Author Archive

This week’s prompt

What’s in a Name?

We all (well, many of us) have a manuscript in the works. If not a full-blown 60-pages-of-perfect-poetry, then at least a vague idea of how you might like a collection of your work to look. One thing you may or may not have considered is the title. What title best summarizes your work? Is it the title of a specific poem? A theme found in your work? Something completely and totally random?

This week, contemplate your canon (not your navel).  Come up with 10 potential titles for your newest/5th/yet-to-be-written manuscript.  Then, from those 10 titles, choose one and write the poem for that title.  Yup.  A little reverse psychology.  Write the title, then write the title poem.

Don’t have a book in you just yet?  No problem!  Try coming up with some interesting titles for individual poems.  Still stuck?  “How to _____________” is always a good place to start.  Try stealing a title from a magazine or newspaper article and write a poem totally unrelated to the article.

Come back Friday (and the weekend) and let us know how that worked for you!

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: 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.

This week’s prompt

When I was teaching an elementary poetry class a few years ago, the topic was food. I brought in all kinds of food for the kids to try and write about. We wrote poems about fruit, mostly, because I knew it was something they would like. Lovely, inspired poems about oranges, bananas, apples, strawberries were writ by all. But the poem that has stayed with me all these years is “Coconut,” which began “It slides down my throat like spiders… .”

What food do you love? What food do you hate? Have you ever tried ugly fruit? Mango? How do you eat your mango? Walk the aisles of your local grocery store. Ignore the stares of the curious and whip out your notebook. Write down the names of foods that interest you. Line your pockets with the mini recipes they sometimes provide. Right now, in my purse, are recipes on tiny little cards for

mango tango salsa
kumquat salad
simple sugar snaps
Brussels sprouts skillet
pomegranate shrimp

Food tastes can run to the eclectic. Remember the book “How to Eat Fried Worms”? How about writing your own “How to…” poem. How to eat, how to cook, how to grow…Use your senses. You don’t just have to taste something. Feel it. Smell it. Look at it. Listen to it.

Maybe you have a food memory. Favorite Thanksgiving feast? Elementary school breakfast? First date meal?

Your food memories, your senses, your love of words, even your local market can provide you with the ingredients. All you need to do is cook up a poem!

And then come back and tell us about it, of course. Starting Friday when we hang the placard for the Come One, Come All post!

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: 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.

This Empty House, or “To Really Write a Poem, Climb Up into a Tree Fort”
This week’s prompt

A friend called recently to see how I was doing now that both of my children are in school full-time. “I’m bored. I can’t write anything,” I confessed. “Put your shoes on the minute you get out of bed,” she advised me. “This will make you feel motivated.” Minutes earlier — barefoot — I had sent another friend a message practically begging for stimulation: “Tell me something…anything! How are you?”

This empty house was what I’d been craving for years. I should be churning out poems at least every hour with all this free time. I should be reading a poetry book a day and writing thoughtful, intelligent reviews.

Turns out, this empty house was exactly the problem. It took my dog and my 4th grader to show me that all you really need to fix a broken poem-er is to step outside.

The dog wanted to go out. The 4th grader had rigged an elaborate pulley system on his tree fort using a 10-foot rope, the dog’s lead and his bike as leverage. To get the dog’s lead, I had to climb up into the tree fort. What a view! Next, I had to twist and turn, not just my body but the various ropes and leads, too. I had to stand up in the tree fort.

You get the picture, right? Childhood memories, king (queen) of the mountain, Tarzan and Jane fantasies, fear of heights … Yes, folks, the poems began to arrive—in earnest!

Your task this week? Step outside your house. Of course, that’s a bit of a metaphor. It may take more than literally stepping out the door. You may have to take a few steps and actually move outside your comfort zone. Do something different. Do something you haven’t done in awhile.

Whatever you choose to do, be aware of all that arises in your poetic mind. Then write it down, and craft your adventure into a poem. If the poem winds up being about something besides your adventure, that’s OK. You know how we feel about rules! Just be sure to tell us, if you’re so inclined, how you came to write this week’s poem.

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.

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.