What Sparks Poetry:
Karen Leona Anderson on "Rat"
"To write vermin is to ask then who makes them faceless and liquid, seething, scheming, malicious, too much, over and over; who feeds them and then turns away, repulsed. (Was it me? Of course.) It’s to ask who is at home, inside; who is outside. Why vermin are women’s fault and their shadow, their shame and their labor, how making vermin is so much work to do and undo and who that work is for." |
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Joshua Bennett on Reading a Poem at the White House
"It took me a day or two, but I eventually settled on the poem I would read: 'Tamara’s Opus,' an ode to my older sister. The subject of the poem was my relationship with Tamara, who is deaf, and by extension my relationship to American Sign Language, which I had struggled to learn as a child. Given the theme, and the stakes of the moment, I knew there was no other poem I could share from that stage."
via LITHUB |
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This April, to celebrate National Poetry Month, we'll share popular writing prompts from our "What Sparks Poetry" essay series each morning. Write along with us!
Choose between five to eight photos of a family member and write a brief lyric for each image; however, after the initial lyric, begin each subsequent lyric with the last line or phrase ending the previous lyric. Throughout, acknowledge briefly your hand in constructing the image; bear responsibility for your description as the judgment it is. When editing, the repetition of endings and beginnings must be maintained. Moreover, as the lyric progresses, rely more and more on the sonic qualities of your language to capture the visual qualities of the photo and the affect produced by, and in regards to, the chosen image.
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