Poetry Challenge #115-Knit Wits
Think “knitting” and an image of the “quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’” springs to many a mind. But that’s bunk. At last week’s VCFA Writing for Children and Young Adults Alumni workshop flashing, clicking needles were everywhere. Co 7-Minute Challenge creator, Cindy, is a big knitter. So am I, in my fashion. And in the same way, so are you.
Knitting is such a useful word. In the same way yarn becomes sweaters, wounds knit back together. Families are closely knit. Brows knit in consternation or contemplation. Thoughts knit together become ideas, just as words knit together can be poetry.
Poetry Challenge #115
Knit Wits
In Merriam-Webster speak, knitting is “a series of connected loops,” so that’s where we’ll begin.
Close your eyes and write down the first word that pops into your mind. One word. That word will be the title of your poem.
Next, quickly list words that you associate with your word. From that list, choose the best five.
Take a moment to reorder those five words into a sort of pattern that makes sense to you.
Classic Knit-One, Purl-Two pattern
Let’s use our wits to knit those words together to create a poem. For our first effort, we’ll use a simple knit one, purl two pattern. Consider those five words to be your “knit” stitches. The “purl” part of our poem will be modifiers. Let’s get knitting!
Write your first “knit” word. Below it “purl” two modifiers. Below that purl, write your next “knit” word, then “purl” two; continue in this knit one-purl two pattern until you come to the end of your word list. Just like that you’ve knitted a 10-line poem.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than Thirteen Hundred (1300, yes I am celebrating) days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #114-User Error
User Error is such a useful term. At one and the same time it blames and forgives: “Yes, I did it, but it wasn’t my fault.”
Such is the case with Wednesday’s prompt. After 113 consecutive weeks we totally dropped the ball. BONG BONG BONG…We forgot to post a 7-Minute Poetry Prompt. Onward:
Poetry Challenge #114
User Error
Think back on a time when you’ve had a system malfunction? A SNAFU? A mess up? A day, event, moment when you dropped the ball: BONG BONG BONG (If you haven’t ever had one on those times, make one up.)
Take a moment to dreg up all the miserable, embarrassing, nauseating, gut-wrenching details. Allow yourself to wallow in the misery for one more minute.
Write a poem about that time. Try not to rhyme. Not to spell correctly. Not to sound pleasant. Let it be harsh and raw—try breaking the lines in odd places. It other words: write a lousy poem.
End it with those two huge words: USER ERROR!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than Thirteen Hundred (1300, yes I am celebrating) days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #113-One Must Ask Children and Birds
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today . . . “
J. Wellington Whimpy, as any Popeye fan knows, would do just about anything for a hamburger. Parisians rioted over the lack of break, likewise so did Starbuck fans during a recent run on Pumpkin Latte (not really), but, I imagine they would. Cindy’s weakness is lobster. Mine (in case you’re gifting) is salted caramel. What’s your favorite food?
Poetry Challenge #113
One Must Ask Children and Birds
“One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste”— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Pick a food that begins with a consonant (not a, e, i, o, or u). Can you think of other foods that begin with the same letter? List 5-10 foods that begin with the same letter. Next, list 3-10 foods that end with that letter. Then, list 3-10 foods that have that letter in the middle. Finally, list 3 verbs and 3 adjectives that have to do with food and contain your letter.
The repetition of a consonant sound is called alliteration. Many times tongue twisters are made from these repeated sounds. Use words from all your lists to write an alliterative list poem. Read it aloud and see if it trips your tongue.
“I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”
Set your mind to channel FOOD
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1280++ days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #112-Bend it like Adolphe . . . Sax that is!
When we were about twelve, my friend Theresa and I closed ourselves in a music room at CSULB and played over and over and over and …the opening phrases of the song Windy. We only stopped when the guy in the next room knocked. Turned out, he too played a sax. We only wished we did . . .
Said to emote a sound reminiscent of “the echo of an echo” . . . a resonance “situated at the edge of silence,” the saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s (patented in 1846.) Sax only received a 15-year patent for the sax (and immediately others began copying his design). Sax’s sax however was the first.
Poetry Challenge #112
Bend it like Adolphe . . . Sax that is!
In honor of Sax’s birthday, November 6, 1814, let’s write a saxophone poem.
Listen to a Saxophone play. This 2017 post highlights “The 20 Greatest Saxophonists of All Times” with clippings of each playing.
Let your mind wander as you listen. Where does the music take you? How does it make you feel? What does it make you feel?
Or, look at the saxophone itself, it’s shape. And ask yourself, if a saxophone were an animal, which animal would it be?
Draw on these saxophone images and feelings to write a Saxophonic poem.
Set your mind on “Cool”
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
FYI: The child of Belgian instrument makers, Adolphe Sax is credited with having, by the age of 14, invented at least invented about 9 instruments. For more on Adolphe Sax, including why he was nicknamed “Little Sax, the ghost,” read on:
“Sometimes serious, sometimes calm, sometimes impassioned, dreamy or melancholic, or vague, like the weakened echo of an echo, like the indistinct plaintiff moans of the breeze in the woods and, even better, like the mysterious vibrations of a bell, long after it has been struck; there does not exist another musical instrument that I know of that possesses this strange resonance, which is situated at the edge of silence.”
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1280++ days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
**How to Write a Scary Story post on the Nocturim