Read Write Poem is having an ekphrastic extravaganza this week, thanks to the talents and generosity of poet and artist Rick Mobbs.

In his welcome message on his blog, Mine Enemy Grows Older, Rick says, “I started this as a place to share my own work but find I am more interested in the stories, myths, parables and poetry others weave from the images, and the collaborations that follow.”

Out of his spirit of generosity and community scores of writers have written beautiful poems and stories, which Rick has lovingly collected on a second project, The Storybook Collaborative.

The prompt this week is to choose one of Rick’s paintings (three are below, click image to enlarge) and write a poem to it. You can refer back to my article on ekphrastic poetry for ideas on how to go about using the images as prompts, or simply let the pen fly in a free write inspired by the painting.

Rick has given poets permission to post his work on their sites, but as usual, please credit his work to him, and link to his web site, Mine Enemy Grows Older.

Standing in the Shadows, by Rick Mobbs

Portrait of Nanda, by Rick Mobbs

fibonacci, by Rick Mobbs

~Christine.

* * *

A big thank you to Rick Mobbs for collaborating with Read Write Poem!

How do you know when a poem is finished? (And by “finished” I don’t mean “doomed;” I mean “completed.”) It’s a question every poet struggles with, and the possible answers are endless: A finished poem is one somewhere between “just started” and “beaten to death.” A finished poem is one that survives the trash bin. A finished poem is one that has done its job (from the poet’s point of view). A finished poem is one that has done its job (from the reader’s point of view).

Some believe the finished poem is a myth. They claim it does not exist. I tend to agree, and I like what French poet Paul Valery said on the matter: “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.” In my case, revision can be an unhealthy obsession; the desire for perfection is an ominous enemy. I am guilty of editing the essence right out of some pretty decent beginnings.

Others (some of them are good friends of mine) believe a poem is always finished, that it expresses itself fully in each moment. They hesitate to revise too much or at all.

As I am reminded again and again both in therapy and in life (isn’t it interesting when those two things tell the same story?), the truth is somewhere in the middle, in the gray area between the inspiration and the carving, between the sanding and the last coat of varnish. In the introduction of The Collected Poems: Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes writes, “[Sylvia's] attitude to her verse was artisan-like: if she couldn’t get a table out of the material, she was quite happy to get a chair, or even a toy. The end product for her was not so much a successful poem, as something that had temporarily exhausted her ingenuity.”

Most Read Write Poem-ers have declared 30-199 poems “finished,” whatever that means for them, and there is representation at both ends of the spectrum: those not being able to finish a poem and those finishing 1,000 or more.

Let’s talk about our definitions of “finished” and our processes for arriving at the finished poem. (I found a really terrific check list for revising your poems at a website of a private middle school in Washington State; you can also review January’s article on revision, just in case you missed it the first time around.) Let’s also talk numbers. For every “finished” poem you reported, how many are floating around your actual or virtual workspace “unfinished?” How many poems must a poet have before he/she’s prolific? Can a poet write too many poems? Is there a magic number of poems a poet should have before he/she considers assembling a manuscript?

~ Carolee

* * *

Here’s how the poll dance works: We post a poll and let it ride for a week and a half, and then I’ll talk a little bit about the topic and the results. The poll will stand for a few days after that to allow additional participation. The rotation gives each poll two weeks in the white-hot spotlight.

From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for this week’s contribution. (Carolee hopes in sympathy with her aversion to sun strokes, but leave a link to any poem or poem-like writing you’d like to share this week.)

Be sure to check back in the week for new links; some participants take a little longer to get going - for lots of reasons - and you’ll miss some gems if you’re only looking at the site early on.

* * *

The not so fine print:

As always, please take a few moments to read the the about page, the code of conduct and our copyrights page. If you have any questions about the project after reading through those pages, please e-mail us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.

Comments will get stuck in our spam or moderation filters if you put two or more links in one comment. The filter thinks you are selling drugs or promoting online gambling when that happens. Maybe even really cheap car insurance.

Sometimes it might not recognize you if you’re new to us, and sometimes it doesn’t recognize people who have posting here, or even authoring posts, for months and months.

We’ll fish you out. But depending on the time of day and where you live in this big world, it might take 8 hours, depending on sleep cycles. So be patient.

(If you continue to send comments after the first one does not appear, you will make it harder for the spam filter to recognize that your comment is valid because we will have to keep deleting the extra comments you’ve left, which will in turn make the spam filter think you are sending us junk mail. We know what you send isn’t junk. Far from it. But the filter just isn’t that smart.)

That said, you are not limited to one comment or poem link. We aren’t counting. There is no quota. We just want you to put only one link in a separate comment.

That’s the fine print. Any questions?

Note from the management: This post of Christine’s was supposed to run next week! But it is such a lovely one, we’ll leave it up (and probably re-issue it again next Thursday, too, because Christine has a special prompt for next week that ties to ekprhrastic poetry!) But don’t miss Juliet’s book review in your excitement about Christine’s post.
* * *

A picture says a thousand words

Ekphrasis is an unusual looking word, one often bandied about in the world of poetry. The ancient Greek origin of ekphrasis simply meant any kind of description, but in contemporary times ekphrasis has become a literary or rhetorical device in which a writer describes a visual work of art. For our purposes, ekphrasis is a poem about a painting, sculpture, photograph, or even a film.

One of the most famous ekphrastic poems is John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819). The narrator contemplates an ancient urn, describing the scenes painted on it and compares the everlasting qualities of youth, beauty and love depicted there to the decay of humans as time passes.

Examples of contemporary ekphrasis can be found on the web. In April of 2007, qarrstiluni  published an ekphrastic issue. One of the poems that caught my eye was “mark“, by Tall Girl, an interpretation of Nexus I and Nexus II by Marja-Leena Rathje.

Another oasis of ekphrasis is visual artist and poet Rick Mobb’s site, mine enemy grows older. Each week Rick posts an original painting for poets and storytellers to interpret. He also generously allows writers to post his paintings on their sites, and then gathers their work with links on his blog.

For examples of the kind of collaboration going on at Rick’s site, read Asherah by Jo Hemmant, found on her blog, Florescence, The Prayer of Bearmom, by Ozymandiaz, author of Ocellus, bird of happiness, by paisley, from why paisley???, and What they said to him, by Joyce Davis (aka Pepek the Assasin), author of following the little god.

Even though I’m not a visual artist myself, photography and sculpture, really any kind of visual art, will stop me in my tracks. It’s fun to go to a museum with my journal, sit in front of a painting and write my impressions.

I’ve found inspiration recently in the surreal paintings of Giorgio De Chirico. Many poets, when acknowledging the source of their inspiration, include an epigraph after the title of the poem.

But where does a poet start when writing a poem as a description of a painting? Rick Mobb invites poets to go where the painting leads them, to tell the story that comes out of the images on the canvas.

In her article Conventions of Ekphrasis, Francois Lachance details different types of ekphrastic poems she has found. Some of the different responses she includes are poems in praise of a work of art, poems that give voice to a mute object in a painting, and poems that seem to criticize the painting, to say that the poet’s words are more immediate or transcendent than the static visual work.

I’ve always been a storyteller, much preferring fantasy to fact. When I look at a portrait, it’s fun to imagine what kind of life the subject led, without knowing any historic details about the actual person. But other poets enjoy sticking to the facts, to respond emotionally to the historic events depicted in a painting.

Whatever your reaction to a painting is, try jotting down your impressions. Maybe you’ll refer to your notebook later, and write an impressive, or, uh… impressionist poem.

~Christine.

This book is an intriguing mix of self help and poetry manual.

The tone of the book is relaxed, chatty and women-centered. Each chapter takes the reader through a specific poetic form (e.g. the sonnet) or type (e.g. the letter poem) and suggests which form is best for writing about certain personal situations, giving examples written by the women in the author’s writing circle and titles of examples by famous female poets that can be accessed online or from a library.

The focus is on using poetry to explore personal issues and to allow writing to access emotions and discover solutions to personal problems. Form and craft are described in a simple (sometimes simplistic) and straightforward way that demystifies poetry and enables the reader to feel confident about starting to write. There are also nice lists of tips for each form, along with a selection of ideas around areas such as sharing poetry, how to make time to write and using poetry in journalling.

My problem with formal verse has always centred on why to use a particular form. I’m a prolific haiku writer because that is a form that suits my way of looking at the world and the things that inspire me, but I don’t like to write, for example, a sonnet, just for the sake of it. I want to feel it’s the right form for the thoughts I want to express. This book really helped me with its chapters outlining why each form suits particular situations:

sonnet - working out emotions
sestina - making sense of memory
ghazal - allowing your mind to wander
haiku - living in the moment
villanelle - accessing your inner voice
ode - dwelling on what is good in your life

I know that each form suits other situations too, but this was really helpful in getting me to think about form and when I can use it. Since first reviewing the book, I have written and posted my first attempts at ghazals and sestinas.

The book is aimed at beginner poets and women interested in poetry as therapy. As Nyemaster says: “I decided to write a book on poetical form because it is something I can wholeheartedly believe in and can provide personal testimony about. It can help women to live fuller, more in tune lives…”

It’s a book about allowing creativity to help you explore personal issues and, though it is also useful for free verse writers who want to start exploring form, it is not a manual for the experienced poet who wants to develop skills in writing quality formal verse.

~Juliet.

* * *
Nyemaster, Wendy. 2008. Unleash the Poem Within: How Reading and Writing Poetry Can Liberate Your Creative Spirit. Sourcebooks. Available here.

A version of this review appeared on Crafty Green Poet.

It’s July. And except that it’s my birthday month and the birthday month of more than a few of my closest girlfriends (party time!), I really hate July.

I am not a fun-in-the-sun kind of girl. Set aside the fact that I have light blue eyes (greater risk of macular degeneration and plain-old light sensitivity). Set aside the fact that I have fair skin and freckles causing me to burn in 10 minutes even with copiously-applied SPF 50. Set aside the fact that I require an old-lady wide-brimmed hat and an old-lady wide-skirted bathing suit to protect myself (and others) from my intended exposure. Set aside all those things? Now? Now is there fun-in-the-sun? No!

Never.

I hate the heat.

Don’t get me started with the humidity. (But here’s a clue: whose picture is next to the words “cranky” and “beast”? That’s right. Mine!)

So, to “celebrate” the height of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, I am asking you to write a poem about something uncomfortable related to sun or sand or heat or beaches. Take us bathing suit shopping with you. Strand yourself on a desert island with someone unpleasant. Describe something the heat spoils: potato salad? perfect hair? intimacy? Place us in a traffic jam near your favorite beach. Surround yourself with tourists. Curse the intense sun for toasting your precious flowers. Sweat your way through a summer wedding.

I’m hoping, at least for one glorious day (when you post your links for Monday’s Get Your Poem on), I will be in good miserable company.

~ Carolee

To continue with our slightly unusual article subject and format (and the third person narrative started the week before last), we have a new subject to chat about, one we warned you about earlier. Yep. Facebook.

Or to put it as the pundits do: one of the social networking (or utility) tools that has grabbed a lot of attention in the last year or so. One we think works especially well for poets. Why? Because it does seem there are a lot of poets on Facebook.

Some of us are shy about these new technical developments. (It’s just hype: Someone is trying to sell something or influence people somehow.) Deb is admittedly slow about buying into new technologies and outlets. Why, she even lurked around the edges of Poetry Thursday for a good six months before she posted the paltriest of comments, much less got the gumption to start a blog and post a poem of her own. Even at that, it took a long time before she put up her very own face as her avatar, thinking she ran the risk of weirdos and an ex-husband finding out the intimate details of her life. (She’s safe so far. No one has bothered her.)

But when January said in her AWP update that everyone at the conference was saying “Facebook,” Deb was intrigued, even if the tiniest bit skeptical. (Yes, if a pal told her to jump off a bridge she probably would do it, after calculating the drop.) She even signed up for an account (free, BTW), then let it sit there, not sure how to proceed.

Then a couple of other people, including Dana, started talking about Facebook and how it could be used as a promotional device for Read Write Poem. So the whole question about Facebook came up again. Why should RWP be on Facebook? What’s the benefit?

Well, exposure for one. (Of a good kind, not the weird, kinky kind.) There are a lot of published poets and poetry journals and poetry outlets on Facebook. They announce goofy stuff: Dana Guthrie Martin is oblong and has had her knees removed. And interesting stuff: Dorianne Laux is thinking about George Carlin. Poets we all admire are on Facebook. It’s a way of sending notices out to interested folks: Mary Biddinger wants to remind you that today’s the last (postmark) day to submit to the UA Press poetry contest. Without having to do the tiresome email thing.

It’s as interactive and informative as you want it to be.

What about privacy? Well, only people you say can be your “friend” can read your stuff, if you set your account up like that. You do have to use your real name (or it seems like everyone we know there does), but it seems pretty safe, since each person is in control of who gets to see his or her profile.

We like how Qarrtsiluni and other journals keep their readers and hopeful contributors up to speed: Southeast Review is looking forward to Vol. 26.2, which hits shelves in AUGUST and features intimate interviews with Clive Barker, Hal Crowther & Lee Smith, and Daniel Woodrell!

So that’s why we now have a Read Write Poem Facebook account. And why we suggest that all you other poets get one, too. And befriend one another. And while you’re there … answer the question Dana asked recently: Is social networking meaningful for poets, or is it a waste of time? Does it add to the experience of being a poet. If so, how? If not, why not?

Questions, comments, advice? Do ask, tell, inform. The comments are open.

(And again, please bear with us, since all of this social networking stuff is new to us, too, so while we like what we’re doing, we’re not yet sure of all the ways in which we can use tools like Twitter and Facebook.)

From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for your illuminating poems.

Be sure to check back through the week and see other people’s revised work, or any other idea that they’ve chosen to share for Read Write Poem!

* * *
Please take a few moments to read the the about page, the code of conduct and our copyrights page. If you have any questions about the project after reading through those pages, e-mail us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org.

Please note: If your comment does not appear, send an e-mail to info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org and we will fish it out of the spam filter. (Please don’t put more than one link in your comment, otherwise your comment will be treated as spam.)

Please also note: We encourage participants to link to the Read Write Poem site every week they participate and to tag or categorize their posts as “Read Write Poem.” This helps new people find the project and increases the site’s visibility and rankings — and that in turn that means more people will see the work of project participants.

* * *
We always love hearing from you!

Like most of us, I came to poetry through school. While I am certainly indebted to many of the great teachers I had in high school and college, sometimes I didn’t like reading poetry in school.  Between required textbooks in the school year and recommended reading lists in the summer, it was all too much.  Plus, the poetry seemed it should be boring, with all the allusions and rhyming stuff.  Even with that, I knew I liked poetry. I liked feeling the rhythm of the words, seeing the images in my head. And I thought sure that better poetry was to be had out there. 

Once I was free to explore poetry on my own, I found lots of great writing.  It still had the same effect on me that “school poetry” had, but now it seemed illicit.  I was almost afraid someone could find me reading it and discover that I liked this strange stuff, riddled with allusions and rhymes, but also bigger than the sum of its parts.

Listed below are the four poets I read, once I had the freedom to choose my own poetry:

• 1) Shel Silverstein

Now, I know every school child in my generation read Shel Silverstein.  I mean, he wrote about garbage and magical trees and defying your parents.  What else could a kid want?  As I snuck my huge anthology off the bookshelf when I was supposed to be sleeping, I felt as though I was committing a crime.  Click here to hear Shel Silverstein read “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too.” 

• 2) Sylvia Plath

Jump forward eight years and suddenly poems about flying in giant shoe aren’t as appealing. Go figure.  I think for certain young women, reading Sylvia Plath is a prerequisite for surviving high school, especially if you like to wear lots of black and fancy yourself a poetess.  The nice thing about Plath’s poetry is that it holds up over time. When you’re 15 and rebellious, you can revel in her cussing out her father. Then, years later, you can marvel at her technical dexterity and the precision of her language. 

• 3) Gwendolyn Brooks

During my sophomore year of college, Gwendolyn Brooks visited my campus for a reading.  While I had never read any of her books before, I ran to my library and picked up them up.  Within the cadence of Brooks’ short lines, came a freedom and a love of language I’d never felt before.  I’d also never read poetry that was simply so real; her poems showcased characters that had real-life problems.  When I finally heard her read, it was the first time I ever heard a master poet read.  She was confident, musical and funny, and I knew I would never again see a poet of her caliber in person.

• 4) Ai

Ai’s book Greed was one of the first books I picked up because I read a glowing review. I can’t remember the review anymore or the periodical I read it in, but this review made me run to the bookstore and buy her book.  I was shocked at many of her poems.  Out of all the poetry I had read in my life, Ai’s seemed the most dangerous.  Not only did she write about violence, sex and drugs, but she wrote in the voice of characters who were immersed in those worlds.  I had not given much stock to the power of persona poetry before this book, but now I glimpsed how potent that form could become, in the right hands.

While writing this list, I was thinking of all the poets I didn’t include.  When you have the freedom to choose your own poetry, you discover a wealth of poets who inspire you, or scare you, or who open up whole new avenues of thought for you.  I’d love to hear from you:  What poets (or poems) did you reach for when you were free to choose your own reading? 

~Jessica.

* * *

We’ll leave the comments open for about 10-14 days, giving you plenty of time to delve back into your memory and come back with your own list.

Here in upstate New York, summer officially started less than one week ago. Summer days stretch out before us, the sun shines for hours and the street lights come on later. Fireflies are back in business. The fireworks (the glittering, shining loud lights in the sky) started the day school got out and will no doubt continue for at least two days after the 4th of July.

This week’s prompt is one word: light. Use it any way you see fit to make a poem! Lights on. Lights off. Candles. Flashlights. Lights in the sky. Skylights. Solstice. Moonlight. Sunlight. Light dawning (skyward, or otherwise). Lightning.

Do you have an immediate memory of being in the dark, wishing for light? A favorite fireworks memory? Something to say about reaching for the light? Turning away from the dark? Did your father complain about shoddy workmanship every time he saw a crooked light fixture (like mine still does)?

Light in the trees. Lights on in houses. The color of light. The absence of light.

Let your little light shine! Write a poem about light. Come back in one week to illuminate us!

~Jill.