MONDAY PROMPT / November 8
This week’s prompt was suggested to me by a friend, who has surprised me by expressing an interest in what we do here. He is normally suspicious of “shticks” used to entice the muse to jump through hoops, but he has noticed — and admires — the community-building that takes place.
Our weekly prompts were on his mind, and he came up with one on his own: use the New York Times Best Sellers List to write a poem using a title of a book you have not read. The book title can be the title of your poem, it can be a line in your poem, or it may simply inspire your poem.
Isn’t it a great prompt? Here at Big Tent Poetry: converting the skeptical one at a time!
How prompts work under the Big Tent
We post prompts on Mondays, and you have all week to write your poems, based on our fabulous prompt or any other inspiration. Come back on Friday when you will find a “Come One, Come All” post where you can use the comments section to 1) leave a link to your poem or 2) leave the poem in its entirety.
You’ll have all day Friday (and all weekend!) to post your work and read each others’ work. Take your time. Enjoy all the poems that are new to the world.
Some hints
Hint: We’ve set Big Tent Poetry to Central Time.
Hint: An easy way to check on new post comments is with RSS reader, if you use one. Here’s the address: http://bigtentpoetry.org/comments/feed.
Hint: If you are new to our site, your comment(s) will be held for moderation for your first few posts. If you put more than one link in your comment, your comment(s) will be held for moderation. We’re checking the filters often, so don’t despair! That said, if it takes more than a half a day to see it come live on the site, do email us at info (at) bigtentpoetry.org. (But be patient, okay?)
Circus etiquette
We figure you know how to play in the poetry community, but here are the basics:
Be nice. Have fun. Remember we aren’t a critique forum. We want to support each other as we bring more poetry into our lives. Only provide critique if someone specifically asks for it.
Although we love seeing our badge in the sidebar of your blog, we would appreciate it if you would also link back to the site in each of your poem posts. Linking within your post helps people travel back and forth from your site to the Big Tent Poetry site, and it helps perpetuate Big Tent Poetry “findability” in Google searches — and that helps us all.
Yes! It’s a great prompt. Cheers to friends!
This is a genius idea. I could have written three more.
I loved this more for the list of books ;)
(am a book hogger you see :D)
hogger or hugger? I think I’m both.
[...] & Inside of a Dog, by Alexandra Horowitz, which were inspired by the bestsellers prompt over at Big Tent Poetry. Thanks to Carolee and her poetry [...]
[...] of your poem, it can be a line in your poem, or it may simply inspire your poem.” This was Big Tent Poetry’s prompt for the week. When I scanned the list, a few titles jumped out at me. But when I tried following the [...]
[...] a book that you have not read that is currently on the New York bestseller’s list) at BigTentPoetry here. I used the book The Tattoo Chronicles by Kat Von D for my inspiration. [...]