You can trust me, guys, I keep checking and April is still here, and in America that 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 bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 6, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 6
1) Poets are notorious punsters. Cheeky little buggers. We wear the badge with pride in general. With that in mind, check out this video from the Just Write channel that focuses on the use of puns in literature/media. If you're not familiar with the TV show Arrested Development, I highly recommend the first 3 seasons at least—you'll get a healthy dose of that original run in this
2) Okay, I know that's only partially related to poetry, but like I said, poets LOVE puns. The potential in a pun is for an added layer of meaning and poets love layering meaning. So, now that we have laughed, check out this Crash Course video on Sylvia Plath. They always have good production and this is a good introduction to a great American poet.
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
"A Dissertation on Quantum Entanglement as a Love Song" by Cheryl Dumesnil in Baltimore Review Fall 2019.
"Back in the Good Old Days" by Derek Annis in Bluestem Spring 2020.
"House is the Word My Doctors Used for My Body" by Emma Bolden in National Poetry Review Issue 15.
4) Go read all of the following three short poems that were published more than two years ago:
4) If you're not a fan of word finds you can skip this, oooooor, you can turn it into a writing exercise. In the following Poetry-based word search I included over 50 words, names or terms (Meter and MFA share a line in the key but are not together in the puzzle). I've listed 40 of those in the puzzle for reference, and there are dozens of happenstance 3-6 letter words in there as well. For a writing exercise, look for words not listed, and use those words in a poem of your own. Hint, "STEAM" (Here is a link to a PDF if that is easier for your to print to do the word search)
5) Here are three short videos of James Dickey, around 2 minutes each. The first is an interesting video where he is talking to Robert Lowell about a dream that he's had 3 times, and that he hopes he dies dreaming.
Here is a 2 minute video in which he gives advice to young writers in 1982.
And finally here is a video of James Dickey reading his short poem "Fog Envelops the Animals" in 1987.
6) And now let's step into a time machine and go all the way back to February 28th 2020! SO FAR! For this final installment in the 'Erasing "Out of Season"' series where the last quarter of the Hemingway story is presented to make an erasure poem from. Erasure poems are a lot of fun and they don't require any initial spark of an idea even!
