Poetry Fishbowl Open!
Mar. 7th, 2023 12:25 pmThe Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this space as I am still writing.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Crafts." 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'll be soliciting ideas for crafters, upcyclers, artists, sculptors, woodworkers, quilters, scrapbookers, artists in residence, Applied Arts majors, Municipal Art majors, Museum Copyist majors, Public Art Manager majors, Studio Arts majors or minors, Generalist majors, Hobby minors, art collection curators, gallery owners, art shop owners, junk shop owners, craft store owners, makers of arts and crafts supplies, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, superheroes, supervillains, other creative people, upcycling, painting, sculpting, woodworking, quilting, teaching art, volunteering, making donations, supporting creative people, offering crash space, yarnbombing, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, craft sheds, art schools, art classrooms, arts and crafts studios, artist colonies, arts and crafts farms, hobby rooms, homes with a giant space for arts or crafts, yarn stores, fabric stores, arts and crafts stores, unfinished furniture stores, upcycle junk shops, fiber fairs, street fairs, art shows, Triton Teen Centers, community centers, intentional communities, clubs, fibercraft circles, sewing circles, quilting bees, sketch fests, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Recycle Bin in Mercedes, makerspaces, other creative hangouts, craft history, art movements, art history, ethnic arts and crafts, folk arts and crafts, historical or archaic crafts, still life featuring cultural artifacts, landscape art, art movements, wabi-sabi, Feel and See Art Movement, Touchy Feely art books, edible art, arts and crafts media, creme pastels, Paletta durable art media for making visual-tactile art, zetetic arts and crafts supplies, game design kits, ColorADD, Feelipa, diversity, inclusivity, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.
* The Arts
* Art Media
* Arts and Crafts
* Endangered Crafts
* Handicrafts
* Native American Crafts
* Rural Crafts
* Prehistoric Art
Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:
March Is... Bingo Card 3-1-23
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
Artists of Destruction is about famous artists as warmongers.
Arts and Crafts America imagines a world based on creativity.
The Bear Tunnels includes historic crafts.
Beneath the Family Tree features prehistoric crafts.
Daughters of the Apocalypse requires creative use of remaining materials.
Frankenstein's Family takes a scientific approach to creative materials.
Polychrome Heroics has various characters and locations relating to arts and crafts. Some characters like Shiv, Turq, and Tarnish use these for self-soothing or therapy. In the Calliope thread, Calvin works at an arts and crafts store. There are multiple artsy places such as Yarn Over, the Recycle Bin, and Woolgather Hill.
Or you can ask for something new.
I have a linkback poem, "Besa" (9 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 "Crafts." 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 Dreamwidth, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, 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. "Besa" has 9 verses 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; four of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be four 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 "Crafts." See above for details. 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 "Besa." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Crafts." 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'll be soliciting ideas for crafters, upcyclers, artists, sculptors, woodworkers, quilters, scrapbookers, artists in residence, Applied Arts majors, Municipal Art majors, Museum Copyist majors, Public Art Manager majors, Studio Arts majors or minors, Generalist majors, Hobby minors, art collection curators, gallery owners, art shop owners, junk shop owners, craft store owners, makers of arts and crafts supplies, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, superheroes, supervillains, other creative people, upcycling, painting, sculpting, woodworking, quilting, teaching art, volunteering, making donations, supporting creative people, offering crash space, yarnbombing, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, craft sheds, art schools, art classrooms, arts and crafts studios, artist colonies, arts and crafts farms, hobby rooms, homes with a giant space for arts or crafts, yarn stores, fabric stores, arts and crafts stores, unfinished furniture stores, upcycle junk shops, fiber fairs, street fairs, art shows, Triton Teen Centers, community centers, intentional communities, clubs, fibercraft circles, sewing circles, quilting bees, sketch fests, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Recycle Bin in Mercedes, makerspaces, other creative hangouts, craft history, art movements, art history, ethnic arts and crafts, folk arts and crafts, historical or archaic crafts, still life featuring cultural artifacts, landscape art, art movements, wabi-sabi, Feel and See Art Movement, Touchy Feely art books, edible art, arts and crafts media, creme pastels, Paletta durable art media for making visual-tactile art, zetetic arts and crafts supplies, game design kits, ColorADD, Feelipa, diversity, inclusivity, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.
* The Arts
* Art Media
* Arts and Crafts
* Endangered Crafts
* Handicrafts
* Native American Crafts
* Rural Crafts
* Prehistoric Art
Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:
March Is... Bingo Card 3-1-23
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
Artists of Destruction is about famous artists as warmongers.
Arts and Crafts America imagines a world based on creativity.
The Bear Tunnels includes historic crafts.
Beneath the Family Tree features prehistoric crafts.
Daughters of the Apocalypse requires creative use of remaining materials.
Frankenstein's Family takes a scientific approach to creative materials.
Polychrome Heroics has various characters and locations relating to arts and crafts. Some characters like Shiv, Turq, and Tarnish use these for self-soothing or therapy. In the Calliope thread, Calvin works at an arts and crafts store. There are multiple artsy places such as Yarn Over, the Recycle Bin, and Woolgather Hill.
Or you can ask for something new.
I have a linkback poem, "Besa" (9 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 "Crafts." 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 Dreamwidth, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, 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. "Besa" has 9 verses 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; four of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be four 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 "Crafts." See above for details. 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 "Besa." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-07 06:38 pm (UTC)Also of interest are the crayon sheep that one of the vendors had, especially since I think Shiv bought a whole sheep, didn't he?
Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 01:20 am (UTC)217 lines, Buy It Now = $109
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 04:38 am (UTC)Although someone has probably drunk-purchased soup pets and then had to call SPOON once the booze has worn off and you have a stock pot full of live baby fire chickens and a house full of singe marks... heck, people buy dangerous stuff like that without the booze.
Yes ...
From:Re: Yes ...
From:Re: Yes ...
From:Re: Yes ...
From:Re: Yes ...
From:Re: Yes ...
From:Re: Yes ...
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-07 07:25 pm (UTC)Simple songs to teach children how to make/repair things. Sewing up a tear, putting on a patch or a button.
Thrift upcycling! Buying things from thrift stores that maybe don't fit or look quite right, and making them look great.
Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 01:20 am (UTC)217 lines, Buy It Now = $109
Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 11:33 am (UTC)82 lines, Buy It Now = $41
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-07 09:36 pm (UTC)Craft supply store as an escape room...
Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 09:40 am (UTC)105 lines, Buy It Now = $53
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-07 10:07 pm (UTC)I don't have any ideas for a story involving "ephemeral or consumable art" Well, I guess you could call yarn-bombing ephemeral, because the municipality will order the yarn removed. Shiv yarn-bombing someone who violently deserves it.
Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 01:20 am (UTC)217 lines, Buy It Now = $109
Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 04:40 am (UTC)Cooking counts. Balloon art too, I guess. Any performance art; once it's done, it's done.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Poem
Date: 2023-03-09 05:10 am (UTC)66 lines, Buy It Now = $33
Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-07 10:35 pm (UTC)So... you know how Shiv knits maths... I'm just imagining him turning over two pages by accident, and making something that's hyper-dimensional, i.e it fuzzes out of ordinary orthogonal 3D space, which would make for an interesting fidget toy. (drop a marble in here and it comes out there five minutes later).
Hmm... you remember the super-intellect cats/kittens in what's left of rain city? Now picture them finding a wrecked craft store, and what they might do with that. Like reinventing nets for hunting or fishing... like these koi fish for example. (I can see a mall with an aquarium shop, getting abandoned and flooded. )
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 04:15 am (UTC)- Jasper (he/him)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Yes ...
From:Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-07 10:56 pm (UTC)For the kind of folks who live in the woods, or in long-abandoned buildings, or in steam tunnels -- probably a city that's mostly fallen down because of an earthquake wouldn't be any _worse_ than they're used to, & hey, nobody's gonna kick them OUT.
Of course, most of them happen to be artists & crafters.
(Imagine the STUFF you could find.)
Poem
Date: 2023-03-24 07:48 pm (UTC)538 lines, Buy It Now = $538
Double price for research.
Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-07 11:55 pm (UTC)Examples: Jews, Christians, Muslims all have encouraged scribal arts like calligraphy and illumination. Tibetan prayer wheels filled with scrolls or CDs now of so many prayer repetitions!
Prayer beads - Rosaries, malas, misbahas, Buddhist, Muslim, Native American ones, now there's Jewish ones too!
Build an outdoor meditation labyrinth. Weave your own prayer shawl. Make candles. Build altars, bimah furniture, and kneelers.
Garden space that gets food deserts fresh foods. There's tons of things that could be done "to beautify the mitzvot" and qualify as charity, tzedekah, zakat...
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 04:45 am (UTC)Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Poem
From:Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 01:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 02:26 am (UTC)I have also become a fan of t-shirt material because it doesn't unravel when cut. You can make long fringe or patches or whatever you want out of it. I can see the daughters of the apocalypse turning old t-shirts into all sorts of things, both practical and beautiful.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 04:45 am (UTC)Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 02:39 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2023-03-15 05:46 am (UTC)1088 lines, Buy It Now = $544
Also Shiv is being Shiv, and invented a thing that made me go, "Why didn't I think of that?" Not prayer beads, but reminder beads for something totally different and useful, replicable with local-Earth materials too.
Oh, and based on your prompt, I gave an old black Muslim lady about a million dollars worth of yarn stash.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 02:52 am (UTC)Differing strengths of art/cultural teaching and science (in places like traditional harvesting practices, in ceramics). Looking at Braiding Sweetgrass as an example.
Indigenous crafts. The art of teaching.
ETA visible mending, mending-as-added-value (personal or otherwise), and upcycling.
- Jasper (he/him)
Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 11:34 am (UTC)82 lines, Buy It Now = $41
Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 04:09 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 11:31 am (UTC)82 lines, Buy It Now = $41
Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 04:58 am (UTC)This poem seems to fit well with the concept of names-as-power, and deadnaming. Probably would fit well in Fledgeling grace, and for the crafts theme, maybe stuff like Victorian jewelry, or saint's relics where you are using hair, bone etc as a memento of the dead or focus for prayer.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Poetry/comments/ybocfv/poem_your_old_name_is_not_your_king_by_jarod_k/
Crafting with nothing or just what you can find.
Crafting used as a tool; like communication or making custom stuff.
Poem
Date: 2023-03-08 09:40 am (UTC)105 lines, Buy It Now = $53
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-08 06:45 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2023-03-09 05:11 am (UTC)66 lines, Buy It Now = $33
Promp
Date: 2023-03-08 07:28 am (UTC)Speaking of tech stuff, hacking -- whether hardware or software -- is definitely a craft. (This is the original sort of hacking, bashing code together to do something not covered in the specs, not the forms of cyberattack often lumped under that name now.)
I believe we've already seen some examples of crafting in the Lacuna. In addition, crafting ability surely comes in handy at the far end of a supply line when it would take too long to get the right component to fix things. Also, what crafts are most appealing to the neurodiverse inhabitants of the Lacuna?
Re: Promp
Date: 2023-03-09 09:59 am (UTC)95 lines, Buy It Now = $48
Done for the night!
Date: 2023-03-08 11:35 am (UTC)Re: Done for the night!
Date: 2023-03-11 07:42 pm (UTC)"Beautiful, Functional Objects"
Two new woodworkers move to Rutledge, and both of them make cat furniture.
"The Absorbing Joy"
Kitt realizes that he can't really compete with Kat, so he comes up with another idea.
"I Do What I Do Because I Want To"
Pavo invites Shiv to an art party for making beach cards.
Hold for original prompter.