Tag: NPM15

Poetry for All: Prompt 4

On By Elizabeth AustenLeave a comment

The “Poetry for All” series continues with a marvelous poem by William Stafford: “Starting With Little Things.”

Prompt 4:

See other prompts.

Poem credits:

William Stafford, “Starting With Little Things” from Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems. Copyright © 1987 by William Stafford. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, http://www.graywolfpress.org.

My thanks to the featured poets for permission to use their poems, and to Sheila Farr and John Helde for essential technical help.

Poetry for All: Prompt 3

On By Elizabeth AustenLeave a comment

Here’s the third in my “Poetry for All” series of video poetry prompts. This one features “Desire, Like a Hungry Lion” by Dorothy Trogdon from her collection Tall Woman Looking (Blue Begonia Press).

Prompt 3: Desire

Desire, Like a Hungry Lion

                                                                  For RB

A hungry lion is loose in the streets of May.

How difficult it is for you to know what you require
at any passage of your life
               yet something sees and knows and waits

until you open your door and go forward to meet it,
to offer what has been taking shape within you.

Hold out the tempting crumbs in the palm of your hand
and quietly wait until you feel the touch of the velvet muzzle.

Look well at the fur and claw of wildness, your brother.
The stars need darkness or you would not know them.

—Dorothy Trogdon

You can hear Dorothy Trogdon reading her poem at KUOW.org.

See other prompts.

Feel free to share this, and I hope you’ll leave me a comment to tell me know how it goes.

Poem credits:

Dorothy Trogdon, “Desire, Like a Hungry Lion” from Tall Woman Looking. Copyright © 2012 by Dorothy Trogdon. Used with the permission of the author and Blue Begonia Press.

My thanks to the featured poets for permission to use their poems, and to Sheila Farr and John Helde for essential technical help.

Poetry for All: Prompt 2

On By Elizabeth AustenLeave a comment

Here’s the second in my series of video poetry prompts. This one includes a poem by Peter Pereira, from his collection What’s Written on the Body. These are intended for the poetry-curious, beginning writers, and anyone who’d like company at the desk. Please feel free to share this, and I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know how it goes, OK?

Prompt 2: A Visitation

This prompt features Peter Pereira’s poem “Twenty Years after His Passing, My Father Appears to Us in Chicago, at Bobby Chinn’s Crab & Oyster House, in the Guise of Our Waiter, Ramon” from What’s Written on the Body (Copper Canyon Press).

See other prompts.

Poem credits:

Peter Pereira, “Twenty Years after His Passing, My Father Appears to Us in Chicago, at Bobby Chinn’s Crab & Oyster House, in the Guise of Our Waiter, Ramon” from What’s Written on the Body. Copyright © 2007 by Peter Pereira. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

My thanks to the featured poets for permission to use their poems, and to Sheila Farr and John Helde for essential technical help.

National Poetry Month: Poetry for All

On By Elizabeth AustenLeave a comment

Just in time for National Poetry Month, I’m launching a short series of online poetry prompts. These videos are mini versions of the free poetry writing workshops I’m giving all around Washington state. Each combines a model poem with a writing activity, and is intended to be useful to the poetry-curious and beginning writers alike. Here’s the first one.

Prompt 1: A Memorable Meal

Prompt 1 features Li-Young Lee’s “Eating Together,” from Rose (BOA Editions), and was inspired by the indispensable The Pen and the Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World by Brenda Miller and Holly J. Hughes.

This series is a bit of an experiment, so I hope you’ll post comments about how this works for you.

Poem credits:

Li-Young Lee, “Eating Together” from Rose. Copyright © 1986 by Li-Young Lee. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

HUGE thanks to the featured poets for permission to use their poems, and to Sheila Farr and John Helde for essential technical help.