Yessir—April 2020 is still rolling by... 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 21, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 21
1) Let's start out Mark Doty reading his short essay about the first English poet whose name we know, Cædmon, called "Poet as Hermit or Social Being".
2) TV TIME! Since we're already been lulled by Mark Doty's pleasant voice, let's hear a little more of it. Here is him briefly describing the inspiration of the poem, then reads "A Display of Mackerel"
And here is Mark Doty reading his poem "Brian, Age Seven" From the series Dear Poet 2017.
And finally, here is Marilyn Chin reading the poem "Hospital in Oregon" from the Dear Poet 2020 series.
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
“Dark Star” by David Underdown in Bracken Magazine Issue VI.
"Mega Man" by James Davis in Cartridge Lit December 17, 2019.
"Through the Dark" by David J. Bauman in Citron Review 10: Winter 2019.
4) Go read all of the following three poems that were published more than two years ago:
5) Now let's watch this video where Billy Collins is asked about writing poems for an audience and he expands to talk about growth as a writer with some very good advice.
6) The time machine is set to July 24th, 2019 for this ekphrastic exercise using an image by the fantastic surrealist Rob Gonsalves. I love Gonsalves' surreal work and I think it lends itself tremendously to ekphrastic poems because of their metaphoric nature. Check out the image and be moved by it.
