This is my second time using the Langston’s Titles prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano. The prompt presents the titles of a number of poems by Langston Hughes; the challenge is to use eight or more of them in a poem. The poem is to be about ‘something beautiful or something you wish would happen’, but I wanted to avoid using any of the same titles I used in last year’s poem, so it ended up being something different…
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An episode from the summer of ’87 (a poem)
Today’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano is one of the more interesting ones in the book. At first, it bugged me, but now I see it as having its own peculiar beauty. To mark the anniversary of the death of Gilda Radner, the idea is to think about her Emily Litella character, and write a poem that includes words or phrases that you have misheard. Unfortunately, they got their Gilda characters mixed up, and referenced Roseanne Roseannadanna (as Rosanna Rosanna Danna) instead. All very meta, as the kids might say.
Anyway, I chose instead to revisit an episode that began with me misunderstanding a conversation that took place in the next room…
Short poem (a poem)
Today’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano suggests taking an index card, turning it so it is vertically oriented, then writing a poem. The small size of the index card would result in short(er) lines. As it turned out, I had a rather narrow space in my journal/sketchbook that would work quite nicely for this one…
A mid-May morning (a poem)
I had not particularly intended to follow today’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano, which is to listen to jazz or classical music, make notes of what comes to mind while you listen, then write a poem about something you thought of while listening. As it turned out, I started this poem while listening to one of Thelonious Monk’s solo recordings on Pandora…
iPhone poem (a poem)
Yesterday’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano involved using the computer to write, instead of my usual pen and paper. I took it another step further, using my iPhone, and letting the autofill feature guide the sentences. The only drawback turned out to be that the choices were rather limited. Consequently, I went back through what I had written, placing the cursor at different points to check for alternate word choices. I’m not thrilled with the result, but them’s the rules…
The Adventures of the Contessa and Green Eyed Larry (a poem)
Yesterday’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano marked the start of my second time around through the book. The prompt called for looking up the names of racehorses, then using ten to fifteen of them in a poem that is not about racehorses. (For comparison, last year’s poem written from this prompt can be found here.)
The names I used this time around:
The Contessa
Waffle Stomper
Yorba Linda Trip
Heaven Forbid
Headwind
Aesthetic Ruin
Original Bloom
Questionable Behavior
Klaus Kinski
Nefarious Splendor
Green Eyed Larry
Brand New Larry
Before Coffee
Diamond Sky
Caffeine Serene
Existential Nudge
The Lunchroom
Defacto Princess
A Baby Maybe
Lollipop Flower
Small poems about big things
Today’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano is to write a short poem about a big thing. Last year, I wrote about my self-doubt. This year, I addressed more universal concerns in a series of short poems.
Yeah, I don’t think that’s right (a poem)
Today’s poem (a terzanelle) comes from a prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano: list rules that people have taught you about poetry, then break four of them. I don’t worry about other people’s rules so much when I write poems. When I have had my poems critiqued, though, a few things have come up. This particular poem focuses on the use of the word ‘but’, which some folks think is a word to be avoided. (The ‘rules’ I broke are included in the tags for this post.)
NaPoWriMo 2015, Day 28: The edible school yard (a poem)
Today’s poem comes from a prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano: write a poem called The Edible School Yard.
A clerihew about Paul Weller (a poem)
Today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt is to write a clerihew.
Ordinary Average Thoughts 