The Poetry Sisters’ challenge for this month was to write a haibun. Here’s what the rest of the crew came up with:
Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Michelle has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at MoreArt4All.
Molly gave the Inklings our December challenge: “Begin with a specific sensory experience (of taste, sight, smell, sound or touch), and see where that leads you.” This is part of a prompt from James Crews’s new book “Unlocking the Heart.” The experience of seeing wild turkeys at Highbanks provided the perfect answer to her challenge.
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
(Catherine @Reading to the Core)
Carol has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at The Apples in My Orchard.
The call for hosts for the Poetry Friday roundups in Jan-June 2025 is here.
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I gave the Poetry Sisters this month’s challenge. We brainstormed our year of challenges in January, just after I began reading a poem a day from Jane Hirshfield’s newish (2023) book THE ASKING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS. “Two Versions” is on page 9, but can’t be found in its entirety anywhere on line, making it tricky for you to discover the ways her poem inspired our writing. Lucky for you, though, I used the structure of Hirschfield’s poem for mine. So…my poem might give you some hints, in the event that you don’t own her book (which you should, so get to an independent bookstore this weekend and help that small business survive the One Big Store that would weed out all the little stores…in a poignant analogy to my very poem).
I realized, when I was combing through the blog correcting my misspelling of Hirshfield (not sch, just sh), that I also wrote about the oak seedling murders back in May. The guilt is strong enough for two poems, apparently.
I’m not sure who’s in for this month’s challenge, but here are the Poetry Sister links just in case:
Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
And here’s Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies} who has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup!
Next week is December and it will be time to queue up for roundup host positions January-June 2025. Watch for the call!
Linda gave the Inklings a most generous and lovely prompt for this month: “Use this poem by Joy Harjo as a mentor text in any way that makes your heart happy.” Thank you, Linda. My heart is, indeed, happy!
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Patricia has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Reverie.
The Poetry Sisters’ challenge this month was to write “…a poem in which we literally build and/or take apart something – large or small. Our focus will be on constructing or deconstructing, taking into account technical terms, instructions, and perhaps even material sources.”
I’m not usually a fan of food that needs to be deconstructed on my plate (bone-in chicken, Maryland crabs, shrimp that still have their tails). But I’ll make an exception for fresh mussels. Yum.
Here’s what the others made of this month’s challenge:
Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Carol has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Beyond LiteracyLink.
I had so much fun writing after Joyce Sutphen’s Next Time, that I offered it to the Inklings for our September challenge.
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge (if back-to-school allowed for time to write) :
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Buffy Silverman has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup.
The Poetry Sisters’ Challenge for this month was to write ekphrastic poems from photos we shared with each other. This happens to be one of the photos I shared, and while it is a glorious and whimsical sky, my poem took me in other, more mournful directions. Such is the nature of ekphrastic poems. Whatever the image prompts is where the poem goes.
Here’s Tricia’s poem, and Tanita’s poem, and Liz’s poem.
Susan has this week’s end-of-August Poetry Friday roundup at Chicken Spaghetti.
The Inklings’ challenge this month was simultaneously issued by Catherine, by Ada Limón, and by Mo Daley at Ethical ELA.
Catherine charged us with joining Ada Limón’s Poet Laureate project, “You Are Here.” The Library of Congress website describes it as a “project is for everyone, and I hope people of all ages—poets and nonpoets—will feel moved to write their own response to the “You Are Here” prompt. It’s simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you?
On Day Three of Ethical ELA’s Open Write last week, Mo Daley challenged writers to try an X Marks the Spot Poem: “Find a print article from a magazine that interests you…Once you have chosen your article, simply draw an X through the page. You will then write your poem using the words touching your X.” I printed the full text of Ada Limón’s challenge to receive my X, and the words that touched the X are italicized in my poem:
“I believe the way we respond to this crucial moment on our planet could define humanity forever. In conceiving of my signature project, I wanted something that could both praise our sacred and natural wonders and also speak the complex truths of this urgent time. It’s my hope that You Are Here will do just that,” Limón said. “You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks aims to deepen our connection to nature through poetry, and You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World is an anthology that speaks to the many different ways we are nature too. It may seem easier to surrender to the overwhelm of the world’s challenges right now, but I believe that singing out, offering something back to the earth, noticing our connection to the planet, could help us all move forward together in a powerful way.”
Limón said this project is for everyone, and she hopes people of all ages — poets and non-poets — will feel moved to write their own responses to the You Are Here prompt. It’s simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you? People can share their responses on social media if they choose, using the hashtag #YouAreHerePoetry.
“Above all, this project is about rising to this moment with hope, the kind of hope that will echo outwards for years to come,” Limón said.
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Laura has a book birthday and this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Poems For Teachers. Congratulations, Laura!
**Make a note that Amy LV with have the October 4 Poetry Friday roundup, not me. We’ll be traveling, and Amy generously agreed to host the roundup that week.
Funny thing happens when family visits for the week: suddenly it’s Friday and you haven’t even begun the Poetry Sisters challenge! Luckily, this is the month we chose classified ad haiku/senryu.
These poems could also work for Ada Limon’s #youarehere project, because they give two glimpses of our back yard: three kinds of milkweed, empty again this year of monarchs, and a back porch covered with acorn litter. The tree next door, which overhangs our yard, is heading into a mast year — the branches are heavy with clumps of acorns that look like bunches of tan grapes. Lots have begun to fall and get nibbled by the resident squirrels and chipmunks, along with the hickory nuts from neighbor’s OTHER overhanging tree.
I’m not sure who’s in for this month’s challenge, but here are the Poetry Sister links just in case:
Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Marcie has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup.
Heidi’s challenge for the Inklings this month was to “write a short postcard poem with choice details of your vacation/holiday/getaway/escape location and activities. Conclude with “Wish you were here” or some variation!”
This past week, I spent two unplanned days in NYC. The actual plan was to go to an in-person workshop at Tatter on Saturday and then come right home that evening. But mid-afternoon on Saturday, my flight was cancelled. No problem, except that the two known-to-me hotels were booked up for the night. My third choice, the Hotel Beacon, was A-Mazing, so that made up for it all and I looked forward to a fun bonus museum day on Sunday before returning home that night…which was not to be, though, because my flight was cancelled AGAIN. After a trip out to The Mayhem Known as JFK in the Midst of Numerous Flight Cancellations (see photo taken from the AirTrain), I wound up back at one of my known-to-me hotels with a flight booked for Monday afternoon. I was just about over making lemonade, but I (metaphorically) sucked it up and spent a delightful couple of semi-cool morning hours walking in Central Park before spending the rest of the afternoon and evening in airports and airplanes.
My response to Heidi’s prompt is not a short postcard poem. It long, like my trip became.
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Jan has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Bookseedstudio.
A(nother) Year of Reading 