4/5/21

National Poetry Month Activity Pack Day 2

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 Reposted from 4/2/20


Yes, April is here, and in America that 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 and not terribly boring, because, let's face it, sometimes poetry can get boring. It's often a lot of thinking and being serious and pondering linguistics and the fine details of Greek mythology and not enough fun. These will sometimes be all serious and poignant, but most of them will be fun and entertaining.

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 2, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 2


1) Watch this little video with Campbell McGrath where he talks about how to write a poem. It's nice and short, but still insightful.


2) Go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:

"Incantation After the Storm" by Beverly Burch in Cortland Review 84.
"Lord of the Flies" by Dorianne Laux in Rattle's Poets Respond March 17, 2020.
"The Turtle Cure" by Cherene Sherrard in Blackbird Vol. 18 No. 2.

3) Go read all of the following three short 'classic' poems:


4) Check out the following three short videos about poet Stephen Dunn. First watch this profile from Cortland Review in their Poets in Person series.


Now check out this reading of his poem "Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry" put together with some stills from Lost in Translation.


And finally watch this short video of him reading the poem "Tiger Face" with a little banter at the beginning.


...and finally:

5) Step into the time machine and travel back two years ago to April 2nd, 2018 and try this National Poetry Month 5 words prompt. The requirement that 3 of the words must start a sentence is both doable and relatively tough given the words.

6) Random Title 5 Minute Exercise: Use this random phrase generator and pick a title—only refresh up to three times, so don't be overly picky. Once you have your title, set an alarm for five minutes, and race to write your poem. Don't overthink things, make choices and move forward. You can return to it later or you can just save it and move on. Maybe someday you'll find a few lines that work for another piece, or maybe it turned out decently, or was a decent start that you can expand upon. The point is to knock something out in 5 minutes, take it serious but don't stress about it.

2021 Update:

7) Bonus new poems! These additional poems were published in 2020 or 2021. Fresh off the presses.
"Phrase Book" by Bin Ramke in Cladesong 10.
"Where I Wore Bells" by Doris Ferleger in Glint Issue 11.
"Zofi (For my Grandmother)" by Margaret D. Stetz in jmww January 22, 2021.