Molly challenged the Inklings to write luc bats in November, and it’s a good thing I started playing with the form early on, because my November kind of evaporated starting with NCTE. Not only did I write a luc bat for the burr oak across the street and her “burr oak buffet” which feeds the neighborhood deer, squirrels, and groundhogs, I wrote one in response to the news
The Poetry Sisters’ challenge for November was to write in the style of Valerie Worth. Attempting to narrow my focus, I went from garden, to fennel, to the ladybug larva I found in the fennel last week. Liz commented that this could be an on-going practice — choosing small and/or ordinary things and writing without the restrictions of form or rhyme. I agree. It’s quite satisfying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary that surrounds us.
I have stumbled recently both in posting regularly and in commenting generously. Please know that I am thankful for each of you and for your words! This community is one of the bright spots in my world.
Ruth has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town. Since it will be December next week, we need to start thinking about January-June roundups. Watch for signups.
Here’s how the other Poetry Sisters met our challenge:
Write a prose piece–find a poem in it. Or, write a poem, expand it into a prose piece. Or, find a prose piece, transform it into a poem. Or, find a poem and transpose it into a prose piece.
Any interpretation of this prompt is perfect.
Sometimes a very narrow and constrained challenge is just right, and sometimes a wide open invitation is what a writer needs. Thanks, Linda!
Here’s how the other Inklings met Linda’s challenge:
What is a Bouts-Rimés poem? Part game, part puzzle, they are hard to get started, but once you do, the possibilities are myriad! Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Bouts-Rimés.
The Poetry Sisters shared rhymes…and then MORE rhymes when we figured out we didn’t have enough to satisfy the requirements of most sonnet types. Because our poems WOULD be sonnets. Sonnets are apparently the origin story of the Poetry Sisters, but at the beginning I was only there as audience, so I’m a late-comer to the sonnet game. Or a new-comer, as the case may be. I haven’t written many sonnets. This poem is a Shakespearean sonnet, but I also tried Petrarchan and Terza Rima.
For me, the process of writing a Bouts-Rimés poem was similar to writing a golden shovel. I picked my sonnet type, then loaded the right side of my notebook page with the rhymes that fit the sonnet (for Shakespearean: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). I completely ignored the iambic pentameter syllable count requirement. (Call me cheater, or call me beginner. I’m fine with either label.) I chose my topic, and then started writing (and rewriting, and crossing out, and starting over). Like I said, part game, part puzzle!
When I ran across the Visual Frameworks site, I immediately added it to my list of possible prompts for the Inklings. Not only are the visuals compelling, the text that follows each is thought-provoking.
My first drafts explored all the possible ways to use a framework. For Coordinates, I wrote a haiku based on the image, then an erasure poem from the text.
Matt has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme. And there’s been a change for next week. On October 13, Catherine will be hosting at Reading to the Core.
The Poetry Sisters wrote diminishing verse poems this month. Thank goodness I got started early fiddling with drafts and studying mentor texts because the last couple of weeks have been a lot. In all good ways.
I struggled with an image to pair with my poem. I didn’t want to activate in your imagination any particular situation. So I’m curious to know, what is this poem about…for you? Who is the “I”?
Margaret challenged the Inklings to study enjambment this month. This poem got started with the sneaky way I included in-jam-meant. Then I noticed I was writing in three-syllable lines, which sort of forced the issue of enjambment. So I cheated a little, but it was still interesting to notice which lines DO have a natural pause/stop and which lines are enjambed.
I found myself noticing enjambment as I finished the Sealey Challenge. This year, I discovered a new favorite poet, Kate Baer, thanks to the recommendation of I can’t remember which one of you. I am in AWE of the way she used enjambment in this poem:
Speaking of the Sealey Challenge, here are the books I read this past week: THE RED EAR BLOWS ITS NOSE by Robert Schechter (2 days), WHAT KIND OF WOMAN by Kate Baer, WHAT HAVE YOU LOST? ed. Naomi Shihab Nye, THE PARTING PRESENT by Manuel Iris (2 days), I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL by Kate Baer, AND YET by Kate Baer (still in progress).
Speaking of enjambment and the Inklings, here’s what the rest of the crew came up with this month:
This month, the Poetry Sisters created an Exquisite Corpse poem. We wrote an original line, then chose a second line from Linda Mitchell’s clunkers. Tanita started us off, and then each poet saw only the lines written by the person before them in the process as she crafter her two lines. Only her two lines were sent to the next person. Tanita brought the process full circle with the final line of the poem. At our monthly meeting, we all typed our lines into the zoom chat, one at a time, and watched our poem unfold, amazed at how well it held together.
Sun and light, gardening and seasons weave their way throughout our lines. And any of those could be topics for poems I would write. But the poem I found within our lines is not a poem I would have written any other way. This is not my experience, not my feelings. And yet, it feels so true. I am left wondering how I can write more poems like this on my own, pushing myself out of the comfort zone of writing about the world in front of me and the feelings inside of me. A good challenge.
Here’s what the rest of the Poetry Sisters came up with this month. I’m excited to see how each of them kept/modified/jumbled/reimagined our original lines:
Linda B. has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at TeacherDance.
Here’s what I read this week for the Sealey Challenge: WHAT IS A FRIEND and WHAT IS A FAMILY ed. Vardell and Wong, CHAMPION CHOMPERS, SUPER STINKERS by Linda Ashman, ANIMALS IN SURPRISING SHADES by Susan J. Taylor, POETRY BY CHANCE ed. Taylor Mali, TWO TRUTHS AND A FIB ed. Bridget Magee.
Next month, the Poetry Sisters are writing Diminishing Verse poems, aka Pruning Poems. There are some mentor text poems out there if you use your favorite search engine. Here’s our best suggestion: start gathering word possibilities NOW!
Catherine’s challenge for the Inklings this month struck a deep chord with me:
Robin Wall Kimmerer teaches us that “It’s a sign of respect and connection to learn the name of someone else, a sign of disrespect to ignore it…Learning the names of plants and animals is a powerful act of support for them. When we learn their names and their gifts, it opens the door to reciprocity.” Look closely at the flowers, birds, trees, or other natural features in your neighborhood (or if you’re traveling, a new-to-you species) and write a poem about your chosen species.
The in-progress embroidery piece illustrating this post will be part of a larger textile piece exploring Robin Wall Kimmerer’s ideas about what it means to be indigenous vs. an immigrant, and ultimately, the importance of naturalization, of “becoming indigenous to place.” (Read the chapter “In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place” in BRAIDING SWEETGRASS for more eloquent details on these ideas.) I hope my poem not only expresses my love for Earth and all her beings, but also the recognition that Earth loves me back, and expresses that love in the glorious diversity of plants and animals that she’s give me to know by name and to care for and about.
Here’s what the other Inklings came up with this month:
And here’s this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup! Add your link and enjoy the generous offerings of others!
PS: A quick Sealey Challenge update. Day 1: A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL by Marilyn Nelson, Day 2: FELICITY by Mary Oliver, Day 3: TODAY I AM A RIVER by Kate Coombs.
What a blessing, as a child, to spend nearly every summer day at the pool! (What amazing affordable daycare the pool provided!)
I remember with vivid details every pool in every city in every phase of my life. There was even a (very brief) time when I was an open water swimmer, and I remember those two lakes, as well.
I no longer swim a mile with confident, snappy flip turns, trying to beat my own record time. I’m in the phase where the gentle whole-body movement and the controlled breathing at a leisurely pace is all I need.
What a blessing, at this end of adulthood, to still have a pool in my life! (Although you can imagine my irritation yesterday when I got to the health club and the pool was closed because the pump was down…)
The Poetry Sisters wrote monotetras this month. Lots of rules about syllables and rhymes, but fun!
A(nother) Year of Reading 