Prompt #329 – The Festive Season

This time of year is always special whether it’s about a specific holiday or just the “feeling” of the season. Here in the northern hemisphere, winter begins in December, but in other parts of the world, it’s summer. Whatever the weather, this is a festive season—a time of good cheer and light, of music and old movies, of giving and receiving.

Did you know that Nobel Laureate, Russian poet Joseph Brodsky was so taken with Christmas that he wrote a Christmas poem every year (now collected in his book Nativity Poems)? Holiday poems and stories have an enduring appeal, and most of you are familiar with Charles Dickens’s story about Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. For this prompt, we’re going to do some variations on the past, present, and future theme, and you’ll need to think about your past, present, and future Christmases, Chanukahs, Kwanzas, Yules, or other annual winter-season celebrations. 

Guidelines: 

1. Write about a holiday from your past (dig deeply into family memories).

2. Write a poem in which you compare winter holidays of the past, present, and/or future.

3. Write about metaphorical seasonal ghosts that haunt you.

4. Write about people from your past who are no longer with you and how that impacts your present holiday season; or, write about one special person with whom you always associate the winter holidays.

5. Write about aspects of winter holiday traditions that remain part of your annual celebrations.

6. Write about the faith and/or cultural aspects of your winter holidays.

7. Write about one unforgettable winter holiday.

8. Write about holiday food treats and how they sweeten your memories.

9. Write about a holiday song that replays in your mind because of its associations (or, write your own words to a Christmas carol or other winter holiday song).

10. Write a poem based on an old Christmas, Chanukah, or other winter holiday photograph.

11. Write about a historical holiday-time event.

12. Write about a winter holiday yet to come. You might consider a fantasy poem with a futuristic sensibility. 

Tips: 

1. Keep in mind that holiday literature can be tricky—be sure to sidestep the pitfalls of sentimentality, schmaltziness, nostalgia, and clichés.

2. Try to write in the active, not the passive, voice. To do that, it can be helpful to remove “ing” endings and to write in the present tense (this will also create a greater sense of immediacy).

3. Be on the lookout for prepositional phrases that you might remove (articles & conjunctions too).

4. Mark Twain once wrote, “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.” This is especially true in poetry. So ... as you work on a poem, think about adjectives and which ones your poem can live without. (Often the concept is already in the noun, and you don’t need a lot of adjectives to convey your meaning.)

4. Avoid clichés (and, while you’re at it, stay away from abstractions and sentimentality).

5. Show, don’t tell—through striking imagery, a strong emotional center, and an integrated whole of language, form and meaning.

6. Challenge the ordinary, connect, reveal, surprise! And … remember that a poem should mean more than the words it contains.

7. Create a new resonance for your readers, a lit spark that doesn’t go out when the poem is “over.”

8. Understand that overstatement and the obvious are deadly when it comes to writing poetry. Don’t ramble on, and don’t try to explain everything. Think about this: a poem with only five great lines should be five lines long. 

Examples: 

“Meditations on the Fall and Winter Holidays” by Charles Reznikoff 
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16820 

“Christmas Trees” by Robert Frost  
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19307 

“Noël: Christmas Eve 1913” by Robert Bridges  
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22721 

“The Czar's Last Christmas Letter: A Barn in the Urals” by Norman Dubie  
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15678 

“The Feast of Lights” by Emma Lazarus 
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16818 

“Are We Done Yet” by Gail Fishman Gerwin 
http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=952

As in the past, I’m going to take a brief December hiatus

and will begin posting again in January.

I send my sincerest thanks 

to all of you who have visited this blog over the past year—

to those of you who were new to "The Music In It" 

and to loyal readers who visit regularly.

Poetry is about sharing, and I'm grateful for the sharing that happens here!

I send all of you my best holiday wishes for good health, happiness, and peace,
and for a New Year filled with all the things that bring you joy.

Regular posts will resume on Saturday, January 5, 2019, so please stay tuned until then.
I have some wonderful prompts and guest blogger articles lined up for you.

Happy holidays to all!

In poetry and blogging,

Adele

 

Prompt #328 – Your Wild and Precious Life

(Photo Courtesy of Bob Fiorellino)

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

 with your one wild and precious life?

— Mary Oliver (“The Summer Day,” House of Light, 1990)

I love the above quote from Mary Oliver, and it was the inspiration for this prompt. For me, it calls to mind all the possibilities for a life well-lived, as well as the power of intention.

Mary Oliver is a master of deceptive simplicity. She’s a poet who flawlessly and seamlessly moves from the immediate world into something much more profound. Read on one level, Oliver’s poems are easily understood, but underneath, between the lines, and inherent in her language choices is an insistent voice, which never fails to remind me that no good poem can be fully comprehended on a first reading—clarity with a hint of being on the edge of understanding always invites contemplation.

For this prompt, think about your life. What does your life mean to you? How is your life “wild and precious?” What do you hope for, dream about, think about, and work toward in your life?

Guidelines:

1. Free write for a while about your life; focus on what you hope your life will be like.

2. Think about the words “wild” and “precious” and think about the ways in which your life has been, or you would like it to be, wild and precious. Look those words up, explore the synonyms for the them. Work with the words “wild” and “precious.”

3. Even if you are of advanced years, what would you like your remaining “wild and precious” life to hold for you? No matter how old you are, your life is always wild and precious. That said, if you’d prefer to write about how you looked at life when you were younger, go for it!

4. Your poem make you see the world in a way in which you have never seen it before. Hopefully, you will gain some insight into your own life.

5. Begin composing your poem. Try to keep it within the 15-25 line range.

6. After you’ve written a draft or two, put the poem away for a couple of days. When you come back to it, look for “leads” into other ideas and ways to expand the levels of meaning in your poem.

7. During drafting and revising, find the “lifeless” parts of your poem and give them some strength through more effective language (and imagery). If that doesn’t work, remember that sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice a line or phrase that you love to save a poem's life.  One of the best approaches to editing is to remove rather than to add.

Tips:

1. Try to write in the active, not the passive, voice. To do that, it can be helpful to remove “ing” endings and to write in the present tense (this will also create a greater sense of immediacy).

2. Be on the lookout for prepositional phrases that you might remove (articles & conjunctions too).

3. The great author Mark Twain once wrote, “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.” This is especially true in poetry. So ... as you work on a poem, think about adjectives and which ones your poem can live without. (Often the concept is already in the noun, and you don’t need a lot of adjectives to convey your meaning.)

4. Avoid clichés (and, while you’re at it, stay away from abstractions and sentimentality).

5. Show, don’t tell—through striking imagery, a strong emotional center, and an integrated whole of language, form and meaning.

6. Challenge the ordinary, connect, reveal, surprise! And … remember that a poem should mean more than the words it contains.

7. Create a new resonance for your readers, a lit spark that doesn’t go out when the poem is “over.”

8. If you take a risk, make it a big one; if your poem is edgy, take it all the way to the farthest edge.

9. Understand that overstatement and the obvious are deadly when it comes to writing poetry. Don’t ramble on, and don’t try to explain everything. Think about this: a poem with only five great lines should be five lines long.

10. Bring your poem to closure with a dazzling dismount. (Be careful not to undercut your poem’s “authority” by ending with trivia or a “so what” line that doesn’t make your readers gasp.)

Example:

“The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html

Prompt #327 – Give Thanks in a Poem

Gratitude is a developmental emotion, and books have been written on its psychology. Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” There are times in our lives when we feel more Grinch than grateful, especially when the stresses of every day living gather momentum and all but overwhelm us. However, acknowledging and expressing our gratitude can have a beneficial effect on our lives, relationships, and work.

Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving will be celebrated this coming week on Thursday, November 22nd. Our Thanksgiving has a long history beginning in 1621 when the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is considered the first Thanksgiving celebration. For over 200 years, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. In 1827, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale began a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Finally, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set the last Thursday in November as the official day for a national Thanksgiving observance. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week, and in 1941 Roosevelt signed a bill that designated the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

What are you grateful for? This week let’s write about a specific thing for which we’re grateful. A French proverb tells us, “Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” Our first step in writing this week will be to remember—to look into our memories and to identify a single thing for which we’re especially grateful.

Guidelines:

1. Make a list of things for which you’re thankful.

2. Choose one item from the list.

3. Free write about the item you chose.

4. Look at your free write and select images and details for your poem.

5. Draft your poem.

6. As you write, think about the reasons for your gratitude and show (without telling) what those feelings mean.

7. Think in terms of particulars and details – not ideas, but specifics (i.e. not love, but an example of love that you've known; not friendship, but a particular friend).

8. Think of places in which you've been especially thankful (the "geography of thanks"). Think of the people who were part of the story.

9. Try writing a Kyrielle. Once very popular, the Kyrielle originated in France, dates to the Middle Ages, and takes its name from kyrie (a litany in the Catholic Mass). Many hymn lyrics were written in this form, but content is not limited to religious subjects. A traditional Kyrielle is often short, octosyllabic (each lines contains eight syllables), and is typically presented in four-line stanzas. A traditional Kyrielle also contains a refrain (a repeated line, phrase, or word) at the end of each stanza.

A. Write a few ideas for "thankful" refrains (repeated line, phrase, or word) before you begin writing the kyrielle.

B. Write a quatrain (four-line stanza) about a particular thing for which you're thankful. Each line should contain eight syllables. If you wish, you may create a rhyme scheme, but rhyme isn't required. The last line, phrase, or word in your first stanza will become your refrain.

C. Repeat step B as many times as you wish. Don't forget that each quatrain (four-line stanza) will end with the same line, phrase, or word. You may write your Kyrielle about one thing for which you're grateful, or each quatrain may be about individual things that have inspired your gratitude.

D. Remember that with all formal poems nowadays, it is vital that the form does not "drive" your poem. If the form begins to feel forced or unwieldy, you may switch to something less deliberate (i.e., free verse, prose poem). 

10. Whatever form of poem you choose to write, dig deeply to reach beyond the specifics of your personal experience to the underlying universal subject with which your readers will identify.

Note: You might address or dedicate your poem to a person for whom you're thankful, or you might go to the flip side and write about a challenging time (or a time of adversity) that somehow led you to feelings of gratefulness (my mom used to say that good always comes from bad).

Tips: 

1. Always be specific, avoid general terms, phrases, and statements. Images aren’t about abstractions or philosophical musings. Rather, they evoke the meaning and truth of human experiences in perceptible and “actual” terms.

2. Avoid lofty language and literary affectation. Neither big words nor literary pretensions lend themselves well to effective imagery. The “wow factor” in most poems lies in language that is unexpected and deceptively simple.

3. Watch out for clichés. Examine your poem carefully and note any phrases or lines that seem familiar or general. 

4. Think in terms of similes, metaphors, and other types of figurative language. W. H. Auden wrote: [A poem] “must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective.”Look for the universal meaning of your poem.

5. Don’t be clever or cutesy. Let your images and use of language evolve organically with just the right amount of tweaking.
 

6. Be wary of “overkill.” Too many or over-written images can be tedious if not mind-numbing. When asked how many images a mid-sized poem should contain, my answer is always the same: if you look at poem you’re writing and only find five great lines, then the poem should only be five lines long; in the same way, if you look at a poem you’re working on and only find a single brilliant image, then the poem should only contain a single image. 

7. Keep in mind that sometimes lines and images we love aren’t quite “right” for the poem in which we’ve placed them. When this happens, be prepared to sacrifice an image you love for the sake of the poem. The poem (and your readers) will be grateful.

Examples:

"Thanks" by W. S. Merwin 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57937/thanks

"Te Deum" by Charles Reznikoff

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/te-deum

"Thanksgiving Letter from Harry" by Carl Dennis 

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9849839

"The Thanksgivings" by Harriet Maxwell Converse

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/thanksgivings

Prompt #326 - Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

It's been said that we travel to lose ourselves, and that we travel to find ourselves. As Proust wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

Guidelines:

1. Think about what “travel” means to you in terms of wonder, discovery, and self-revelation. Has any journey in your life given you “new eyes?” (For example, a trip to another country, the journey through school, through a romance, through marriage or divorce, through parenthood, through loss and grief.)

2. Think about times you've traveled without going anywhere.

3. Write a poem in which you travel: the journey may be geographical, real, imagined, emotional, or spiritual. You may take an “overland trip” through description, attention to details, and sensory perceptions, or you may lead readers through your journey’s surface terrain into the emotional, spiritual, or metaphorical landscape at its center.

4. Before you start writing, be sure to read the examples below. In the T. S. Eliot poem, what kind of journey did he write about?

Tips:

1. Power your travel poem with details that show without telling.

2. Be specific, avoid general terms, phrases, and statements. Avoid abstractions or philosophical musings. Use imagery to evoke the meaning and truth of human experiences in perceptible and “actual” terms.

3. Create layers of meaning (at least 2—the stated meaning and the underlying meaning).

4. Don’t give away the deeper meaning of “travel” in your poem. Hint at it, give the reader room to enter the poem and discover whatever layers of meaning you develop.

Examples:

Little Gidding (excerpt)

By T. S.Eliot

We shall not cease from exploration


And the end of all our exploring


Will be to arrive where we started


And know the place for the first time.

Travel

By Edna St. Vincent Millay

The railroad track is miles away,

    And the day is loud with voices speaking,

Yet there isn't a train goes by all day

    But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,

    Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,

But I see its cinders red on the sky,

    And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with friends I make,

    And better friends I'll not be knowing;

Yet there isn't a train I'd rather take,

    No matter where it's going.

"The Journey" By Mary Oliver

Click Here: http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/MaryOliver.html

Prompt #325 – Halloween 2018

  When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, 
the moon laughs and whispers, ‘tis near Halloween.

—Author Unknown

Yes, “’tis near Halloween!” Here, in my corner of the map, it’s autumn—a time filled with all the color and glory of the calendar’s last bright whirl. With Halloween near, I thought a related prompt might be fun.

By the way, did you know that the poet John Keats was born on Halloween in 1795? His last poem is an untitled, eight-line fragment that seems chillingly well-suited to his birthday:

This living hand, now warm and capable

Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold

And in the icy silence of the tomb,

So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights

That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood

So in my veins red life might stream again,

And thou be conscience-calmed—see here it is—

I hold it towards you.

For our Halloween prompt this year, begin by reading some Halloween and associated poems to get into the "spirit" (some examples are offered below), and then write a Halloween poem that brings back the memory of a particular Halloween (from childhood or more recent), a costume you’ve worn or wanted to wear, or a mask that says something about you. There are no guidelines or tips other than to observe the usual caveats and to have fun with this. Here you go ...

• Your poem can take any form: narrative, lyric, prose
• Be sure to evoke a mood or tone that's compatible with your subject.
• Include some “creepy” similes and metaphors.
• Use language that's appropriate to Halloween and your content.

Examples: 
  

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/halloween

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market

http://www.thingsthatgoboo.com/scarypoems/dphallowe'en.htm

http://www.thingsthatgoboo.com/scarypoems/dphollowman.htm

http://www.thingsthatgoboo.com/scarypoems/dponlyghostieversaw.htm

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/haunted-houses

And, by way of sharing, here’s a Halloween prose poem from my book A Lightness, A Thirst, or Nothing at All:

Halloween
       
                 By Adele Kenny  
 

Trick-or-treaters come to the door repeatedly—little ones early, older kids into the night until she runs out of candy and turns off the outside lights. The wall between worlds is thin (aura over aura—stars flicker and flinch). The woman buttons her coat, checks her reflection in the mirror, and stands cheek to glass (eye on her own eye, its abstract edge). She leaves the house (empty house that we all become)—shadows shaped to the trees, crows in the high branches.

Prompt #324 - Faceted Falsehoods

Long-time Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn once said, "You'll never get mixed up if you simply tell the truth. Then you don't have to remember what you have said." There’s wisdom in that statement even if it doesn’t address the ethical and moral aspects of untruthfulness.

Lies are successful when they control language to achieve the effect of truth. How do poets control language to make their poems believable? Have you ever read a poem in which the words, phrases, lines were beautiful but somehow just didn’t hold up under emotional scrutiny? Have you read poems in which phrases and lines sounded contrived or manipulated, almost as if they were listening to themselves with a kind of smug satisfaction? What it is that makes a poem “ring true?”

This week’s prompt focuses on how you can use a lie to create a poem. One goal will be to use a lie you’ve told to reveal a truth about yourself. Whether it’s a little fib or a glaring whopper, re-tell your lie in a poem, and add a layer of meaning by revealing something the lie tells about you.

Guidelines:

1. Before you begin, think for a moment about the shape-shifting nature of truth, lies, white lies, fibs, and lies of omission.

2. Now make a list a list of lies you’ve told. Move out of your comfort zone and be completely honest (it’s okay – the list is for your eyes only). Think about real lies – not fibs or white lies told to spare someone’s feelings or to avoid unnecessary conflict – we’re talking “whoppers” here!

• Do you remember a lie that you told as a child?

• Did you ever cheat on a test in school?

• Have you ever lied to avoid something you didn't want to do?

• Have you told a lie to avoid judgment or to make yourself look “good” in some else’s eyes? How have you fibbed to improve your image?

• Have you lied to someone you’ve loved? Protected yourself with a lie of omission or selective truth?

• Do you recall a time when you lied because you lacked the courage to tell the truth?

• Have you ever told a lie and then not remembered the details, making it impossible for you not to be caught?

• In what ways have you lied to yourself?

3. For each lie you list, remember the consequences.

4. Pick one of the lies you listed and write a poem about it. What does this lie tell you about yourself?

Alternative Ideas:

1. Write a total fantasy, a poem based on fabulous fibs and delightful deceptions.

2. Make up a scenario that you’d love to live. Not the truth, of course – a fantasy. You might try prose poem form for this.

3. Write a poem about a liar you’ve known.

4. Write a poem about a time that some lied to you.

5. Write a poem about Pinocchio (Geppetto’s wooden puppet who came to life and whose nose grew whenever he told a lie).

Tips:

1.  There should be a sense of confidence in your poem, a revealing of something you’ve never exposed before.

2. For a poem to be completely successful, it shouldn’t reveal everything easily; strive for different layers of meaning and understanding that become clearer on subsequent readings.

Example:

“The Liars” by Carl Sandburg http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/carlsandburg/12954