Poetry Challenge #310-After Life
Any poet deemed stamp worthy by the U.S Postal Service is certainly deserving of a birthday shout out. Even if it’s only a six-cent stamp, issued in 1970. Seriously, in 1970 what could one mail for 6 cents? Ghost written letters…
Happy Birthday Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950).
Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters was published in 1915, and was both a masterpiece and scandalous—that era’s Peyton Place. It contained over 200 poems, each a comment from the dead in a graveyard in a small, midwestern town.
The poems wailed about unfairness, condemned other occupants of the cemetery, and scandalized husbands and wives and lovers. The poems were written in free verse which had still not been widely accepted at the time.
One critic called it “shredded prose.”
A few of the poems in Master’s Spoon River Anthology are about real people, but most of the characters were created using names Masters gathered in cemeteries in a couple Illinois towns. He mixed first names from one cemetery with last names from another before writing his imagined comments from the grave. The example below was based on Masters’ pioneering grandmother.
In case you’re wondering, here’s what Edgar Lee Master’s looked like…perhaps when skulking around graveyards or peeping in windows…. I just made that last bit up. A bit of gossip… (But this photo is real, filched from Google Images.)
“How shall the soul of a man be bigger than the life he lived?”—Edgar Lee Masters
Poetry Challenge #310
After Life
If you can, wander around an old graveyard and collect names and epitaphs. Mix them together and use the name you come up with as the title of your poem. Write your poem as though this made-up person is talking. You can include an epitaph if you want.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, Write It!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2600+ 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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