Posts Tagged ‘ carolee sherwood ’

This week’s prompt

Providing the first prompt of 2011 feels like a great responsibility. It would be terrible to get off on the wrong foot. I didn’t know until just now, typing “get off on the wrong foot,” what I was going to propose, but the muse works in mysterious ways. Mine just told me, “Don’t try too hard.”

We’ve learned together to be grateful for our muses no matter what foot they lead with, right? So this week, since my muse placed the word “foot” directly in my path, we are going to write poems about feet. Write about your own two feet. Write about a foot fetish. Write about inches and feet. Write about something with feet (like a chair or a centipede). Maybe you’ll get clever and write in meter (“feet” as units of rhythm).

I can’t wait for Friday to — ha! — put my feet up and read your poems! So get writing and come back Friday and over the weekend to share your work.

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 times are hectic (such as the holidays, to provide a totally — ahem — random example), I rely on list poems to keep my creative brain warmed up. I frequently use them to rescue my poem-a-day efforts. A list poem is exactly what it sounds like: a list. It can be a list of objects or events or people or experiences or phrases. Feel free to write any kind of list about any topic.

In case you would like something specific to get you going, why not be a little bit irreverent with your list? Irreverent this time of year could mean “gifts better left unopened” or “my naughty list” or “thirteen ways to regret 2010″ or “reasons I’m glad the holidays are winding down.” Of course you don’t have to be irreverent, and of course you can put a positive spin on it, too.

Whatever kind of list you manage (in any kind of mood!), come back starting Friday and throughout the weekend to post your poems!

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 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: 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.