Poetry Challenge #267-The Brave Bold Catalogue of ___

Want to toss a wet blanket over a group of boisterous adults (“adults” meaning literate and over 30…or precocious teen) all one need do is mention Sylvia Plath. Immediately one of three things will happen:

1. Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, written under the pen name Victoria Lucas will spring to mind.

2. Conversation will switch to discussion of suicide and mental illness and the party scene will turn into round table ala The Voice.

3. A vision of coed Sylvia pedaling along in pink pops into your mind as you begin silently humming Gabriel Yared’s haunting theme from the stunning, moody 2003 movie Sylvia starring Gwyneth Paltrow—or make a beeline for your Sylvia Plath finger-puppet-refrigerator-magnet.

YES! You too could have one of your very own Sylvia Plath finger-puppet-refrigerator-magnet.

One of the rare snaps of Sylvia smiling—the way I imagined her when she was writing The Bed Book.

Why Sylvia Plath? Why today?

Because: on this day, Oct 27th, in 1932, Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  

Because: by the time of her death at 30, Plath had accomplished more than many of us scribblers will in a lifetime.

Because: she was a remarkable, gifted novelist, poet, short story writer Joyce Carol Oates described in the NY Time Book Review as “one of the most celebrated and controversial of postwar poets writing in English.”

Yeah-yeah-yeah we all know this!  We study Plath in high school literature and for many of us The Bell Jar was required reading thus Plath+death+sadness+poetry are linked in our minds.

But what we are not taught and so, what many of us never knew existed is the playful, imaginative rhyming poet Sylvia Plath, who in 1959, also wrote—gasp—a picture book!

The Bed Book by Sylvia Plath, is actually a rhyming catalogue of different kinds of beds, including a submarine bed, snack bed, and flying bed and many delightful others.

The original English version, published in 1976, is illustrated by Quintin Blake; the American version features art by Emily Arnold McCully. Treat yourself to either or both-delight filled!

Poetry Challenge #267

The Brave Bold Catalogue of __________

Let’s say “Happy Birthday Sylvia!” by creating a rhyming catalogue poem of our own. (Below are two of Plath’s rhymes from The Bed Book.)

1. Think of an ordinary everyday object. Something that is so common and common place one hardly notices it at all. Plath’s Bed for example, but not a bed, something different.

2. Now imagine all the various models or styles that object could come in. For example, might it, as Plath’s beds do, become a submarine or spaceship? Or???

Write a rhyming poem describing one or more versions of that object.

Let that object be brave! Be bold! Let it do what no such object has ever done before!

Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes

Start Writing!

Don’t Think About it, just Imagine IT!

And just because, here’s the opening scene from Sylvia:

Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.

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All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .

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