Saturday, August 25, 2012

Prompt #115 – Phone Poems


A few days ago, I sat in a restaurant two tables away from a group of young people who, instead of chatting among themselves, were all using their cell phones. I say using because they weren’t talking; instead, they were all busily texting. It amazed me to think that instead of enjoying one another’s company, they spent their time together texting other people – even after their meals were served! It wasn’t an uncommon sight. I’ve seen groups of teenagers walking downtown and talking or texting on their cell phones, and I’ve seen people in cars talking on cell phones while driving (even though that’s now against the law). I think one of the funniest things I’ve seen was a young couple sitting on a park bench, sweetly cuddled up to one another, each with an around the other, attention completely focused on their cell phones, their free hands texting away. It all made me think about telephones and how much phoning has changed since I was a little girl and we had a single two-party-line phone in our living room.

With all  that in mind, how about writing some "phone poems" this week?

Examples:


Suggestions:
  1. Write a poem about the best or worst phone message you’ve ever received.
  2. Write a poem about cell phones.
  3. Write a poem about texting instead of talking.
  4. Write an amusing phone poem, for example, a humorous ode to the cell phone.
  5. Write a poem that’s a “phone call” to the past or to the future (Here’s an example from Poetry Daily: http://www.cstone.net/~poems/phonesal.htm).
  6. Write a poem in the form of a text message (the title might be something like: “Text Message to _______________.”
  7. Write a poem about a mysterious phone call. (Feel free to fictionalize with this one.)
  8. Write a poem about visual and verbal communication via cell phones.
  9. Write a poem using only texting abbreviations. (Imagine Shakespeare writing “2b or not2B.”)  Click here for a comprehensive list of texting abbreviations.
  10. Write a poem about “mobilogy” (the effects of cell phone use on behaviors, community, culture, entertainment, and economics). 
  11. Write a poem about answering machines (or a particular answering machine).
P.S. Did you know that the Poetry Foundation has a Poetry Mobile App for iPhone and Android? http://www.poetryfoundation.org/mobile/

17 comments:

  1. What a great idea! Cell phones are ubiquitous these days, and it's fun watching people go about their business while talking or texting.

    Phone poems - not to be confused with Tone Poems!

    Thanks, Adele!

    Jamie

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    1. Thanks, Jamie! Your comments are always much appreciated!

      Love the "Tone Poems" comment!

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  2. Textin iz fun
    multi-taskin
    talkin n
    playin wid words
    not missin a beat
    What could be better?
    Disconnecting!

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    1. Love it, Risa! Thanks so much for sharing!

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    2. Another good one, Risa! Thanks for posting!

      Jamie

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  3. Thank you for the prompts. Lots of Fun.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Donald! It's so nice to "meet" you here.

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  4. I admit it. I failed this challenge. Take a look. You'll see what I mean.

    http://thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/writing-challenge-phone-poem/

    S. Thomas Summers
    Author of Private Hercules McGraw: Poems of the American Civil War

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    1. Hey, Scott!

      That's no failure! Your poem is wonderful, and I'm so glad it didn't like having a phone in it! It's always important to give a poem enough room to change directions if it wants to!

      Your dismount is really great - wine and green eyes (surrounded by all those books).

      Thanks so much for sharing!

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    2. Hi Scott,

      I agree with Adele - no way is did you fail the challenge! Your poem is really great. Thanks for sharing it with us!

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    3. It's great the way a poem develops itself. Your poem started with a phone prompt and became something of its own "design." That's the best part of prompts. So glad you posted this. Thanks.

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  5. Hi, Adele. I learned about your site and your poetry challenge from Scott at "The Lint In My Pocket." When I hopped over here to check it out, I was immediately reminded of a true story I read some time ago about a telephone and how it proved instrumental in bringing two people together in marriage. I was inspired to try to capture the main part of that story in a poem. It was great fun. I know on WordPress, we ask people to leave a link to their response to the challenge in the comment box. Not sure how you guys do it here, but I'll leave the link here in case you want to check it out. Thanks for the challenge.

    http://sandraconner.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/love-on-the-line/

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    1. Hi Sandra! Thanks so much for posting the link to your poem -- what a great story, and I love that you told it in rhyme, giving it a ballad quality.

      Thanks again for sharing "Love on the Line" with us!

      Links are fine, but if you want to include the whole poem, we welcome that too.

      It's lovely "meeting" you here!

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    2. A wonderful poem that tells a story in rhymed verse. Such a pleasure to read! Thanks for sharing it with us.

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  6. Thank you. It was so much fun and a real challenge for me. Although I've written poetry most of my life, I have never tried to take a true story and tell it in meter and rhyme. I'm so glad I discovered Adele's challenge and gave it a try.

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    1. So glad you enjoyed the prompt! Thanks very much for your comment!

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  7. Hi again, Adele. I have been communicating with you from my WordPress blog as "Sandra Conner." But you will see a Blogger username on here today. I'm writing this time to ask if you have any advice for someone just coming onto the "Blogger" hosting site. I have been with WordPress for a couple of years, and I have 3 blogs on there -- plus administrating another. I originally chose them because of their very accessible and friendly tech support. But lately, that support seems to be very inaccessible. So that is no longer a reason for staying. Also, I cannot get some of the articles to go onto the site looking like I want them to look -- unless I get deeply embedded into the mysteries of HTML code -- and I refuse to take on those headaches. So I decided to try out "Blogger."

    I created an experimental blog -- one for my poetry only -- this week, and I am trying to learn the lay of the land on here. So far it looks as though typing and posting a poem in the size font I want is much easier here. However, I've posted only one poem so far, so that may change. If you have any advice, I would really appreciate learning anything you have learned from your experience here.
    Thank you.
    Sandra

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