Don’t miss this great round-up of last year’s literary conflicts.
Literary Feuds of 2012 : The New Yorker.
Tag Archives: 2012
Write a Poem About Birth
We are nearing the end of the Poem a Day challenge on Robert Lee Brewer’s blog. It has been an interesting experience. I will either continue with my own prompts or find another community. You are certainly welcome to join me by posting in the comments.
Today’s prompt at PAD is to write a poem about giving birth. Click on the link to add your own. You can join in any time.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 29 | Birth Poem | Experience | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s mine:
I kept telling
myself that
the Queens of England
did this
as I lay on the table
under blazing lights
coming undone
the most
private places
in full view
of strangers,
And then, the doctor
said, “He’s going
to be smart.”
A nurse said,
“What a pretty
little face.”
It was like
the blessing
in a fairy tale,
especially when
eyes still blue
as heaven
cast their
virgin gaze
on me.
Linda Armstrong, 11/29/2012, All rights reserved.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 26 | Collection Poem | WritersDigest.com
Today’s challenge is to write a collection poem. Not everyone collects things, but a glance around our house would tell you that my husband and I do. He does it in a more organized way. My gatherings are distinctly haphazard.
Click on the link to go to Robert Lee Brewer’s blog and read the contributions of others. Then, add your own.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 26 | Collection Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s mine:
JPEGs
They fill
the silvery
surfaces of
computer disks,
the hidden
resources
of external
drives, cloud-tops
from long flights,
footprints in snow,
drifting gold
leaves, glinting
sun on summer
lakes, blossoms
in spring orchards,
baby faces,
smiling friends,
all of them
held in virtual
memory, formatted
in universal jpeg.
Like Midas, I run
them through
my fingers,
longing to
hold on.
Linda Armstrong, 11/26/2012. All rights reserved.
Write an Opposite Poem
Today’s challenge on Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides Blog is to write an Opposite poem, using a previous challenge post as its basis. If you have not been participating, you can scan the previous prompts on the blog and take the opposite point of view, choose a poem by a famous poet and write a contrary reply, or do the same with a poem of your own. I looked over the poems I have written for the challenge this year and decided to use the one I wrote yesterday, “The Truth About Art.” I wrote “Lies About Art.”
To read a fascinating collection of replies to this prompt, click on the link, and then, if you feel inspired, add one of your own. Anybody can join in the fun. You have to register for the blog to post, but it’s very easy.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 25 | Opposite Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s my poem:
Lies About Art
The harder
it is the better,
after all,
it’s about
the skill,
the height
of the leap,
the length
of the note,
the flawless
reproduction
of a photograph
in an unforgiving
medium.
The best
is dearest,
after all
experts know
a fine
investment
when they
see one
and no
great poet
has died
unknown.
It takes
years to learn,
after all,
the wheel
has been invented
and there are
so many
conventions
to attend.
Besides,
who would
want
to be called
a child?
Linda Armstrong, November 25, 2012. All rights reserved.
Looking Back at the PAD Challenge and a Matches Poem
The very first prompt this month on Robert Lee Brewer’s blog was to write a Matches poem. I was looking back because today’s assignment is to write an Opposite poem using a previous challenge entry. I realized that I have not linked to the first few poems and this could be a problem because I want a convenient way to gather them to submit for chapbook consideration.
You can enter the competition, too, even if you haven’t been posting or writing every day. Just choose your 20 favorite prompts from the month and write to them. Then watch for submission information early next month.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 1 | Matches Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s my “Matches” poem.
We’re a match,
the two of us,
you with your
temper and me
too tempered
you with your
careful pacing
and me
with my wild
last minute
dashes.
We’re a match
of seeming
opposites, seamed
so closely together
that sometimes
there is no space
between us
like sky
and sea at
sunset on the
Pacific.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 23 | Deep Poem | WritersDigest.com
Yesterday we were lazy and I got caught up in creating a special Christmas gift for my husband on Zazzle, so I am catching up on my poems this morning. The Day 23 poem is deceptively simple, but absolutely lovely. Write a “deep” poem. It can be anything deep. Click on the link to read the responses on the Poetic Asides blog.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 23 | Deep Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s mine:
Deep Space
Hurtling
past the last
clumps of ice
gas, rock,
and God only
knows what
else at the fringe
of the solar system,
Voyager, a
miracle wonder
of my younger
days, swings
out into the
more thinly
populated reaches
of deep space,
just as each day
I dive further
within.
Linda Armstrong, 11/24/2012. All rights reserved.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 15 | Tradeoff Poem | WritersDigest.com
The challenge today on the Poetic Asides blog is to write a trade-off poem.
Click on the link below to read others’ takes on the prompt and then, if you are inspired, add your own.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 15 | Tradeoff Poem | WritersDigest.com.
Tradeoff: A Very Old Tale
The city gate
was so narrow
that some called
it “The Eye
of the Needle”
but the rich
trader coming
from afar had
never been there
so he didn’t know.
The packs
on his camels
were wide
and bulged
out on either
side with all
the goods he
had brought to
sell, but those
who would
buy were inside
and he could
not pass
through the eye
of the needle.
Linda Armstrong, November 15, 2012, All rights reserved.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14 | Stuck Poem | WritersDigest.com
Today’s prompt on Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides Blog is “stuck.” This is a good one for me, because I have not worked on my NaNoWriMo book since Sunday, and things were actually going very well. I even know what to write next, but I seem to be stuck.
Read my rationalization poem on the blog. Then check out the great contributions of others. Add your own, too.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14 | Stuck Poem | WritersDigest.com
Inertia
I’m stuck
stuck
stuck
like the needle
on a vinyl
record
three days
without progress
or loss
I just
have to
state what
I want to do
and a state
of entropy
sets in
Something
in me loves
reflective
waters
and still
wants to
stay still
though I
still still still
keep
trying
to keep
moving.
Copyright Linda J. Armstrong 11/14/2012. All rights reserved.
and here’s another, inspired by another poet’s post:
For Jacqueline
They say
Cezanne
when stuck
in one of
his intertwined
compositions
tossed the
offending
canvas out
his window
into the intertwined
branches of one
of his trees,
only to retrieve
it when unable
to resist the
way it had
entwined itself
with his entangled
mind.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13 | Letter and Recipe Poems | WritersDigest.com
Today’s poetry prompt on the Poetic Asides blog is a letter poem (and/or a recipe poem). These are prompts I used in class when I was teaching. They are classics for a reason. They produce varied and excellent results for writers of all ages (and not just poets).
If you want to read the poems of other participants and post your own, click on the link.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13 | Letter and Recipe Poems | WritersDigest.com.
Here’s mine:
If you’d like to see some of my dad’s paintings, his dealer’s site is here: http://www.californiaartgallery.com/ec-watercolor-keck.html
PiBoIdMo Day 7: Every Day Tammi Sauer is Structurin’ « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)
Here are some hints about structure and plot from picture book author Tammi Sauer. Most articles about plotting are for novelists. Actually, the basic advice isn’t that much different. There are, of course, fewer characters and no subplots.
PiBoIdMo Day 7: Every Day Tammi Sauer is Structurin’ « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them).
One Way to Wonder 
Dear Dad,
You never were
much for writing
so I never wrote
you a letter.
You and I
always knew
each other
best through
landscapes,
pigments, brushes,
lenses, captured
hours, minutes,
and seconds
that will never
come back
but could be
relived again
and again
through transparencies
or stacked paintings
in a closet.
I write to you
now, looking
down at your
hands, freckled
and funny
as a write this,
and later,
when Alden
and I take
pictures of winter
deer, you will
be shooting with us
As always,
Linda