4/18/20

National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 18

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Yep. April 2020, which means...
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.

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 18, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 18


1)  Let's call today Billy Collins day. First we have this two and a half minute video talking about how to become a better poet with, while not groundbreaking advice, he explains the common advice he gives in a way that few people do. (Hint, read)



In this short video Billy Collins talks about the place of the ego and egotism in poetry, vs. other genres.


And finally, here is a brief interview where he talks about how he, as Alice Fulton put it (as quoted by the interviewer) "Puts the 'fun' in 'profundity'".


2) TV TIME! Everyone loves Billy Collins' poem Lanyard, so let's start there.


And now here's him reading his love poem "Litany"


And how about a little bit of Kim Addonizio. Here is a video of her reading the poem "Muse" with a train's a
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:

"Orchard" by Jeremy Radin in Muzzle Magazine Issue 24 (Summer 2019).
"Cans" by Laura Vrcek in Coal Hill Review Issue 23 (Fall 2019). 

4) Go read all of the following three short poems that were published more than two years ago:


5) For a little good fun, here are the two poets we've watched videos of both reading their own satirical poems called "Introduction to Poetry". First Kim Addonizio


And much shorter, here is Billy Collins reading his poem "Introduction to Poetry".


6) The time machine is set to August 25th, 2014 for this "Cereal" themed exercise with 3 options. This is a little more open-ended than other prompts so if you're not sure what to write about, literally just pick something and run with it. Staring at a blank page isn't writing—you can do it!