creativeStarting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "chocolate and other foods." 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.
Watch for the linkbacks perk to go live. Click to read "Beggars' Night" (Monster House) or notify
minor_architect of linkbacks to reveal more verses.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 "chocolate and other foods." 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) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A new feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. At $150 you get a free series poem; at $200 you get an extra fishbowl featuring a poetic series.
$211 raised, first goal MET, second goal MET
December 6 2011, 19:52:17 UTC 9 years ago
(and the way it sits on familial hips)
Food as abuse.
(and the way it took me seven years to be comfortable eating in front of a guy after my ex.)
Food as comfort (And the way I bring my spouse!man cookies, the way he makes me broth with chives when I'm sick)... or is that food as love?
Food as tradition (and the way my grandmother's cookies (lebcuchens? Must have been her mother-in-law's recipe) are now my mother's and my Christmas habit).
Food as necessity (and the lean year of beans and rice and bbq sauce)...
...food as obligation:
That was a phrase of Sybil's that got to him. She'd announce at lunch: "we must have the pork tonight, it needs eating up." Vimes never had an actual problem with this, because he'd been raised to eat what was put in front of him, and do it quickly, too, before someone else snatched it away. He was just puzzled at the suggestion that he was there to do the food a favour.
--Terry Pratchett, Thud, pg 334, footnote
(and the way we've been eating quite a few apples lately, in everything).
Poem
December 6 2011, 21:14:01 UTC 9 years ago