Reader Comments: Parody, slams, getting started, and more
One of the things I value about this blog is the community that’s built up around it. As a result, my posts are often just a springboard to more helpful…
One of the things I value about this blog is the community that's built up around it. As a result, my posts are often just a springboard to more helpful information and poetic discussion. So, when it seems appropriate, I'm going to collect comments that readers have made to posts that could benefit the whole group.
Enjoy!
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So the rest of you won't have to work as hard as I did to find the poem We Real White, try the URL below.It goes directly to the poem rather than to the poet list. The poet was Matthais Peterson Brandt.
Now, this would be a great pre-Wednesday prompt, giving us time to figure out how to do one of these ourselves. Maybe you could do a two-for-one Wednesday if you had another idea in mind
I had always considered a parody as making fun of something, but this is simply writing a poem using the original as a template. Thanks for the idea, your poem, and the reference to the We Real White poem. It is fun.
Sheryl Kay Oder |SkoderAT NOSPAMaol dot com
(P.S. I found another great parody poem this weekend from a back issue of Rattle called “T.S. Eliot’s Lost Hip Hop Poem,” by Jeremy Richards.)
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I would add, keep the poems you write organized and accessible in some way.
Like you, Robert, I wrote poetry for years before really attempting to publish it. Alas, I was not organized about it, wrote it into various notebooks, etc.
Finally, I wrote one I wanted to keep, so being a person involved with more than one computer, I looked around for a way to make them accessible to all of them and ended up putting them up first in yahoo briefcase and later in google documents.
With google documents, I can go back and see (and retrieve, if I need to) prior revisions. I can go back easily and revise old poems. They are handy to submit.
Having my poems organized and accessible was a real turning point for me. I think it was about a year or two after I started keeping track of them that I was reading an ezine and noticed that I had a poem that fit into the parameters for their current contest. It was a finalist, and this finally got me off my ass, joined a critique group, started reading and writing more poetry, submitting, etc.
Margaret |infoAT NOSPAMmargaretfieland dot com
Start your own critique group. That's what I did and we've been going about a month now. I emailed a few people from the challenge asking if they would be interested. We got the guidelines from Alessa Leming's critique group. Unfortunately, I don't have the website information handy. Alessa, if you're out there, please help this person!!!
Basically, for a small group, one person submits material each week on Sunday, the others send helpful comments by Wednesday, the person revises and sends to others by Sunday. A new week begins, a new person submits material, and it starts all over again. I had never been in a critique group before, let alone online, but I can tell you it is really worth it. Post a notice in the forum for people who are interested and give it a try.
Good luck.
Linda H. |LNSHOFKEAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com
To riff on Margaret's excellent comments re: organization:
I always write by hand - but then I key all work in and edit on my Mac. I have a folder on my desktop: Amy Writings.
Within that, there are folders: Prose, Poetry, The Book (don't get me started on that behemoth).
Within Poetry, there are some folders:
Poems
How to Get Stuff Published
Submissions
Rejections - Building Blocks
Sites to Avoid
Good Sites
You can easily copy a file into a folder and move it around. I always retitle when submitting, for ex: "A Cup Of Coffee," Pedestal 6-08
Can't you tell I used to be an admin. asst.? ha ha good night and good luck, Peace,
Amy Barlow Liberatore |poetmomskasAT NOSPAMrochester dot rr dot com
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I'm sure there's a slam in Buffalo. Try the slam finder at:
The founder of slam, Marc Smith, named it that as a connection to baseball, where a grand slam is a huge success.
Good luck with the 60-day challenge.
Bill Abbott |slamguyAT NOSPAMwoh dot rr dot com
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
