Poetry Fishbowl Open!

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "short forms." 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 poetic forms of 60 lines or less, so basically below my epic range rather than only the short-short length of 10 lines or less. Free verse below the length limit is also fine. Here are 15 short forms with descriptions. Among my favorite short forms not listed there: hexaduad, indriso, sestina, villanelle. This list of 100 forms is alphabetical. Poets Garrett has my favorite list of forms, including a list of repeating-interlocking forms. Their main page has links to poetic forms of 3-10 lines. Plus a few of my own: A darrow poem is a short, haiku-like musing by dark elves. A khazal is a Whispering Sands desert poem in couplets. A moose track is a repeating-interlocking form. A tweet wire is a tiny 10-line poem designed for Twitter. Some short forms, like haiku and tanka, work well as verses in a longer poem. I have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco so most forms should be in there. You can also prompt with a link to any exotic form you find; I collect these things.

In addition to forms, I also need topical prompts. One-word or short-phrase framing will assist in keeping them small enough to fit within the theme. Here is a huge list of common themes. This page of idioms has alphabetical and topical listings. I love writing poems about an individual word; see The Phrontistery (WARNING! Black hole caliber time sink ahead!) for glossaries or this list of untranslatable words. Have an orientation that is not well represented in literature? Ask for a sexual, romantic, or other orientation! If it's not on any of my lists, just include a description or link to one. I also list gender identities and my characters with disabilities. Want to help me play with my holiday gifts? :D I just got The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and would love to write poems about many of its words. I also have The Conflict Thesaurus, The Occupation Thesaurus, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Urban Setting Thesaurus, The Rural Setting Thesaurus, The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus. Simply click "Look Inside" and view the table of contents for a list of cool ideas. You can prompt a sestina with six end words; I usually pick 5 short flexible words and one long exotic word, but I'll work with whatever I get. Favorite characters, threads, series, settings, etc. are also fair game but this is NOT the time for long plotty prompts. Consider combining a name or title with a short form, theme, or idiom. If you like to prompt with photos, this is a great opportunity for that. Just type in a topic (see above for possibilities) and click the Image link in your favorite search engine.

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A Brief Guide to the Avengers

Challenge #2

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.



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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and mild with a light breeze.  It rained last night, steadily for hours.  Everything is still wet, puddles reflecting the gray sky and bare trees.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a flock of sparrows, a male cardinal, a downy woodpecker who didn't want to leave the feeders, and a fox squirrel. 

EDIT 1/3/22 -- Tonight is partly cloudy with a bright moon and stars in patches.  When I first went outside to check the mailbox, there was a pale ring with an apricot rim.  By the time I headed back toward the house, it had turned into the most spectacular rainbow ring around the moon that I've ever seen, spreading beyond the rim in colored circles.  :D  I love nature.

Poem: "Naked Knowledge"

This poem was inspired and sponsored by mdlbear. It also fills the "not entirely devoid of interest" square in my 1-1-23 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.

Warning: This poem and its references are very Not Safe For Work at most jobs.

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Poem: "Poetic Affections"

This is today's freebie, inspired by prompts from siberian_skys and see_also_friend. It also fills the "Almost Human" square in my 1-1-23 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Love Is For Children.

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