We love April. Since it's here to stay let's celebrate:
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bounty of poetry to feast your eyes upon.
So. Let's begin.
April 11, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 11
1) To start off today, let's watch this playful Crash Course on everyone's favorite emdasher, Emily Dickinson. Not a deep dive, nor much news for those very familiar with her poems and biography, but there's some good info and it's a nice light video with some animations and silliness worked in to make it fit in with what we think of as edutainment.
2) I love Sharon Olds and how she balances the humorous with the poignant. This first poem is no exception, it's titled "Douche Bag Ode"
Here Olds again uses wit within a serious subject, weaving back and forth between the two effortlessly.
And finally, here is a nice video of her reading snippets of poems interspersed with her discussing being an autobiographical poet and how people in her life react to that.
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
"What Comes Easy" by John Blair in Roanoke Review 2020.
"Defunct Words and Phrases Thanks to the Coronavirus Crisis" by Emily Flamm in McSweeney's Internet Tendency April 7, 2020.
"When You Are Invisible, You Can Say Anything" by Valentina Gnup in Lascaux Review, 2019 Poetry Prize winner.
4) Go read all of the following three short poems that were published more than two years ago:
5) For little silliness, here's an image I made awhile back when a little section of Pinky and the Brain struck me. Was it actually about poetry? Well, in my head I pictured how most people react when you talk about poetry, so that's all that matters.
6) The time machine is set for July 16th, 2014 for this ekphrastic exercise about living and working in one of the 'buildings' from a series of photos by artist Filip Dujardin.
