#NationalPoetryMonth’16 Round-up (Day 15)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, 30dpc, Apparatus Magazine, Eleanor Swanson, Fay Dillof, Found Poetry Review, gary snyder, Gregory Pardlo, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Indiana Humanities, Jill Khoury, Jo Bell, Jordan Walsh, Kate Asche, Lagan Press, Mariah Wilson, Mary Carroll Hackett, NotaLiteraryJournal, NPM16, Ofelia Zepeda, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry prompts, QuillsEdge Press, sijo, Sundress Publications, The City Quill, Winter Tangerine, women poets

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

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Doubles prompt”
NotaLiteraryJournal’s “Revisiting Peake’s prompt generator”
Indiana Humanities’ “Portrait Poem challenge”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “4 to 8 prompt”
Poetry School’s “Night Setting prompt”
Mariah Wilson’s “Tumblr User Names prompt”
QuillsEdge Press’ “My mother’s hands, eyes prompt”
Found Poetry’s “Appreciating Hated Text challenge”
Mary Carroll-Hacket’s “Maker of Your Own Song prompt”
Apparatus Mag’s “Image Search prompt”
Imaginary Garden’s “Wasteland Fibonacci free verse challenge”
30dpc “Twitter-sized prompt”
The City Quill’s “Page 15 verb prompt”
Jo Bell’s “Favorite places prompt”
Lagan Press’ “Toys prompt”
Winter Tangerine’s “Locked Doors prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Fay Dillof “Black Ants”
Jordan Walsh “How an Inuit Jigs”
Kate Asche “Lullaby”
Eleanor Swanson “I Love You, Says the Heart”
Ofelia Zepeda “Riding the Earth”

Miscellaneous

Interview with Poet Gary Snyder (The Writer’s Almanac)
The Elements of a Sijo (Writing& Ruminating)
Poetry Lessons with Gregory Pardlo (Brian Lehrer Show)
Interview with Jill Khoury (Sundress Publications)

**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 30)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, Anita Endrezze, Ashley Farmer, Cupertino Poet Laureate, Elaine Feinstein, Elizabeth Bartlett, feminist poetics, floodmark poetry, Janaka Stucky, Jane Yeh, Kelli Russell Agodon, Mary Carroll Hackett, Megan Fernandez, mslexia, Nancy Lynee Woo, Negative Capability Press, Ofelia Zepeda, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, Poetry magazine, poetry prompts, Robert Wrigley, Tammy Ho Lai Ming, Wild Violet, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from the LAST DAY of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth. It’s been a great ride. Back to the regular schedule on Sunday.

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Write Backwards prompt”
Floodmark Poetry’s “Hole-Punch Clouds prompt”
Mslexia’s “Object as Witness prompt”
Mary Carroll-Hackett’s “Profound Risks prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Bury the ____  prompt”
Wild Violet’s “Ars Poetica prompt”
Negative Capability Press’ “Chicken prompt”
REWIND Cupertino Poet Laureate’s “I Love My Hair prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Anita Endrezze| “A Crown of White Hair”
Robert Wrigley| “Moonlight: Chickens on the Road”
Ofelia Zepeda| “Pulling Down the Clouds”
Elaine Feinstein| “Lazarus’s Sister”
Nancy Lynee Woo| “21 Ways of Looking at Chicken Heart”
Janaka Stucky| “Recreating a Miraculous Object”
Ashley Farmer| “Women Fix”
Jane Yeh| “Musk-Ox”
Elizabeth Bartlett| “Art Class”

Miscellaneous

Megan Fernandez on Persona Poetry and Feminist Poetics at EKA
Icaruses: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming on Ekphrastic Poetry at World Literature Today
Part & Parcel: Kelli Russell Agodon at the Huffington Post

 

**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.

Galoshes Optional: Rain-Soaked POETRY LAB

Tags

art prompts, Betsy Johnson-Miller, Games that Ogres Play, It's Raining in Honolulu, Jim Sallis, Joy Harjo, Kenji Miyazawa, Lawrence Raab, Millane's Creativity Club, Museum of Modern Art, My Work, Ocean Power, Ofelia Zepeda, Painting Rain, Paula Meehan, poetry drafts, poetry exercises, poetry lab, poetry prompts, Pulling Down the Clouds, Rain Room, rain sounds, rain themed art, rain themed poetry, Rain When I Want Rain, Rain's Eagerness, Strong in the Rain, Visible Signs, Why It Often Rains in the Movies, writing prompts

The Rain Room at the Museum of Modern Art. New York, NY. Friday, June 14, 2013.

Anyone lucky enough to have visited the Museum of Modern Art last summer, could have enjoyed its fun Rain Room installation without ever getting wet.  While most of us here in South Louisiana did not have that luxury, we are all very much acquainted with Nature’s slippery friend.  After a few mind-numbing days of downpours, one simply must retreat to the clean, dry page.

Alas, even there rain-themed verse is to be had aplenty. But with the sheer beauty of such lines as “Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more/than a season” from Harjo’s “It’s Raining in Honolulu” (full-text below), who would not want to have a good soak.  Enjoy this poem and the four other selections before we move on to penning our own.

 

It’s Raining in Honolulu
by Joy Harjo

There is a small mist at the brow of the mountain,
each leaf of flower, of taro, tree and bush shivers with ecstasy.

And the rain songs of all the flowering ones who have called for the rain

can be found there, flourishing
beneath the currents of singing.

Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more
than a season.
We stop all of our talking, quit writing or blowing sax to drink the
mystery invoked
by the night rain.

We listen to the breathing beneath our breathing.

This is how we became rain.

Translated, this means a white flower behind your ear is saturated with
faith after the second overthrow.

We will plant taro where there were curses.

 

 

That’s such a gorgeous one. Hard to beat a women in tune with the earth! Next have a listen to Rodney Jones reading “Rain on Tin” (text accompanies). Then peruse:

Lawrence Raab‘s “Why It Often Rains in the Movies” from Visible Signs.

Ofelia Zepeda’s “Pulling Down the Clouds”  from Ocean Power

Kenji Miyazawa’s “Strong in the Rain” from same-titled collection

 

And if that doesn’t get you in the mood to write something slick, trying mixing your own rain tract up over at NatureSoundsForMe. Or for those artists out there, try digging into the Singing and Dancing in Rain art prompt over at Milliane’s Creativity Club. You might like to use some of the images below for something similar to that one, or pull from the Rain art board on Pinterest.

 

But wait, I’m not done yet.  How about a few rain-soaked poetry titles like…

 

Painting Rain from Paula Meehan

Rain When You Want Rain from Betsy Johnson-Miller  OR

Rain’s Eagerness from Jim Sallis

 

 

I even have a draft that I’ve been playing with called “Games that Ogres Play”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feel free to share your drafts as well. Comments are open, skippy-dee-do-dahs!!

NDNs with Pens

Tags

Adrian C. Louis, Allison Hedge Coke, American Indian, Deborah A Miranda, Ernestine Hayes, Frances Washburn, Greg Sarris, IAIA MFA, James Welch, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, Luci Tapahonso, N. Scott Momaday, Native American, NDN writers, NDNs with Pens, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Ofelia Zepeda, Sherman Alexie, Simon J Ortiz, Susan Power

Native American, American Indian, Indigenous, NDN. Many labels have been applied to tribal nations as far flung as Alaska and New Mexico. Once marginalized , many of these groups are now getting a second look with entire university programs devoted to the study of their literature.  As I work on my own project steeped in Tlingit legends, I am reminded of those who came before.  Here is an essential reading list of Native writers:

1. The Way to Rainy Mountain and In the Bear’s House by N. Scott Momaday

2. Love Medicine and Original Fire by Louise Erdrich   [*Buy signed copies direct from Erdrich at Birchbark Books]

3. Skins by Adrian C. Louis

4. Storyteller by Leslie Marmon Silko

5. Men on the Moon and Woven Stone by Simon J. Ortiz

6. Ocean Power:Poems from the Desert and Where Clouds are Formed by Ofelia Zepeda

7. Riding the Earthboy 40 by James Welch

8. Mean Spirit and The Book of Medicines by Linda Hogan

9. One Stick Song and Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie (*anything you pick up by him is bound to be good)

10.  She Had Some Horses and Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo

11. Watermelon Nights by Greg Sarris

12. A Radiant Curve by Luci Tapahonso

13. Roofwalker by Susan Power

14. Bad Indians by Deborah A. Miranda

15. Life Woven with Song by Nora Marks Dauenhauer

16. Blonde Indian by Ernestine Hayes

17. The Sacred White Turkey by Frances Washburn

18.  Dog Road Woman by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

*Find the complete list on Amazon here.*

And for those of you who are interested, the IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) now offers an MFA In Creative Writing.  Note that Sherman Alexie and Susan Power are on staff!