2015 April PAD Challenge: Day 9
It’s an inexact science pairing up guest judges with prompts/days in the challenge. A few request days, but most don’t. I chose the 9th for today’s judge, because I learned…
It's an inexact science pairing up guest judges with prompts/days in the challenge. A few request days, but most don't. I chose the 9th for today's judge, because I learned that the release of the Kindle edition of her debut young adult novel is today! Yes, if you have a Kindle and are into novels, be sure to check out Alison Stine's Supervision.
For today's prompt, write a work poem. For some folks, writing is work (great, huh?). For others, work is teaching, engineering, or delivering pizzas. Still others, dream of having work to help them pay the bills or go to all ages shows. Some don't want work, don't need work, and are glad to be free of the rat race. There are people who work out, work on problems, and well, I'll let you work out how to handle your poem today.
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Get Your Poetry Published.
Writing poetry is one thing; getting it published is something else. Take advantage of the best print resource for publishing your poetry today with the 2015 Poet’s Market, edited by Robert Lee Brewer.
This annual reference includes new articles on the craft, business, and promotion of poetry, explanations of poetic forms, poet interviews, new poems, and hundreds of listings for book and chapbook publishers, print and online publications, contests and awards, and so much more–all for poets!
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Here's my attempt at a Work Poem:
"quantifying"
it's time to roll up our sleeves
& get at it, i say. it's time
to what, you ask. it's time to write
great american poetry,
i say, like this anthology
that's filled with contemporary
american poetry, &
you take the book & flip through it
& say, this was last reprinted
forty years ago & besides
the only female poets are
levertov, plath, rich & sexton.
i say, at least they were super
women poets. you roll your eyes
& say, listen: fifty percent
of them committed suicide,
& then i know you're talking down
to my level because you know
how i like to use statistics.
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Today's guest judge is...
Alison Stine
Alison Stine is the author of three books of poetry--Wait (University of Wisconsin Press), Ohio Violence (University of North Texas Press), and Lot of My Sister (The Kent State University Press)--and a novel, Supervision (HarperVoyager, 2015).
Trained as a performer, Ali's original stage plays and musicals have been produced at the Cleveland Playhouse, the University of Nebraska, La Habra Depot Theatre, and the Trilogy Theatre Group. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and received the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.
Learn more at AlisonStine.com.
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Poem Your Heart Out again!
The prompts from last year’s challenge along with the winning poem from each day ended up in an inspired little anthology titled Poem Your Heart Out. It was part prompt book, part poetry anthology, and part workbook, because each day includes a few pages for you to make your own contributions.
Anyway, the anthology worked out so well that we’re doing it again this year, and you can take advantage of a 20% discount from Words Dance by pre-ordering before May 1, 2015.
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems.
Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
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More poetic posts here:
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.
