From The Mind’s Eye by Kevin Clark: Journey Poem. Write a poem in which you take a trip and end up in a place totally unexpected, perhaps a foreign countryside or in the throes of an exciting and/or suspenseful discovery. Tell the story while focusing on graphic action verbs.
From Western Wind, an Introduction to Poetry by Mason and Nims.Make a list of your five favorite nouns, five favorite verbs, and three favorite modifiers. Try writing a poem using all of these words in any combination.
Patricia Barnes of Wyandotte, Michigan is the winner of the Chancelor’s Prize in the Poetry Society of Michigan’s annual poetry contest.
Winner of the Margo LaGattuta Memorial Award in the Poetry Society of Michigan’s annual poetry contest is Randy K. Schwartz of Ann Arbor, Michigan. This poem and all of the other contest winners are featured in the latest edition of Peninsula Poets.
Try a haibun.Haibun (俳文, literally, haikai writings) is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal. Usually the prose is in the present tense, not longer than 180 words, and the entire thing ends with a haiku I’m trying my bunkhouse piece in this format. You can find lots of info online about them. The Haibun Hut is a Facebook group where Haibun can be posted by anyone. The masters of the Haibun were Issa and Bashō. Here is one from Bashō (translation by Franz Wright):
As the freezing rain of early winter began falling desolately over everything, I sought warmth and company at a roadside inn. Allowed to dry my soaked clothes at the fire, I was further comforted for a time by the innkeeper who tactfully listened to me relate some of the troubles I met with on the road. Suddenly it was evening. I sat down under a lamp, taking great care with them as I produced my ink and brushes, and began to write. Recognizing my work, he solemnly requested that I consider composing a poem in honor of our one brief encounter in this world:
At an inn I am asked for identification
traveler let that be my name
the first winter rain
From Crossroads: Creative Writing Exercises in Four Genres by Diane Thiel. (textbook, 2005) Choose a place or a building that has evocative memories for you. Let your piece stay focused on the place as a “container” for memories.(I’m going to write about a bunkhouse. First line: Skunks lived under it.)
Have you written a sonnet lately? Now is a good time. Yes, there is the rhyme scheme but you can squeeze that a little bit. You don’t want to have your lines end at the breaks. That will result in Dr. Seussishness. Enjamb, let the lines flow into the next. The rhyme should be really subtle in this old rhymed form. Write the Black Lives Matter poem. Did Ovid write about Covid? He would’ve. (He didn’t write sonnets either but so…as I used to say as a teenager.) Make it contemporary. No flowery handkerchief language.
Write a poem using a real place in your life in an important way. PS Make it really good!! (From Writing Poetry by Barbara Drake) The real good part is mine EK
From the Spring issue of Peninsula Poets.
Poetry Society of Michigan 