The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem came out of the December 3, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from elizabethconall. It has been sponsored by technoshaman.

WARNING: This poem features kidnapping and rape, and it is unflattering to the Christian religion in ways that some readers may find profoundly disturbing. Think carefully before deciding whether to read onward.

( Read more... )

"Whose Guardian" was today's first freebie poem.

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED.  Thank you for your time and enthusiasm.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open!  Today's theme is "angels & deities."  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.

Click to read the linkback poem "The Trains Must Run on Time" (The Steamsmith, 19 verses).


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 "angels & deities."  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. "The Trains Must Run on Time" belongs to the series The Steamsmith and has 19 verses. 


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, you get a piece of bonus material.  Everyone will get to vote on which series to feature in the sale, out of those with extra poems available.


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 "angels & deities."  I'll be soliciting ideas for divine messengers, gods and goddesses, unusual angel types, angels or deities of color, terrifying or destroying angels, holy spirits, saints, sinners, true believers, bemused atheists, unconcerned bystanders, Fledging, praying, flying, falling from grace, rising from perdition, summoning, banishing, cursing, visitations, annunciations, mass hallucinations, churches, holy ground, sacred sites around the world, profane places to find angels or deities, robes, halos, feathers, holy relics, holy objects, faith-powered weapons, sacred texts, sigils, 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 first edition of Lewis Turco's The Book of Forms 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 "The Trains Must Run on Time.") The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

I love eye jewelry, and this is some of the coolest that I have seen.  This one resembles the Eye of Fate in my Monster House series, as described in "Secondhand Sight."

LiveJournal user The_vulture tipped me to this awesome show.  I have made notes for my poetic series The Arc of Joan.

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, December 3, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "angels & deities." I'll be soliciting ideas for divine messengers, gods and goddesses, unusual angel types, angels or deities of color, terrifying or destroying angels, holy spirits, saints, sinners, true believers, bemused atheists, unconcerned bystanders, Fledging, praying, flying, falling from grace, rising from perdition, summoning, banishing, cursing, visitations, annunciations, mass hallucinations, churches, holy ground, sacred sites around the world, profane places to find angels or deities, robes, halos, feathers, holy relics, holy objects, faith-powered weapons, sacred texts, sigils, and poetic forms in particular.

I have a linkback poem, "The Trains Must Run on Time" (19 verses, The Steamsmith).  I need a volunteer to host this.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week.  (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts.)  Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog. 

( New to the fishbowl?  Read all about it! )

Thanks to a donation from janetmiles, there are 22 new verses in "Strange Gratitudes."  See Mira with her cousin Lynn, then Clement and Maze deal with accident-prone Aunt Dolores.