Surely you’ve read some amazing poems from your fellow poets this month. Choose one that had an impact on you and use that particular poem as inspiration for a new poem of your own. For fun, include the link back to the original poem, as well as to your own.

And then? And then, you can give yourself an amazing pat on the back (or a huge glass of wine — or whatever your celebratory experience of choice is!) and lean back and relax. You’ve done an amazing thing, dedicating a whole month to poetry! And now there’s only eleven months until you can do it again! Hurray!

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

First, read Dorothy Parker’s poem, “Roundel” below:

Now, attempt a Roundel of your own. The directions as well as a few more examples can be found at Wikipedia.

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

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Using one of the photos above or below, write a ‘still-life’ poem. The goal is to recreate the image(s) with your own filter while still keeping some of the essence of the original. It’s a good time to think about objects and what significance they have on their own versus the significance that is given to them by the viewer/artist/poet.

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

Turn off the noise. Go to a window. Write what you see, feel and/or want in a stream-of-consciousness form.

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

Find an internet meme of some sort. Either one you’ve participated in or one that is new to you. Once you find one that inspires you — yes, you have to leave the internets now and come back to poetry — use the language (lolspeak anyone?), the topic or even the general idea of viral transmissions to create a poem.

As an alternative, check out the meaning of “meme” and its origin (it relates, surprisingly, to genetics and evolution).

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

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Jasmine Revolution – Chain renga

Would anyone like to join in a chain renga? We need at least three people.

The idea of renga is to express ‘change’ – more on that below.

The poem will be written over 36 verses, alternating 5-7-5 stanzas with 7-7 stanzas.  Each verse should relate to the previous one, whether overtly or obliquely. There are various other subtle and complex rules and ideas, but I propose we treat the form fairly loosely to begin with.

I propose a title/starting point of ‘Jasmine Revolution’.

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More on the form here, taken from the Wikipedia entry<a href = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renga/a>:

‘The essence of renga is in the idea of “change” (変化, henka?). Bashō described this as “newness (新み, atarashimi?), and as “refraining from stepping back”.
A renga starts with a hokku of 5-7-5 sound units. This is followed by the second verse of 7-7 sound units, called the waki (脇?, “side”), and then by the third verse of 5-7-5 sound units, called the daisan (第三?, lit., “the third”). The next verse will be 7-7 sound units, and this pattern is repeated until the desired length is achieved.
The kasen renga, favored by Basho because it was easier to complete 36 verses in one night than the normal 100-link renga, has three sections of development. The beginning, called the jo should reflect the atmosphere of the beginning of a social evening – everyone is very polite, restrained, cautious and referring to the reason for the gathering.

The middle part of the kasen renga (verses 7 – 29) are more loose, and will include themes not allowed in the beginning and end such as love, religion, and laments. This reflects the conversation flow during dinner when the wine has been consumed and the participants are feeling free and friendly. The kyu is the rapid finish and involves the last six verses. The speed in this section is much like the broken conversation of people as they prepare to leave the party and people are quickly winding up their conversations.

The ageku is the final verse. It is considered fine if the final verse makes some reference or has a tie to the hokku or beginning verse.
A renga and its participants are judged on how well each link relates to the previous one. The most common technique of linkage used by beginning English writers is simple stream of consciousness. The previous verse reminds the writer of something else and then adds that image to the poem.

Examples and more ideas on the form here: http://www.renga-platform.co.uk/webpages/renga_01.htm

‘The two key principles of renga are link and shift. Link means that each verse should connect in some way with its immediate predecessor. Shift means that, with the exception of the link just noted, each verse should move on, drawing on imagery, which is new’

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

Write a poem in two voices: the girl and the bear.

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!

Today is Earth Day! Explore our complicated relationship to Mama Earth by recycling. Find an old poem or two that you’ve abandoned and find a line, a title or a concept that really grabs you. Now use those to start a new poem, going in a direction entirely different than the original.

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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.

Let the Wild Poeming Being!