandell, Luci Brock-Broido, Mary Oliver, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, Natalie Diaz, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, Poetically Speaking, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, Poetry Northwest, poetry prompts, Sarah Heller, Shane Rhodes, Stories& Slams, Susan Stewart, West Trestle Review, Wild Violet, women poets

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

Best of the Prompts

Stories& Slams’ “Cancer Sonnets”
Flashbang Writing Studio’s “Praise Poems after Christopher Smart”
West Trestle Review’s “First Person POV Historical Figure prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Nature Poems”
ARTSPEAK #22: “Peto’s Straw Hat, Bag and Umbrella”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Elements of Nature prompt”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s “Jumping Into Form: Apostrophe/Poems of Address”
Wild Violet’s “S is for Sevenling prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Pastoral poems”
Pink Ink Press’ “Poems about Home”
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads’ “Perfect Love Poem w/ Julia Bird’s Formula”
Mslexia’s “First Time prompt”
30dpc’s “Let’s Get Physical prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Mary Oliver| “Sleeping in the Forest”
Susan Stewart| “Four Questions Regarding the Dreams of Animals”
Natalie Diaz| “Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball”
Shane Rhodes| “Still Life with Apple” (w/ commentary)
Sarah Sloat| “Grassland” (video)
Dorianne Laux| “How to Sleep”

Miscellaneous

Emily Bedard on Reading Luci Brock-Broido in Mexico at Poetry Northwest
Understanding Poetry clip from Dead Poets Society
Talking Guerilla Poetry with C.D. Wright at Deep South Magazine
Poetically Speaking with Lisa Ann Sandell at Miss Print

Some Lines from Mary Oliver for Foremother Friday

Tags

A Poetry Handbook, A Thousand Mornings, Foremother Friday, Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver Pinterest Goodies, NPR interview, the poet as witness, the poet's work, White Pine

Mary Oliver is at the top of my most admired poets list.  She is my go-to when I want to examine the natural world without leaving my doorstep, but perhaps her best lines are those that connect nature to the work of the poet.

This from her poem, titled “Work” (from the collection White Pine):

All day I work
with the linen of words
and the pins of punctuation
all day I hang out
over a desk

grinding my teeth
staring.
Then I sleep.

Then I come out of the house,
even before the sun is up,

and walk back through the pinewoods
to Pasture Pond.

In a 2012 NPR interview, Oliver talks more about the poet as witness and how discipline and nature help shape her poems.  We are also treated here to a reading from her collection A Thousand Mornings.

If you are interested in digging deeper into Mary’s poetic vision and technique, I suggest you pick up a copy of her slim, but powerful text, A Poetry Handbook.  It is the next best thing to taking her workshops, and is available at a reasonable price both new and used.

And now just for fun, a small grab-bag of Pinterest goodies featuring M. Oliver quotes for you to download and print: Instructions for Living; It is better for the heart ;One day you finally knew;Keep Some Room;We need beauty;To pay attention;I have been thinking ;Someone I loved;I want to think again;The world offers itself . FYI: These look great with dollar store frames and make lovely gifts for writerly friends.

 

• Open call to poet bloggers: If you would like to contribute to next week’s Foremother Friday (inspired by the Women’s Poetry List-Serv), please drop me a line at bonesparkblog@yahoo.com.  I love hearing from you!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adder-Mouthed Orchids and Shrooms: Getting Down in the Dirt For the Sake of Good Poetry

Tags

Mary Oliver, mushrooms, nature, nature poetry, orchids, poetry lab, poetry prompt, the private eye, Theodore Roethke, writing prompt

If your town is like mine, then you have seen something called the Private Eye Workshop popping up in parks and local colleges.

No, they’re not trying to teach you how to get in touch with your inner Magnum. But they do look kind of strange running around with all of those jeweler’s loupes and shoving their faces into weird things.

And before your imagination gets the better of you, here’s a link to the book and the facebook page.

See! It’s really all in the name of education, and for the grade school teacher it’s a must-do.

I’m recommending it to the poets out there as well.  At least the part about closely observing nature. You don’t need any special gear, and the regular practice of this skill is what takes a good poet to great.

Just look at the work of the sharply honed Theodore Roethke and Mary Oliver.

Countless hours spent amongst his father’s flowers gave us Roethke’s famous Orchids poem, and Oliver got Mushrooms to us after a lifetime of walks in the woods.

So here’s your challenge for the day: Taking these two poems as your models, try to craft one of your own in a similar vein. Remember to focus tightly on just one specimen and lavishly describe!

Try not to get too hung up on honeybees and spiders. And if anyone knows of some good insect poems out there that don’t sound like they are channeling Shel Silverstein, please post.