Poetry Fishbowl Open!
Feb. 7th, 2017 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThe Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thanks for your support. Watch here, as I'm still writing.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "nonsexual intimacies." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.
I wrote a whole series of posts about nonsexual intimacies, divided into sections, if you want some ideas. Everything there is fair game here.
Click to read the linkback poem "Spontaneous Vacations" (10 verses, Schrodinger's Heroes).
What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?
Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.
In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "nonsexual intimacies." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.
Cyberfunded Creativity
I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:
1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.
2) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.
3) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).
0-10 lines: $5
11-25 lines: $10
26-40 lines: $15
41-60 lines: $20
Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.
4) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Commission details are here. See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"
5) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your LiveJournal, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network. Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall. Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl. If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published. If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.
Linkback perk: I have a spare series poem available, and each linkback will reveal a verse of the poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal. Comment with a link to where you posted. "Spontaneous Vacations" has 10 verses available and stands alone.
Additional Notes
1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."
2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function. (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.) These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.
3) Sponsors of the Poetry Fishbowl in general, or of specific poems, will gain access to an extra post in appreciation of their generosity. While you're on the Donors list, you can view all of the custom-locked posts in that category. Click the "donors" tag to read the archive of those. I've also posted a list of other donor perks there. I customarily leave donor names on the list for two months, so you'll get to see the perk-post from this month and next.
4) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.
5) If donations total $100 by Friday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl. These will usually be series poems if I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size. If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; three of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be three months in a row. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day. If donations reach $300, there will be a half-price sale in one series.
Feed the Fish!
Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "nonsexual intimacies." I'll be soliciting ideas for friends, touch buddies, counselors, bodyworkers, troubled relationships, zucchini, parents and children, siblings, work partners, touching, sleeping together (without sex), cuddling, expecting the unexpected, caregiving, dancing, feeding each other, eye gazing, spotting patterns, learning about each other, bedrooms, lairs, liminal zones, massage parlors, cuddle parties, counseling offices, support groups, quiet rooms, other private places, skin hunger, headwork, bodywork, body maps, unusual vulnerabilities, The Cuddle Sutra, power exchange, aftercare, levels of intimacy in communication, radical transformation, openness, and poetic forms in particular. But anything is welcome, really. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco which covers most common and many obscure forms.
I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal verses of "Spontaneous Vacations." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
I wrote a whole series of posts about nonsexual intimacies, divided into sections, if you want some ideas. Everything there is fair game here.
Click to read the linkback poem "Spontaneous Vacations" (10 verses, Schrodinger's Heroes).
What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?
Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.
In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "nonsexual intimacies." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.
Cyberfunded Creativity
I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:
1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.
2) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.
3) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).
0-10 lines: $5
11-25 lines: $10
26-40 lines: $15
41-60 lines: $20
Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.
4) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Commission details are here. See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"
5) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your LiveJournal, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network. Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall. Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl. If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published. If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.
Linkback perk: I have a spare series poem available, and each linkback will reveal a verse of the poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal. Comment with a link to where you posted. "Spontaneous Vacations" has 10 verses available and stands alone.
Additional Notes
1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."
2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function. (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.) These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.
3) Sponsors of the Poetry Fishbowl in general, or of specific poems, will gain access to an extra post in appreciation of their generosity. While you're on the Donors list, you can view all of the custom-locked posts in that category. Click the "donors" tag to read the archive of those. I've also posted a list of other donor perks there. I customarily leave donor names on the list for two months, so you'll get to see the perk-post from this month and next.
4) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.
5) If donations total $100 by Friday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl. These will usually be series poems if I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size. If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; three of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be three months in a row. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day. If donations reach $300, there will be a half-price sale in one series.
Feed the Fish!
Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "nonsexual intimacies." I'll be soliciting ideas for friends, touch buddies, counselors, bodyworkers, troubled relationships, zucchini, parents and children, siblings, work partners, touching, sleeping together (without sex), cuddling, expecting the unexpected, caregiving, dancing, feeding each other, eye gazing, spotting patterns, learning about each other, bedrooms, lairs, liminal zones, massage parlors, cuddle parties, counseling offices, support groups, quiet rooms, other private places, skin hunger, headwork, bodywork, body maps, unusual vulnerabilities, The Cuddle Sutra, power exchange, aftercare, levels of intimacy in communication, radical transformation, openness, and poetic forms in particular. But anything is welcome, really. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco which covers most common and many obscure forms.
I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal verses of "Spontaneous Vacations." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
The promised prompt
Date: 2017-02-07 06:53 pm (UTC)Signal boosted.
Re: The promised prompt
Date: 2017-02-07 08:25 pm (UTC)170 lines, Buy It Now = $85
Re: The promised prompt
Date: 2017-02-09 03:07 am (UTC)Sponsorship forthcoming.
Re: The promised prompt
Date: 2017-02-09 06:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-07 06:54 pm (UTC)Any kind of couples dance can be intimate without being sexual. There were two people in my Nashville contradance group who loved to waltz together (and were astoundingly good at it, better than many professionals!) but didn't date or have any other connection beyond friendship. Swing dancing works for this as well, because you have to know/trust your partner well enough to read the signals.
Any small musical group that plays together for a long time will develop this kind of intimacy. I'm thinking about Bare Necessities, who have been playing together for 30-odd years, and by now things like passing the melody from one instrument to another happen nearly by reflex.
Holding the yarn for your friend to wind.
Poem
Date: 2017-02-12 08:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-07 07:22 pm (UTC)Walking together down a windy beach at night, when the clouds are whipping across the moon.
Cuddled up (together or just both in comfy chairs) watching the nasty weather outside -- heavy rain, blizzard, ice storm, whatever, while being warm and comfortable together. This might work well for Damask.
Conversations in the deep of the night can bring out topics that would be considered too intimate to discuss during the day.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-07 07:39 pm (UTC)Also, signal-boosting as we speak.
Eta: Thought of another one. Someone brushing/styling someone else's hair can be really intimate, and it doesn't have to be just parent and child.
Poem
Date: 2017-02-08 01:41 pm (UTC)525 lines, Buy It Now = $263
BUT someone already sent $25 for microfunding, will post when I have energy.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-07 07:43 pm (UTC)Payne's Grey and Shiv follow up. The last thing was good. Was it good enough to cover Shiv's squick at the end?
Professional cuddler because wow, I love that idea. (And there's two at Kwannon House!)
Knowing someone's favorites is an intimacy. Procuring them is another. Pickled Anything and Fried Whatever are a match made of yes, please.
Linkback is LIVE!
Date: 2017-02-07 08:41 pm (UTC)Re: Linkback is LIVE!
Date: 2017-02-07 09:06 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-02-08 03:17 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-02-09 05:33 am (UTC)Re: Poem
Date: 2017-02-09 04:39 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-02-13 02:00 am (UTC)350 lines, Buy It Now = $175
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-07 09:02 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-02-09 11:34 am (UTC)77 lines, Buy It Now = $39
hi there
Date: 2017-02-07 09:23 pm (UTC)Chiara and Cuoio and their healer having cuddles would be fun, they'd probably be okay at opening a can of whoop ass too :D
Ricasso? Gray? what happened after the play session with Shiv? did Gray call Ricasso?
Re: hi there
Date: 2017-02-09 05:36 am (UTC)I think you posted elsewhere about the Kwan Yin House of Compassion, so see thumbnail of "Essential for Human Survival," now in microfunding.
Prompts!
Date: 2017-02-07 09:39 pm (UTC)*Cuddle Therapy with Sukeena
*Anything with the characters Tabbouleh and/or Batik
*More about Turq & Ansel's brushing
Re: Prompts!
Date: 2017-02-09 05:34 am (UTC)prompts
Date: 2017-02-07 10:48 pm (UTC)"You make me feel safe"
Letting someone borrow a comfort item (childhood toy, blanket, gift from a friend, anything with strong emotional connections)
Your family is also my own/ If something happened I know you would take me in.
Switching to a communication style that isn't natural for you but that is better for the person you're talking to.
I'd appreciate something that also isn't romantic.
Re: prompts
Date: 2017-02-08 12:57 am (UTC)227 lines, Buy It Now = $114
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-07 11:57 pm (UTC)Second the cuddle puddle.
Comfortable silence with someone you've known for millennia.
Falling asleep with a cat purring in your ear.
Holding a weeping stranger.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-08 12:35 am (UTC)My partner and I are across the country from each other, and we each have a Sven the reindeer we hug when we want to hug one another. She also took me to Build-a-bear and put her marriage proposal inside a plush animal with promises to buy the animal things for our anniversaries too. Heh. But I thought we were the only ones who had long-distance hug comfort objects. I'm going to second your prompt about that because yesssss. :D
Aww ...
Date: 2017-02-08 12:53 am (UTC)Good idea.
>> She also took me to Build-a-bear and put her marriage proposal inside a plush animal with promises to buy the animal things for our anniversaries too. <<
That is SO CUTE. :D
My partner and I have been using each other as hug surrogates for a distant friend.
I've been thinking that hug transport would be a great job for a teleporter. Collect a hug from the sender, ferry it over to the intended recipient, carry the reply back, and you're good. \o/
Re: Aww ...
Date: 2017-02-08 01:23 am (UTC)Also, our partner's little brothers also will happily work as hug transporters for us. They're great guys, and we kinda consider them brothers of ours too, so we can IM them and go "Wouldyou please send a hug to (partner's name) for us?" And they will. Hug surrogate would be an awesome job too. We also like the idea of professional cuddlers so much.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-08 01:54 am (UTC)No, it isn't just you. I'm sorry you have to be so far apart, and glad you've found a way to make it a little less difficult.
Poem
Date: 2017-02-09 05:34 am (UTC)Nonsexual intimacies prompts
Date: 2017-02-08 12:32 am (UTC)1) Removing glasses
2) having a friend keep you company after their drinking contest led to you throwing up.
3) Ordering or getting food for someone with food allergies or intolerances
4) Listening when someone who doesn't usually curse is cursing across five languages
5) Sleeping opposite directions with someone else on a couch before most other intimacies, then later lovers
6) Picking out reading material for a friend
7) Making (sewing, crocheting, knitting) someone else things
Re: Nonsexual intimacies prompts
Date: 2017-02-08 01:57 am (UTC)Re: Nonsexual intimacies prompts
Date: 2017-02-08 02:50 am (UTC)Re: Nonsexual intimacies prompts
Date: 2017-02-08 03:10 am (UTC)Prompt fodder!
Date: 2017-02-08 12:54 am (UTC)Re: Prompt fodder!
Date: 2017-02-10 10:11 am (UTC)384 lines, Buy It Now = $192
prompt fodder
Date: 2017-02-08 02:49 am (UTC)In a choral (or barbershop) group would be one form, where it's the interplay between parts that creates something transcendent.
Another form - this one is my personal favorite - is the gestalt of being in a room full of people who are very familiar with a particular song, such as Hope Eyrie or Falling Free, and simultaneously improvising my own line while basking in the plethora of glorious harmonies around me.
Re: prompt fodder
Date: 2017-02-08 04:35 am (UTC)Re: prompt fodder
Date: 2017-02-08 04:50 am (UTC)Re: prompt fodder
Date: 2017-02-08 05:05 am (UTC)When winter falls over our world
Can hope for tomorrow and raise our eyes
To a silver moon in the opened skies
And a single flag unfurled.
-- Leslie Fish
Re: prompt fodder
Date: 2017-02-08 06:58 am (UTC)OMG we love all the Leslie Fish stuff we've ever heard. Which... is a good amount heh. But not like everything she ever did or anything.
Our knowledge of filk comes from combing the Internets for years.
Re: combing the 'Net for filk
Date: 2017-02-08 08:39 pm (UTC)I note that its list of filk conventions is tiny; there are at least a dozen that I know of, most in the US/Canada but a few in Europe too.
for the Eagle has landed, tell your children when...
Date: 2017-02-08 10:26 am (UTC)The "Hope Eyrie" I'm thinking of was written by Leslie Fish back in 1975, and won a Pegasus Award in 1984 - that's where I got the lyric link that I put in the previous comment. The song has always been very popular out here in the Pacific Northwet, where I live.
Approximately where are you located, geographically?
Re: for the Eagle has landed, tell your children when...
Date: 2017-02-08 08:00 pm (UTC)Re: prompt fodder
Date: 2017-02-12 08:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-02-08 04:47 am (UTC)Being there for the person who was there for someone else earlier that day.
Using a gift given by a distant partner.
Watching body language.
Automatically stopping to listen to someone.
Cleaning up vomit when necessary.
Telling the truth about one's feelings, even in a simple way.
Saying, "That hurts."
Playing a game with a ball.
Agreeing and disagreeing; throwing ideas back and forth around a table.
Taking advice, not just giving it.
Being present.
Poem
Date: 2017-02-09 05:37 am (UTC)Re: Poem
Date: 2017-02-10 02:47 pm (UTC)Done for the night!
Date: 2017-02-08 01:43 pm (UTC)