Poetry Fishbowl Open!: ysabetwordsmith

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you all for your enthusiasm.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "wild animals." 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 "Grit and Grace" (Path of the Paladins) 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 "wild animals." 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.

$214.50 raised, first goal MET, second goal MET

3) 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.

4) 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. Commission details are here. See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"

5) 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; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published. If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.

Linkback perk: I have a spare series poem available, and each linkback will reveal a verse of the poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal.

minor_architect has volunteered to post the verses this month, so you'll need to notify her of your linkbacks in a comment to her post, in order for them to count. "Grit and Grace" belongs to the Path of the Paladins series and has 18 verses. After this poem is completely posted, you'll get a chance to decide something that happens next, so link briskly if you want to find out what the surprise is.

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.  While you're on the Donors list, you can view all of the custom-locked posts in that category. Click the "donors" tag to read the archive of those. I've also posted a list of other donor perks there. I customarily leave donor names on the list for two months, so you'll get to see the perk-post from this month and next.

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.

5) If donations total $150+ by Friday evening then I'll post an extra series poem after the Poetry Fishbowl. Everyone will get to vote which series gets a new poem. (If it's one that already has unpublished poetry, you'll get to pick from that.  Otherwise, I'll write something new, and current donors will get to offer me prompts.) If donations reach $200, the perk upgrades so that you get a whole extra fishbowl for a poetic series, including a free poem. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it's likely to be a half-day rather than a whole day. At $250 you get another free series poem; you can request both from the same series, or from two different series.

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 "wild animals."  I'll be soliciting ideas for historic or modern species, individual animals, people who work with wild animals, tools used by wild animals, interesting environmental features, wilderness habitats, things that wild animals do, things that people do with or to wild animals, peculiar life cycle events, mysteries such as species that are believed extinct but might not be, animal symbolism, 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, an extra series poem if donations reach $150+, a series fishbowl if donations reach $200, and another free series poem at $250. Linkbacks reveal verses of "Grit and Grace.") The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

ellenmillion

February 7 2012, 18:50:09 UTC 9 years ago

New comment

A Torn World predator of some kind.

Sea monsters! :)

The act of domestication.

Track identification.

Poem

ysabetwordsmith

February 7 2012, 20:03:17 UTC 9 years ago

From "track identification" I got the free-verse poem "Impressions of the North," which I've posted as today's freebie.

Deleted comment

February 7 2012, 23:06:42 UTC 9 years ago

For scavengers, see "The Death Tenders" which has been sponsored.

siege

February 7 2012, 19:00:38 UTC 9 years ago

Some animals are never truly tamed.

Society among ravens

Even the eldest still play sometimes

Small children (acting like)

Otherkin

Urban wildlife

February 7 2012, 23:23:47 UTC 9 years ago Edited: February 8 2012, 01:15:26 UTC

The "otherkin" prompt combined with many others to describe some of the gifts enjoyed by those who are not solely human. "The Earthborn" is written in free verse.

30 lines, Buy It Now = $15

the_vulture

February 7 2012, 19:01:09 UTC 9 years ago

My very first LJ post: Why a vulture?

February 7 2012, 19:32:31 UTC 9 years ago

From prompts about vultures and other scavengers, I got the free-verse poem "The Death Tenders." It describes the importance of their role in both environmental and spiritual terms.

45 lines, Buy It Now = $20

February 7 2012, 19:01:52 UTC 9 years ago

Anthony Barrette prompted backchannel for a poem about wildly complaining cats in a carrier. The result is "Tinned Kitties."

12 lines, Buy It Now = $10

Re: Poem

aldersprig

February 7 2012, 19:57:48 UTC 9 years ago

/laugh/ that's tomorrow for me, taking the Sugar Cat to the vet!

February 7 2012, 19:02:05 UTC 9 years ago

Also, the unexpected savagery of pandas and other 'cute' animals

February 8 2012, 05:59:55 UTC 9 years ago

Unexpected savagery led to the free-verse poem "Cute in Tooth and Claw" about the hazards of pandas, koalas, and platypi.

19 lines, Buy It Now = $10

9 years ago

janetmiles

February 7 2012, 19:03:42 UTC 9 years ago

Baby humans are cute so their parents don't strangle them. Why are baby non-humans typically cute in ways that appeal to humans?

What if humans had domesticated different animals than they did (frex, zebras instead of horses, or giraffes instead of camels)?

"Why are you snapping your fingers?"
"It keeps the tigers away."
"But there are no tigers in North America!"
"See how well it works?"

Superstitions related to wild animals, like counting crows or saying "rabbit rabbit rabbit" on the first day of the month for luck.

Wild animals adapting to habitat changes (e.g., moths where the entire species developed a darker color in response to pollution).

February 7 2012, 23:38:40 UTC 9 years ago

From the prompt about animal adaptations came "Truth in Theory and Practice" which describes three examples of a common process. This poem is written in unrhymed quatrains.

16 lines, Buy It Now = $10

marina_bonomi

February 7 2012, 19:17:56 UTC 9 years ago

A falconer working with owls instead than falcons.

Androcles and the lion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androcles

the toad saving the mouse in a flood http://onewomansthoughts2day.blogspot.com/2012/01/unexpectedly.html

animal-raised children (feral children)

moonwolf1988

February 7 2012, 19:25:32 UTC 9 years ago

Wolves

Extinct animals still being alive - would we have tamed the woolly mammoth and kept the sabre tooth tiger in a zoo?

Why would a wild animal choose to be the animal totem of a human?

February 8 2012, 00:47:00 UTC 9 years ago

See below for thumbnail of "The Wolves of Yellowstone."

February 7 2012, 19:47:20 UTC 9 years ago

I keep getting an image of Maryam with a cheetah on a leash. Is it for real? An extravagant gift from an happy client? Is it a rescue? Or is it how she thinks of herself sometimes?

February 7 2012, 22:33:32 UTC 9 years ago

I combined your cheetah prompt with several related ones about domesticating wild animals. It turns out that domesticating cheetahs is a lot more feasible with alchemy than without it, though still not exactly easy. They're sensitive to alchemical energies, too, which is an uncommon trait and highly valued. This comes in very handy when some of Maryam's friends present her with a cheetah, for London is an old city and not all of its fixtures are maintained quite as well as they ought to be.

169 lines, Buy It Now = $84.50

February 7 2012, 20:05:45 UTC 9 years ago Edited: February 7 2012, 20:06:16 UTC

Small and fierce creatures (sandcat, frex)

My father,

alderfather, saw a bear in his front yard, and someone found a dead fisher not two blocks from them. In exurban upstate NY, this is a rarity, but becoming more common.

http://alderfather.livejournal.com/40981.html

"Possum in its natural state" (i.e., roadkill)

A world where our predators adapted as we did

February 8 2012, 00:50:47 UTC 9 years ago

Sandcat and possum are in "Earthborn" described above.

jenny_evergreen

February 7 2012, 20:14:13 UTC 9 years ago

Birds gliding; my son and I were just talking about this this morning, how they "stop" flying but stay in the sky. I talked to him about how predator birds like hawks and eagles sometimes glide so that they don't give away their presence to prey, and then I mentioned that owls do that, too, and we had a discussion about how owls are nocturnal and what that means (he knew) and that we are diurnal, generally.

My totem is the turtle or tortoise; my oldest son's is the hare. Of course, the story of the tortoise and the hare comes to mind.

(My other son's totem is chameleon.)

Snakes. Sinuous.

The human in the wild.

My husband and I were talking about how, back before "modern civilization", the area we live in would probably have been deserted by people every winter for warmer climes.
It must have been interesting to the animals that stayed.

February 8 2012, 00:52:19 UTC 9 years ago

Snakes are in "The Earthborn" described above.

February 8 2012, 00:53:25 UTC 9 years ago

It helps if you have alchemy to assist domestication. See the cheetah in "A Keen Eye for Alchemy."

Another one

February 7 2012, 20:17:37 UTC 9 years ago

...and then I'll shut my mouth, I promise.

One Thousand Cranes

whuffle

February 7 2012, 20:42:07 UTC 9 years ago

What about wild animals with domestic kin? The ones whom we should respect that belong in the wild?

I'm specifically thinking of the experiences I've had with people calling the domestic rabbit rescue that I volunteer for about wild bunnies.

They call when they don't know how to tell the difference between the appearance of wild versus domestic rabbits. They call when they find a baby wild bunny whom they think is abandoned and needs to be taken care of by humans. They call when there's a wild rabbit that they think is in danger or injured.

When do we have the right to intervene? When should we allow nature to take its course? And when is our true place simply that as nature's handmaiden, helping whatever should happen to continue doing so in as natural a fashion as possible?

February 8 2012, 01:11:06 UTC 9 years ago

From the prompt about rabbits and intervention came "Changing Nature," a free-verse poem about conscious and subconscious forces in evolution, the choices people make and the effects those have.

30 lines, Buy It Now = $15

Post a new comment
56 comments

Log in

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Recent Posts from This Journal

Fieldhaven as Habitat

A Little Slice of Terramagne: YardMap

Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-21

Error

Poem

Poem

Poem

Poem

Poem

Re: Poem

Poem

Re: Poem

Poem

Poem

Poem

Re: Poem

Re: Poem

Re: Poem

Poem

Poem

Poem

Another one

Poem

Recent Posts from This Journal

Fieldhaven as Habitat

A Little Slice of Terramagne: YardMap

Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-21