The Wordsmith's Forge

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "anything goes." 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.

Note that our internet connection has been bad for well over a month. Sometimes it's down completely, other times things like Dreamwidth and searches won't run. So I'm losing a lot of work time and may only have access for half a day or less. Given this limitation, there's a higher chance of actually getting things written for prompts that use characters, settings, etc. that are already established.

Two poems recently attracted attention with regards to extending their story arcs, so anyone can ask for a followup to these:
"Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" -- Victor is displeased with Ghenadie shirking work assigned as fines.
"An Interest in the Affairs of Your Government" -- Frank the Crank accidentally gets elected to the City Council in Mercedes.

Stuck for ideas? You can find prompts by ...
* browsing planned poems for Aquariana and the Maldives, The Big One, Broken Angels, Calliope and Vagary, Officer Pink and Turq, Pips and Joshua, or Shiv. (Some of these I've already done, so they're not all up to date, but others I haven't done yet.)
* browsing my Serial Poetry page for favorite threads or characters.
* browsing my QUILTBAG list, Romantic Orientations in My Characters, Sexual Orientations in My Characters, Gender Identities in My Characters, or My Characters with Disabilities for favorites.
* naming a poetic form you'd like to see written.
* picking a prompt from my current bingo cards: Western Bingo Card 7-1-25
* picking some from the Bingo Generator prompt lists.
* looking up fun tropes on Fanlore.
* choosing an unusual word.
* plugging a favorite topic into your search engine and choosing a picture that looks interesting.
* anything short. I could especially use short poems today as other prompts are likely to run long.
* standalone ideas, if you're a fan of that rather than series.

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 "anything goes." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things of any type. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.

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

The July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl made its $200 goal, so you get a free epic. Everyone is eligible to vote in this poll. I will keep it open at least until Monday night. If there's a clear answer then, I'll close it. Otherwise I may leave it open a little longer.

Here are your options:

"Meeting in the Middle"
Kan Ying sees through the lies of the Parthians and makes his way to Rome.
76 lines

"Once the Avalanche Has Begun"
A foolish choice in a neighboring town makes life challenging for Shaeth's followers.
70 lines

This session's theme was "Weaponized Incompetence and Malicious Compliance." I wrote from 12:30 PM to 4:30 AM, so about 14 hours, accounting for breaks. I wrote 3 poems on Tuesday and another 6 later in the week.

Participation was variable, with 10 comments on LiveJournal and another 32 on Dreamwidth. A total of 12 people sent prompts.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Always Surprised by Consequences"
"Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness"
"No Such Thing as Finished"
"The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"
"Provoking Change by Bringing Nature"

"An Interest in the Affairs of Your Government" (Polychrome Heroics March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl)
"Tomato Seedlings in Tin Cans" (Daughters of the Apocalypse, June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl)


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list from July 1. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.


This session's donors include: janetmiles, fuzzyred, and Anthony Barrette. All sponsored poems from this fishbowl have been posted. There are 4 tallies, so there will be a bonus fishbowl on Tuesday, July 15.


The Poetry Fishbowl has a landing page.

This poem is spillover from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It is posted here as the second freebie, courtesy of new prompter gothfvck. It was inspired by a prompt from see_also_friend. It also fills the "bad girls" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest.

( Read more... )

This poem is spillover from the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "growth" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest bingo. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It belongs to the series Daughters of the Apocalypse.

( Read more... )

This poem is spillover from the March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "Secrets" square in my 3-1-25 card for the Tolkien Bingo Fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

( Read more... )

These are the notes for "Always Surprised by Consequences."

( Read more... )

These are the notes for "No Such Thing as Finished."

( Read more... )

This poem was written for the Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love. It also fills the "buffalo" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest.

( Read more... )

This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from torc87. It also fills the "I tried being reasonable. I didn't like it." square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis.

( Read more... )