The Wordsmith's Forge

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 "I believe in dragons, good men, and other fantasy creatures." 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 dragons, unicorns, pegasi, griffins, centaurs, merfolk, shapeshifters, boyfriends or husbands, caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, comares, superheroes, supervillains, other fantasy creatures or kind men, questing, volunteering, making donations, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, yarnbombing, planting trees, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, falling in love, getting married, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, castles, the forest primeval, dragon hoards, romantic restaurants, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, charities, homeless shelters, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, gay bars, social justice departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, community gardens, other helper hangouts, magic, enchanted artifacts, romance, the language of flowers, intentional neighboring, altruism, acts of kindness, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, safety pin peace signs, other activist symbols, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


February is Black History Month, and that post lists some of my African and diaspora series.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Valentines Bingo Card 2-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

Clay of Life depends on the friendship between a blacksmith and a golem.

A Conflagration of Dragons is about dragons crushing civilizations, and how some people survive that.

Daughters of the Apocalypse has very few men left, but many of those are good.

Eloquent Souls features a lot of good men, mostly in the context of soulmates.

Frankenstein's Family is led by a queerplatonic male couple, plus diverse subgroups interacting.

Hart's Farm features a free love commune in historic Sweden, full of good men.

Peculiar Obligations explores the connection between Quakers and pirates, with most but not all of the good men falling on the Quaker side.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people helping people. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Starfather features a young man who accidentally adopts an alien baby.

The Yellow Unicorns is about a world where people normally can't see the color yellow, except for the unicorns.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks will reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, February 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "I believe in dragons, good men, and other fantasy creatures." I'll be soliciting ideas for dragons, unicorns, pegasi, griffins, centaurs, merfolk, shapeshifters, boyfriends or husbands, caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, comares, superheroes, supervillains, other fantasy creatures or kind men, questing, volunteering, making donations, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, yarnbombing, planting trees, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, falling in love, getting married, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, castles, the forest primeval, dragon hoards, romantic restaurants, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, charities, homeless shelters, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, gay bars, social justice departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, community gardens, other helper hangouts, magic, enchanted artifacts, romance, the language of flowers, intentional neighboring, altruism, acts of kindness, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, safety pin peace signs, other activist symbols, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


February is Black History Month, and that post lists some of my African and diaspora series.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

Clay of Life depends on the friendship between a blacksmith and a golem.

A Conflagration of Dragons is about dragons crushing civilizations, and how some people survive that.

Daughters of the Apocalypse has very few men left, but many of those are good.

Eloquent Souls features a lot of good men, mostly in the context of soulmates.

Frankenstein's Family is led by a queerplatonic male couple, plus diverse subgroups interacting.

Hart's Farm features a free love commune in historic Sweden, full of good men.

Peculiar Obligations explores the connection between Quakers and pirates, with most but not all of the good men falling on the Quaker side.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people helping people. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Starfather features a young man who accidentally adopts an alien baby.

The Yellow Unicorns is about a world where people normally can't see the color yellow, except for the unicorns.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks will reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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! )

This poem came out of the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from wyld_dandelyon. It also fills "The Port of Dreams" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Hart's Farm.

( Read more... )

This poem is spillover from the December 3, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "Blue / White" square in my 11-1-24 card for the Sleepytime Bear Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Walking the Beat.

( Read more... )

New insights into the Denisovans: New hominin group that interbred with modern day humans

Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered 'hominin' group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape early human history. Scientists outline evidence suggesting that several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range from Siberia to Southeast Asia and from Oceania to South America, were adapted to distinct environments. They further outline a number of genes of Denisovan origin that gave modern day humans advantages in their different environments.


Our ancestors live in us, and lend us their strength.

Thanks to a donation from fuzzyred, you can now read the rest of "Before You Can Love Me." Spotted Deer offers Warshirt one last, daunting challenge. Will he take it?

And with this, we are down to one open epic. \o/ If you've been waiting to open a new one, there are two slots available.

 soc_puppet has written mini-essays for the themes proposed for this year's summerofthe69 that didn't make the cut as featured themes, posted for the final theme, Failed 69.

Today's theme is Erotica. Many of these communities will be Not Safe For Work in most professions. Don't like, don't read.

( Read more... )

Thanks to a donation from fuzzyred, there are 14 new verses in "Before You Can Love Me."  Warshirt figures out why Spotted Deer likes to hang all over him.

Thanks to a donation from fuzzyred, there are 30 new verses in "Before You Can Love Me."  Its notes have also been updated.

This concludes the posting of poetry sponsored from the half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics.  You can use that page to look for anything you missed earlier.  There are a total of 5 new poems up (4 Rutledge and one other) plus the new verses.