PAD Week Four-No More

The end of the 2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge  is upon us! Tomorrow is the 30th and final day.

 

I'll miss having a new prompt served up first thing each morning. Thanks to all of the poets who shared a prompt for this month's challenge. This was a new twist. I enjoyed being introduced to members of the Poetic Asides community this way and look forward to continue visiting some new blogs.

 

I also hope to keep the writing momentum going by providing my own prompts. I have a long list of ideas that I've been keeping. Now its time to start crossing them off the list by turning them into poems.

 

A few of the prompts this month involved using lines from poems by other poets or from other poems we had written. That reminded me that I have some random lines and groups of lines in a list and in various notepads. They should keep me busy, too.

 

Of course, it would be nice to have a prompt from someone else every so often. Fortunately, Robert Lee Brewer provides a prompt on Poetic Asides each Wednesday. He also sneaks in a form challenge every so often. Thanks, Robert.

 

Following is my favorite poem from this challenge. I think it is my favorite because it is about a topic and place that have become very special to me through poetry.

 

Still Sweatin’

the music they say is dead was so alive, it sweated.-Mbembe Milton Smith

The music still sweats

in a familiar place

a room known as blue

in the mecca of

18^th and Vine

in a building that

keeps it alive

where the greats

are enshrined

and a new generation

gets it start

 

Congratulations to all the writers who participated in a writing challenge this month! What did you take away from your challenge?

 

Give the following link a click:

 

The Big Yellow Taxi Tour from Lara Britt's Writing Space (This is a must read for Joni Mitchell fans!)

Take a Picture-Seasonal Songs

 

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Tuesday Photo-Out the Window

Wordsmith Studio's Weekly Photo Prompt is Out the Window. This prompt is courtesy of  Veronica Roth.

 

I had fun going to different windows and really taking stock of what I could see out of each one. I had a general idea, of course, but it was interesting to take a really good look at the detail. Below is my selection for this prompt.

There's still time to join in the fun! Take a photo out of a window and post a link to it in the comments section of the link above. Rebecca Barray is creating collages from the photos that are submitted.

Don't forget to check in at Wordsmith Studio's Multi-Media Blog every Thursday for a new prompt.


Related Post

 Collage from the Shadows Prompt

Photography Craft-Shutter Speed

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PAD Week Three-Weary Poetry

Well, I finally fell behind in the 2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge on Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides blog. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to catch up by the end of this weekend.

 

We had a really interesting prompt on Day 18--the glosa. This form was used by poets of the Spanish court in the 14 and 15 centuries. Start with four lines from another poem. Write four 10-line stanzas. Line 10 of each stanza is one of the four lines from the epigram. Lines 6, 9 and 10 rhyme.

 

This was really a challenge for me because short poetry is my niche. For me, this form was like writing about 4-6 poems. It didn't come naturally to me, but I got through it. In the end, I enjoyed this prompt.

 

 

And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed.
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

-Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues”

The man was weary, but couldn’t rest.
He knew what brought on the restlessness,
but he didn’t know how to still it, how to chill it.
Instead, he went along with it, let it lead the way.
He ventured out into a cold, crisp night,
thinking his journey would end fairly soon.
His pace matched his state, quick and jumpy.
Suddenly, the air carried music to his ears.
The notes seemed to come with their own wound   
And far into the night he crooned that tune.

Although the song was weary, too,
it gave him a rhythm with which to move.
He walked through the streets to the new beat.
Now, he couldn’t seem to still his feet.
He traveled farther then he had planned and
realized his senses hadn’t been atuned
to the passage of time, the distance he covered.
He made his return in the dead of night
and wished for the speed of a character in a cartoon.
The stars went out and so did the moon.

 

The music remained his companion
as he headed home that night.
He found the music soothing
even though it was a lament.
He found the words came easily
as he snapped his fingers with each tread.
Before he knew it, he was unlocking the door.
He had left his restlessness in the streets
and his soul had been well feed.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed.

 

So, what had he accomplished
by wandering in the dark?
His circumstances hadn’t changed.
His problems still existed.
Yet, he had found something
 that could help him shed
the anxiety that had stalked him.
As he drifted off to sleep, he let
his new found peacefulness spread
while the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

 

Related Posts

 

The Weary Blues

 

Langston Hughes

Wordsmith Studio's Weekly Photo Prompt

 

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Tuesday Photo Post-Shadows

I had the pleasure of choosing the prompt for  Wordsmith Studio's Weekly Photo Prompt. This week's prompt is shadows.

Here's a look at what created the shadow mural I posted in the prompt.

Let's not forget you can find interesting shadows indoors, too.

There's still time to join in the fun. Watch for the shadows. You may be surprised what you see. Take a picture of one and go to the link above to comment on the prompt page.

Related Link

Photography Craft-Aperture

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PAD Week Two-Halfway Through

Wow! It is hard to believe we are already halfway through the 2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge on Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides blog.  I still feel like I am keeping up better than I did with my first challenge in April. I have been trying to stick with the technique of writing about the prompt until I write my way to a poem. This seems to work for me.

 

This week, we called on dead poets, wrote from the perspective of veterans and about technology we don't have. I wrote about jazz, a memory from high school and time travel. We also were challenged to use a word from a different language as a title or in the body of a poem. A word immediately came to my mind because I learned it from another poet and friend.

Un Abrazo

A hug sends a message
through the arms and hands
right down to the fingertips.
Welcome-arms that have been
spread in anticipation
thoroughly engulf the recipient.
Swaying may be involved.
Congratulations-there is a
firmness to this hug that says,
“You did it!”
Consolation-the two participants
truly hold on to each other.
There may be a reluctance or
an inability to let go.
Love-The one message sent
by every hug.

Click here to read other responses to this prompt.

And, don't forget to go to Wordsmith Studio's Weekly Photo Prompt

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Tuesday Photo Post-The Jump Shot

This week's Wordsmith Studio Photo Prompt (courtesy of Emily McGee) is The Jump Shot. The challenge is to take pictures of people jumping.

 

For a photo challenge earlier this year, I took some photos of myself while I was walking. I decided to try the same thing while I was jumping. Since I needed to mulch the leaves in my yard, I thought I would jump into them before I got to work. Besides piquing the curiosity of the neighbors, I did get a few pictures.

I'm sure you won't be surprised when I say it was a lot harder to take a picture of myself  jumping than walking. Even though there isn't much of me in the picture I chose, I kept coming back to it. Everytime I look at it, I feel like I'm ready to hit the ground.

 

There's still time to join in the fun! Take a photo of someone jumping  and post a link to it in the comments section of the link above. Don't forget to check in at Wordsmith Studio every Thursday for a new prompt.

 

Related Posts

 

When He Said "Jump..."

 

Photography Craft: Aperture

 

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PAD-Week One Done

One week and seven poems into the 2012 November Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge at Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides blog. This month, I am a veteran challenger as opposed to the rookie I was in April. I think I have benefited from the experience.

I seem to have more patience with the tasks at hand. I don't get stressed if I don't have an idea as soon as I read the prompt, which I do in the morning. At least once, I didn't have an idea until late evening; but I wasn't anxious about it. Definitely, a change for the positive.

A couple of Wordsmith Studio friends, Linda G. Hatton and Veronica Roth, stopped by Tueday's Photo post and mentioned that the photo fit with the PAD prompts to write a "left" poem and a "right" poem. I took their suggestion and wrote the following:

Right Turn

The right road isn’t
paved with perfection.
It bends and dips and
sometimes closes for repairs.
Detours take us out of our way,
but eventually bring us back
to our path of choice, both
weary and wiser.

On to week two. Stop by the challenge and see the prompts and the works they have inspired. Join in the writing and/or the reading!

Related Post-Wordsmith Studio's Weekly Photo Prompt


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New Tuesday Photo Post

If you explore the right-hand border of this blog, you'll see a badge that reference's the Wordsmith Studio. Wordsmith Studio grew out of the April Platform Building Challenge on Robert Lee Brewer's My Name is Not Bob website.  This recent post by Lara Britt gives you a little history and introduces you to some of the people who have gotten this new website off the ground.

In addition to writerly groups, Wordsmith Studio has a multi-media group that includes writers who also are interested in photography. Rebecca Barray is our photography guru. The Multi-Media blog will include posts regarding craft and a photo prompt that will be posted each Thursday. I'm going  to post my response or responses to the prompt on Tuesdays.

The first prompt is Orange.  I photographed one of the most despised orange signs in existence, especially if you come upon it unexpectedly and you are already running late.

There's still time to join in the fun! Take a photo related to the theme Orange and post a link to it in the comments section of the link above. Don't forget to check in at Wordsmith Studio every Thursday for a new prompt.

A New Challenge

Today is the first day of Robert Lee Brewer's 2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge. He will post a prompt each day in November and those willing to take the challenge will try to create new poems from the prompts within about 24 hours of the post.

I did the PAD Challenge that Robert did in April of this year. It was the first writing challenge I had done and I found it interesting.

 The first thing I realized was that, most of the time, an idea was not going to come to me the moment I read the prompt.  It was not going to come to me if I stared at the prompt or even if I thought really hard about the prompt. I had to write the idea out of the prompt. In other words, I had to start putting words down on paper until I wrote something that I wanted to continue writing about.

Some days, I ended up with just a few lines. Some days, I ended up with a group of lines that had the potential to be a poem; and some days, I actually ended up with poems. I still go through what I wrote during that challenge to see if I can turn the few into groups and the potential into poems.

So, now I'm ready for a new challenge that will teach me something else about writing and give me possibilities for the coming months.

 

Good luck to everyone who's taking on a writing challenge this month!

Related Post-Elementary, My Dear Poet

 

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