Tidying Up After NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

Friends, I've been going through all my NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day posts, cleaning up code, inserting a picture or two I had meant to put up but somehow neglected to, like a screencap from Chromapoesy for Day 15, stuff like that, and realized it would be a great idea to provide an index to all the blogs and sites that I featured or referenced during the month. The index would be mainly for my own use as I revisit places where I meant to read NaPoWriMo poems more closely, but of course it would be useful to all of you too. That index appears at the end of this post. Before the index, though, I'd like to show you another visual found poem — or altered-page poem or erasure poem — I created in January. It's connected to the ones of Catherine and mine posted yesterday because it works with the Erin McReynolds text we've used for prompts before. (See yesterday's explanation.) The occasion for this particular piece was that I had assigned my poetry workshop class the same original exercise and when doing the homework along with the students, I made a visual found poem. Here's that piece. And thanks once more to Erin McReynolds. Here's the poem text extracted from the paragraph above. That is, the circled words and phrases left over after erasure, concatenated and lineated. Euthanasia his face in my lap I kiss. I find the wound, the organs removed in wild panic. He blinks and grabs my hair, whispering liters of blood. —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] And here's the index to sites and blogs cited during NaPoWriMo. Poetic Asides (Robert Lee Brewer) • http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides NaPoWriMo.net (Maureen Thorson) • http://napowrimo.net Circle the Block (Andrea Boltwood) • http://circletheblock.blogspot.com chocolate is a verb (J.I. Kleinberg) • http://chocolateisaverb.wordpress.com Waving at Satellites (Clarice) • http://wavingatsatellites.blogspot.com No Vacation from Speculation (Jessica McHugh) • http://mcnito.blogspot.com Skylaar (Skylaar Amann) • http://skylaaramann.blogspot.com I Hate Poetry (Buddah Moskowitz) • http://ihatepoetry.blogspot.com 000 April (Aprille) • http://000april.blogspot.co.uk Chromapoesy (Anna Montgomery) • http://chromapoesy.com/ Whimsy Gizmo (De Jackson) • http://whimsygizmo.wordpress.com Laurie Kolp Poetry (Laurie Kolp) • http://lkharris-kolp.blogspot.com Garage Poet (Carrie Moniz) • http://garagepoet-carriemoniz.blogspot.com Fuck it. Cut 'em up. (Anne Reynolds) • http://fuckitcutemup.blogspot.com I'm Not A Verse (Tilly) • http://imnotaverse.wordpress.com Moon Junkee (Leslie LaChance) • http://moonjunkee.blogspot.com Through the Eyes of Meena Rose • http://meenarose.wordpress.com Marilyn Cavicchia, Editor and Poet • http://marilyncavicchiaeditorpoet.wordpress.com Jennifer Bullis: Poetry at the Intersection of Mythology and Hiking • http://jenniferbullis.wordpress.com/ MiskMask: Alphabet Soup de Jour (Misky) • http://miskmask.wordpress.com Griffin Lit Sixth Graders (Danielle Filas) • http://griffinlit.wikispaces.com Susan's Poetry (Susan L. Chast) • http://susanspoetry.blogspot.com A Poem a Day (Megan Hippler) • http://meganhippler.blogspot.com.au Maureen Thorson • http://maureenthorson.com The Found Poetry Review • http://foundpoetryreview.com The Found Poetry Project • http://foundpoetryproject.com Hope you enjoyed National Poetry Month and that the blog contributed to that enjoyment. I also hope that, if you visit the blogs and sites noted above, you enjoy their NaPoWriMo poems even more. Comment below, please? Thanks. Ingat.

Day Ten ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

Today, Robert Lee Brewer once again offers a “Two-for-Tuesday” set of prompts: "forest poem" or "tree poem." Do one or the other, he says, "Or you can dive right into the metaphor separating the two." Catherine gives us a clever little send-up of Emily Dickinson's "I never saw a moor" today; her poem even sports its own fake Johnson number, no less. And, of course, there's a tree! 10. I didn't do my chores Instead I climbed a tree And when my mother came to look She quickly spotted me. I found it very odd Since I was only seven That she thought I should be taught To clean the dirty kitchen. —Draft by Catherine Pritchard Childress     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Over at NaPoWriMo.net Maureen Thorson mentions "a quote usually attributed to T. S. Eliot: Good poets borrow; great poets steal." For Day Ten then, she says, "let's stick to plain old stealing by writing poems with their first lines lifted from other poems." Maureen bringing up that Good Poet / Great Poet business reminds me that this quote (which isn't exactly what Eliot really said) leaves out perhaps the most important category: the Bad Poet. And even more important than that: the VERY Bad Poet. So, in honor of all BAD POETS and VERY BAD POETS, I offer this little ditty neither Maureen nor Robert probably saw coming. (Or maybe they saw it coming all too well.) In Memoriam My Dog Edgar Allan With sincerest apologies to Joyce Kilmer and the Little Bunny hopping through the forest I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. But I know I have seen a bee That chased my dog right up a tree. Now, he was tough, that little bee, And I was glad it wasn't me But Edgar Allan foo-foo'd, see? And THAT, my friends, is Poe-in-tree. —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Didja notice how I got both "tree" and "forest" in there? Whoo-eeee! Not to mention of course stealing Joyce Kilmer's most popular opener. I was almost tempted to sprinkle in some dashes and capitals to mash up Dickinson with Poe, Kilmer, and Little Bunny Foo-Foo! But even I have my limits — though I can imagine some people saying they wouldn't have thought so. Our featured blog today is No Vacation from Speculation by Jessica McHugh. On April 5, an enterprising facebook member created "Bad Poetry on Facebook Day." Jessica pounced on this opportunity to use "bad poetry" as her prompt for Day Five and wrote several hilarious Bad Poems, some on the facebook event page and others on the blog. Classic. Jessica is a well-known speculative fiction writer who has written horror fiction, alternate history, and epic fantasy, publishing ten books in the last three years. As you will see from her blog, Jessica is also a fine poet . . . she doesn't only write bad poems! Okay, friends, we're 1/3 through the month. Who'd a-thunk it? Leave a comment below, won't you? I got rid of that word verification malarkey today, so it's much easier to comment. Ingat. POEM-A-DAY 2012 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30