Sunday, April 26, 2009

call for poems

It's time for your own Moth-inspired poems!

From today until next Sunday, you can post links to your poems in the comment section. Be sure to visit all your fellow poets and check out their creations!

Next weekend, we'll post a free-for-all (any suggestions on something you all would like to do or see?). Then, on Sunday, May 10 (Happy Mother's Day!), we will have a new poet and poem up for discussion.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Now for your own poems...

Hello, hello. Here we are. Please excuse the delay in posting!

We hope you enjoyed Ivy Alvarez's Moth! This week, it is time to do some writing of your own. For those of you participating in the NaPoWriMo madness, consider this one more prompt to keep your muse on his/her toes!

First, read the poem again. It is deceptively simple. Take notes on what the poem stirs up in you and write your own poem. What draws you in? What are your "dry wings?" Do you court danger? When have you found yourself "against the glass/ wings pressed towards the light"? You might even try taking a line from the poem (be sure to credit your muse!) and writing from there.

When we post again next week (on or about April 26), we'll ask you to share what you wrote. In the comments section of that post, you can publish a free write, draft or finished piece, or you can publish a permalink to something on your own blog.

PS: While we do ask that you save your poems until next week, do feel free to leave comments in this post about how you have been inspired by Moth. And do hop over to Ivy's site to purchase your very own copy of Mortal!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

moth, by ivy alvarez

A new month, a new poem! This one is from the collection mortal by Ivy Alvarez (poem reprinted here with her permission).

Read it again and again. Read it out loud as many times as the people around you will tolerate. Send it to your friends. Think about the words, the sounds, the images. Share your thoughts about it in the comments section of this post, just as though you were sitting around a circle at a "real life" poetry group. Discuss the piece 'til your heart's content. (Next week, we'll offer a prompt based on the discussion.)

moth

pale white body against the glass
wings pressed towards the light

I am a pulse
I cannot stop beating, beating
so drawn to the alien thing

there is no time to care
the light beckons and I am there

call me ephemeral

soon the crickets will sing their cacophony
and the grass will have my dry wings

///

And don't forget about our collaborative sestina here. Contribute some lines?