June's week four free-for-all

Things are still pretty quiet over here at "poem," but we're chugging along. The fourth week in our virtual writing group represents the closing (networking and sharing) segment of an IRL writing group. So let's wrap up and begin looking forward to next time:

• What do you think it would be like to go on vacation with other famous poets?
• What's on your reading list when you go on vacation over the next couple of months (summer for the northern hemisphere)?
• What kinds of conflicts do you face as a writer when the line gets blurry between poet and narrator?
• What ideas do you have for "poem" in the coming months?

It's a free-for-all!

Call for poems

It's time to show us how Kelli's poem and the discussion inspired your own writing this week. Post your links here in the comments section and then wash up on the shore of your fellow bloggers' poems. See you soon!

(If you need to catch up, you can read "Vacationing with Sylvia Plath" -- and join the discussion, which is one we're still thinking about -- and then use the writing prompt to get you going on your own piece.)

Time to write your own poems!

This month's poem, Vacationing With Sylvia Plath, by Kelli Russell Agodon, generated quite a bit of lively discussion! Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughtful comments and critique!

This week, it's your turn to write a poem. Read Vacationing again. How does it inspire you? What images come to mind? Do you have an ocean memory? A vacation memory? What are the little things that pull you under? Perhaps, as we suggested, you spent some time with Sylvia Plath. What did you discover while hanging with Sylvia? How was your time together/vacation?

Whatever this month's poem inspired in you--write it! Then, come back next week and share a link to your poem.

Vacationing With Sylvia Plath by Kelli Russell Agodon

Hi everyone! This month’s poem is by Kelli Russell Agodon, from her collection Small Knots.

Read it once, twice, three times. Read it aloud. Watch your breath. Try to pace yourself so your reading flows like the sea.

Make note of your impressions, the thoughts inspired by the poem. If you feel so motivated, read a little Plath, then come back to the poem.

Whatever your thoughts are, be sure to come back and leave them in the comments section. Then, Tuesday, June 16, stop back and check out our writing prompt based on the poem.

Enjoy!

PS: We still have a collaborative sestina that needs some tender loving poem-ing! Check it out and give us some poetry love!

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Vacationing With Sylvia Plath


Maybe I should have come alone.

Maybe if the clouds didn’t resemble
tombstones and I had brought something
more upbeat to read
the ocean wouldn’t seem so final—
an ongoing thought carried to shore
then taken away,
washing the same green sock
over and over again.

Maybe if I was taking medication
or at least St. John’s Wort,
maybe if I had a chocolate bar
to eat between breakdowns
the seagull’s cry would be more of a sigh
and the waves wouldn’t seem so blue.

Maybe a lot of things. Maybe
if I could slip into Sylvia’s mind,
sort out the spices in her spice rack,
alphabetize them and dust them off.
Maybe then I’d understand how
it’s the little things that pull you under.

from Small Knots (Cherry Grove Collections, 2004)