Write three pages or 750 words a day. This is not for anyone else. It’s just for you. Think therapy or just a random brain dump. Check it out. It might just clear out emotional clogs that are keeping you stuck. Here’s the link: http://750words.com/
Tag Archives: spontaneous
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 27 | Hero Poem | Villain | WritersDigest.com
Today, participants in this year’s Poem a Day Challenge are writing a hero poem or a villain poem. Click on the link below to join the fun.
2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 27 | Hero Poem | Villain | WritersDigest.com.
The Villain
It doesn’t wear black
or lurk in alleys.
It doesn’t dwell
in putrid swamps
or waylay travelers.
It doesn’t creep
around in the dark
or carry knives.
It loathes all
drama.
It resists all
change.
It has no conception
of better.
It wants everything
to stay
the same.
Child of long
evolution,
Advocate of
unconditional survival,
it does not
trust aspiration.
It does not suffer
dreams. It keeps
me heavy and silent.
It cautions me
to remain safe
inside.
Linda Armstrong 11/27/12 �All rights reserved.
via 2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 27 | Hero Poem | Villain | WritersDigest.com.
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.
Create Poetry Postcards or Greeting Cards Like These
Broadsides: Home: Zazzle.com Store
Use Zazzle to create original poetry trading cards or photo cards for your next poetry reading or for your writing club. Here are mine. You can change the pictures and poems to make them your own, or just use them for samples and create your own from scratch.
Zazzle does great work! I’d love to see a group of poets based there.
Under Golden Cottonwoods
I’m late posting my daily poem today because we spent the morning enjoying the fall colors here in western Colorado’s Grand Valley. If you would like to borrow related ideas, try writing about:
- a memorable walk
- autumn
- trees or a tree
- a river
- a long-term relationship
Under Golden Cottonwoods
sunlight filters
through golden leaves
as we walk
together in a protected
open space
by a river that flows
with few interruptions
from melted
early snows on peaks
just out of sight
here in the first
of many arid valleys
it encounters
on its way to the Gulf.
We talk
as we walk, pausing
now and then
to take pictures
away, from this stream
of moments,
crisp and golden
as the leaf-meal
air.
copyright Linda J. Armstrong, 10/23/12 all rights reserved
Under Golden Cottonwoods
The following poem is a writing warm-up based on our morning. If you are stuck, take a walk and write about something you see or someone you meet (or, just write about your morning.)
sunlight filters
through golden leaves
as we walk
together in a protected
open space
by a river that flows
with few interruptions
from melted
early snows on peaks
just out of sight
here in the first
of many arid valleys
it encounters
on its way to the Gulf.
We talk
as we walk, pausing
now and then
to take pictures
away, from this stream
of moments,
crisp and golden
as the leaf-meal
air.
copyright Linda J. Armstrong, 10/23/12 all rights reserved
One Way to Wonder 