MONDAY PROMPT / October 25
This week’s prompt
This week I’m going to borrow a writing exercise from my creative non-fiction teacher. I think it will lend itself to my purposes (drill for old material in a new way) quite well. After all, what doesn’t serve poetry?
Set yourself down at a quiet writing table with blank paper and a couple of pens or pencils. Set a timer for 30 minutes and draw your home. I don’t mean design your home, or become a drafts person and render it accurately, but I do mean try to identify all the rooms in your house in a graphic manner. On paper: walls, stairs, sinks, doors, furniture. No one is going to see this drawing but you, so don’t worry about how well you craft it. Just draw your home for 30 minutes.
Now (as in immediately after you have finished your drawing) free-write for 20-30 minutes about something this drawing brought to your attention. It may or may not have anything to do with your house. Just go with whatever comes to mind and write down at least a page of that stream of consciousness flow.
Next step (which doesn’t have to immediately follow): write yourself a poem using something from your free-write.
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
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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this is gonna be fun ;)
Wow. This could awaken a lot that is under the surface of my usual thoughts. Another chance to love/hate the process… (which is my favorite space to play, actually!)
[...] notes: Deb Scott wanted us to write about our house over at Big Tent Poetry. Doesn’t this remind you of the lyrics, “Our house, is a very, very, very fine [...]
Dear administrator,
PLEASE remove the link above.
Here is the correct one:
http://www.lkharris-kolp.blogspot.com
Thank you!!
Dear Laurie,
We are Clowns, not Administrators. :-)
Your other comment has been deleted. But you should comment on the COME ONE, COME ALL post. Otherwise folks might not see your link.
Thank you!! I’m still new here.
:-)
It takes a while to figure out the flaps. Glad you are here.
Hi there
It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to submit any response to a prompt, and I found this really thought provoking…though I must confess I spent a little less than 30 mins on the drawing and writing – but only because of time pressure!
[...] one is also a poem in response to this week’s study (at Big Tent Poetry): looking at something closely without writing about it (in this case, drawing), then free-writing [...]