MONDAY PROMPT/ July 26
This week’s prompt
We all have heroes — icons whose greatness we aspire to, whose larger-than-life personalities (or pretty faces) we are drawn to.
Fresh out of graduate school, filled with feminist fire, I wrote several poems re-imagining the life and times of Barbie. (Denise Duhamel has an entire collection devoted to this blond bombshell. You can check out Kinky here). A few years later, never having seen an episode of “Leave It To Beaver,” I nonetheless began channeling June Cleaver when married life didn’t turn out the way I imagined.
This week, start with a list of pop culture icons that interest you. Imagine one of them in a mundane setting: Marilyn Monroe doing the dishes, Elvis mowing the lawn, Lady Gaga carpooling the kids to soccer practice. Poem an icon into a situation they may never, in real life, appear.
Need some inspiration? Check out Tony Barnstone’s The 167th Psalm of Elvis, David Trinidad’s clever Chatty Cathy Villanelle or Kate Durbin’s haunting prose poem Marilyn: Leftovers, chronicling Marilyn Monroe’s personal effects.
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
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Circus etiquette
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http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2010/07/desmond-tutu.html
A living icon just about to retire.
Be sure to come back Friday and post your link on the Come One, Come All post. More people will see it that way.
Hi Deb,
can you write About an ancient warrior or hero ?
sure!
Oops. Sorry for the very late (& unhelpful) reply! You can write to whatever you want to.
How about Johnny Depp eating crackers in bed?
of course!
[...] 30 Jul I decided not to be serious for this prompt: This week, start with a list of pop culture icons that interest you. Imagine one of them in a mundan… [...]
A somewhat oblique take on the prompt, I’m afraid. Click on: http://patteran.typepad.com/patteran_pages/
Whoops! I’ve re-directed myself to ‘Come One, Come All’. (Guys never read the directions…)
:-)
[...] The idea this week is to write a poem about an icon, hero or personality and what might be different. Jim Morrison is dead. I wondered what he might be about were that not the case. [...]
A fun little poem I dashed off this week for the prompt. :)
http://ambertemple.blogspot.com/2010/07/poetry-prompt.html
Hi RevAllyson, welcome to the Big Tent!
I ran with the prompt, though might have left the field entirely with the execution of it. Here is my contribution:
http://www.smallchangeblog.com/smallchangeblog/2010/07/a-pocketful-of-rocks.html
[...] It’s Friday, time to post responses to the Big Tent Poetry prompt. The prompt was to write about icons, those larger-than-life personalities. As soon as I saw the [...]
wow, thank you for those links.. opened a whole new door of imagination… the haunting of marilyn is all i can say abt that one… and then the psalm of elvis, … look forward to participating… renee/pieceofpie
Second ComingThis is my effort
My poem can be read here: The Rag & Bone Shop