Yeppers—April 2020 is still on... which means...
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 20, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 20
1) Let's start out today with something a little different. A TED Talk/performance by Lemon Anderson that is a mix of a couple of performance poems, some of the poet's history and journey learning about craft and its importance even in the world of SLAM poetry and while at times it's a little 'motivational speaker' for my tastes, it's worth your 8 minutes.
2) TV TIME! Since we're already in the performance poem mood, Taylor Mali's famous performance poem "What Teachers Make" from the SLAM final stage in 2000.
This next video has somewhat controversial subject matter, if you're wary of philosophical topics maybe steer clear of this one (also, swearing warning) but those warnings aside, this is an animated Beat poem by comedian and Broadway composer Tim Minchin about a dinner party gone awry called "Storm"
And a little more serious (but at other times, not serious at all—which is part of the balancing act), here is Taylor Mali performing his poem "For the Life of Me" that really took me by surprise. I think you'll enjoy it.
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
“Darkly,... Then Face to Face” by Tim McBride in Southern Poetry Review Guy Owen Poetry Prize Winner 2018.
"We Play Life" by Robin Gow in jubilat Issue 37.
"Robot Ignores Asimov’s Third Law and Runs into Toddler in Mall" by Martin Ott in Midway Journal Volume 13 Issue 4.
4) Go read all of the following three poems that were published more than two years ago:
5) Today let's watch another couple very short poetry readings, since we focused on poetry on the performance side earlier. First, here is a short audio recording of Robert Hayden reading his poem "Those Winter Sundays"
And finally here is Pulitzer Prize winning poet Louis Simpson reading his poems "A Lion in the Wind" and "Hot Night on Water Street"
Highlight the following lines to see the answers to yesterday's Poet Anagrams
S H A N T J O K E = John Keats
' H A N D S Y ' L . A . T O M = Dylan Thomas
S N O R T R U B B E R = Robert Burns
W A I L - L I K E B A L M = William Blake
S A I L O R C R E W L = Lewis Carroll
P O X A N D A P E E L E R = Alexander Pope
P O X A N D A P E E L E R = Alexander Pope
6) The time machine is set to June 7th, 2015 for this "Fact-Based" exercise about Flamingos. There's a little optional reading about flamingos for inspiration, and an interesting fact about them. There's lots to work with, and the subject lends itself to minimalism if you ask me, so don't be scared. You got this. Time to write.
