Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: creative

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open!  Today's theme is "doors and passages." 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.

NEW IDEA: If you are promoting this fishbowl with a reference on your own blog, please consider including your own prompt(s) there.  It lets your readers see an example of what I'm looking for, and then later they can drop by and find out what I've done with it.

ELECTION DAY: After I post this, I'll go vote.  You folks start posting your prompts, and I'll begin writing when I get home.  Have you voted today?  If so, please mention it in your comment!  I'll be making a list of voters, and then I'll add them to my "Donors" list this month so you can enjoy the perk-post.


What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?

Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.

In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "doors and passages." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.


Cyberfunded Creativity

I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:

1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.

2) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).

0-10 lines: $5
11-25 lines: $10
26-40 lines: $15
41-60 lines: $20
Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.

3) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Details are here.  New photos of sample scrapbooked poems are here.

4) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your LiveJournal, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network.  The Twitter hashtag is #poetryfishbowl.  Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl.  If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like.  If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.


Additional Notes

1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."

2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function.  (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.)  These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.

3) Sponsors of the Poetry Fishbowl in general, or of specific poems, will gain access to an extra post in appreciation of their generosity.

4) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.


Feed the Fish!
Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "doors and passages."  I'm soliciting prompts for gateways, threshold experiences, hidden doors, secret passages, things that appear from behind doors, the symbolism of doors and passages, journeys, plot twists involving doors, places where interesting entrances or exits can be found, and poetic forms in particular. But anything is welcome, really. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have the first edition of Lewis Turco's The Book of Forms which covers most common and many obscure forms.

I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation.) The rest will go into my archive for magazine submission.
Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, poetry, reading, writing
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  • 90 comments
janetmiles

janetmiles

November 2 2010, 17:10:51 UTC 10 years ago Edited:  November 2 2010, 17:21:11 UTC

Door, the character from Neil Gaiman's _Neverwhere_

Revolving doors
Rotating doors
Paired entrance and exit doors
Unpaired entrance and exit doors

Secret doors behind bookshelves or staircases or statues
"Put. The candle. Back."

Doors between worlds

The social difference between the front door, the side door, and the back door

Windows as doors

Secret passages from one point to another

Magical doors that only open for one person or one class of person

One way doors

Unwanted connections

Doors to and from other dimensions

"The door irised open"

Cartoon doors that open onto brick walls
Cartoon doors that are painted onto a solid surface but can then be opened and walked through

Doors that are opened with magical keys

Doors that are opened with intangible keys (like a thought, a snatch of music, a word spelled once forward and once backward)

Doors that don't always go to the same place

Secret passages -- bomb shelters, storm shelters, tunnels under universities

Passage of time
Rites of passage
Rights of passage
Don't pass on the right

Doormen, doorkeepers, door guards
"Halt! Who goes there?"

Passages from books or poems


I linked, and I voted (early voting last week).
aldersprig

Yay! Poetry Fishbowl & I made it!

aldersprig

November 2 2010, 17:21:16 UTC 10 years ago

Ack! :-)

Secret doors behind bookshelves or staircases or statues
"Put. The candle. Back."

Doors between worlds

Yes.

The Door Into Summer.

The Arbor that leads to another world or another place

The portable door.
The cartoon chalk-outline door. (whoops, janetmiles got that one, too.

Those doors between hotel rooms: what if you could step from one life to another like that?

Finding something new on the road more traveled.


ysabetwordsmith

Re: Yay! Poetry Fishbowl & I made it!

ysabetwordsmith

November 2 2010, 18:54:30 UTC 10 years ago

From your prompt about finding something new, I got "The Road More Traveled," a free verse poem. It blends metaphoric and material roads and images to explore what can be found -- both new and old -- along a well-worn route. I was actually reminded of certain historic routes, like Roman roads, the Silk Road, and America's wagon trails.

30 lines, Buy It Now = $15
aldersprig

Re: Yay! Poetry Fishbowl & I made it!

aldersprig

November 2 2010, 19:00:09 UTC 10 years ago

Ooh, sounds fascinating! *bounce*
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Yay! Poetry Fishbowl & I made it!

ysabetwordsmith

November 3 2010, 00:10:14 UTC 10 years ago

Thanks. You'll get to see your poem(s) later, when I have time to send the backchannel copies.
aldersprig

Re: Yay! Poetry Fishbowl & I made it!

aldersprig

November 3 2010, 00:15:22 UTC 10 years ago

I wait with bated breath