MONDAY PROMPT/ July 26

July 26, 2010
By

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

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: https://bigtentpoetry.org/comments/feed.

Hint: Since we’re a new site, and you’re new to it, your comment(s) will be held for moderation for your first few posts. 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.

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19 Responses to “ MONDAY PROMPT/ July 26 ”

  1. Rinkly Rimes on July 26, 2010 at 1:53 am

    http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2010/07/desmond-tutu.html

    A living icon just about to retire.

    • Deb on July 28, 2010 at 10:17 pm

      Be sure to come back Friday and post your link on the Come One, Come All post. More people will see it that way.

      • Mory on July 29, 2010 at 1:54 pm

        Hi Deb,
        can you write About an ancient warrior or hero ?

        • carolee on July 29, 2010 at 9:19 pm

          sure!

        • Deb on August 2, 2010 at 7:09 pm

          Oops. Sorry for the very late (& unhelpful) reply! You can write to whatever you want to.

  2. brenda w on July 26, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    How about Johnny Depp eating crackers in bed?

    • carolee on July 29, 2010 at 9:19 pm

      of course!

  3. Fun In The Big Tent « The Laughing Housewife on July 29, 2010 at 6:51 pm

    [...] 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… [...]

  4. Dick on July 30, 2010 at 3:58 am

    A somewhat oblique take on the prompt, I’m afraid. Click on: http://patteran.typepad.com/patteran_pages/

  5. Dick on July 30, 2010 at 4:03 am

    Whoops! I’ve re-directed myself to ‘Come One, Come All’. (Guys never read the directions…)

    • Deb on August 2, 2010 at 7:07 pm

      :-)

  6. Big Tent Poetry (7/30/10) - The Lizard King | The Notebook on July 30, 2010 at 6:36 am

    [...] 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. [...]

  7. RevAllyson on July 30, 2010 at 8:32 am

    A fun little poem I dashed off this week for the prompt. :)

    http://ambertemple.blogspot.com/2010/07/poetry-prompt.html

    • Deb on August 2, 2010 at 7:06 pm

      Hi RevAllyson, welcome to the Big Tent!

  8. maria on July 30, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    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

  9. Tammy’s Lament « Prose Posies on July 30, 2010 at 2:25 pm

    [...] 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 [...]

  10. one more believer on July 30, 2010 at 3:12 pm

    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

  11. baronvonheil on August 2, 2010 at 1:33 am

    Second ComingThis is my effort

  12. Christina Hile on August 2, 2010 at 1:52 am

    My poem can be read here: The Rag & Bone Shop