This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, August 3 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be
"Asexual / Demisexual Intimacy Pr0n." I'll be soliciting ideas for people on the
ace-aro spectrum, dance partners, beat partners, leader-follower partners, housemates,
communards, comares, superheroes, supervillains, introverts, activists, counselors, other people who promote nonsexual intimacies,
creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, growing closer, moving in together, formalizing a relationship, fumbling for vocabulary, starting a family, cooking together, discovering things, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, sharehouses, schools, clubs, quiet rooms, workplaces, kitchens, campsites, laboratories, makerspaces, nonhuman environments, gardens, other places where people interact closely, family dynamics, partnerships not based on sex/romance,
layered personal boundaries, emotional closeness, first contact, interspecies relationships, trial and error, lab conditions are not field conditions, innovation,
skin hunger, loneliness, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.
Consider "Asexual / Demisexual" as shorthand for the whole
ace-aro spectrum. Characters do not have to be acespec to participate in this event. Other types of partnership and attraction are welcome. Intimacy pr0n focuses on close personal connections. It can be exciting to acespec people much as genital pr0n is exciting to allosexual people, just in some way other than sex/romance. Look at
nonsexual intimacies and
Five Moments of Intimacy for inspiration. This is a
previous FMI bingo card from a
fest on Allbingo. The overall goal of this theme is to promote storylines not based on sex/romance that bring characters closer together.
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
The Blueshift Troupers travel in a living ship and are a very tight-knit group.
A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures regarding relationships. This often poses challenges for the refugees.
Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to survive, when they absolutely must depend on each other.
Fledgling Grace involves a lot of spiritual intimacy.
Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania, plus werewolves, vampires, and a mummy for all kinds of atypical intimacy.
Hart's Farm is a free love community with diverse bonding methods.
The Moon Door mixes a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy, so it's all about sharing.
Not Quite Kansas has out-of-place humans forced to rely on each other, plus a demon for soul intimacy.
Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all of whom have their own interpersonal expectations.
Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they're a very diverse group in a very conservative area.
Or you can ask for something new.
I have a linkback poem, "Begin to Understand Ourselves" (8 verses, An Army of One).
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.
I am now.) 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! )