Poetry Fishbowl Open!: ysabetwordsmith

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

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

Starting now, the bonus Poetry Fishbowl is open! This is the perk for the April 2, 2013 fishbowl meeting the $250 goal. Today's theme is "Path of the Paladins." 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.

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

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. Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall. 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.

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.

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 "Path of the Paladins." I'll be soliciting ideas for paladins, deities, villains, innocent bystanders, holy ground, abandoned places, battlegrounds, refuges, moments of personal growth or discovery, new accomplishments, horrible realizations, plot twists, side scenes from previous events, gaps in the storyline that need to be filled, everyday issues transmuted into fantasy versions, enchanted or holy artifacts, symbols of faith, magic, PTSD, asexuality, families of choice, perseverance, 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 of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

Path of the Paladins

Paula Krafty Katz

April 16 2013, 18:12:55 UTC 8 years ago

New comment

Hmmmm.... good one...

Paladins are traditionally holy warriors and were Charlemange's 12 peers... so I have this idea of a renegade group or one going rogue?? Not so much evil as maybe one that wants to follow the path of paganism but is still on the side of right.

Otherwise, the path would be a voyage of self-discovery, maybe finding out that he doesn't want to be a knight but ... I dunno a baker or something!! (as un-warrior-like as possible LOL) :) Have fun writing!!

PS it's technogeekslass but my stupid browser has lost all my passwords and logged me out so I'm having to reset my LJ password!!

Re: Path of the Paladins

ysabetwordsmith

April 16 2013, 19:33:10 UTC 8 years ago

I have posted "Divergent Paths" as today's freebie.

8 years ago

janetmiles

April 16 2013, 19:24:07 UTC 8 years ago

It's been a while since we've seen how things are going in Ari's home village.

Poem

April 17 2013, 06:46:06 UTC 8 years ago

From your prompt about Ari's village, I got the free-verse poem "Landfather." Johan, Althey, and company arrive at the village in time to provide a very useful service.

This poem will become available after "An Impetuous Presence" finishes posting, since it's later in the timeline.

whuffle

April 16 2013, 19:30:56 UTC 8 years ago

Diaries, letters home, carefully pressed bits of plants, what sorts of notes from their travels would your paladins keep?

Crusaders brought saffron back to Europe because they could find nothing else like it at home. What about foods and tiny bits of traditions which your paladins would have picked up during their journey? Tell me something they've tasted, smelled, seen, heard, that they yearn for?

April 16 2013, 20:59:08 UTC 8 years ago

I loved the prompt about spices. "The Epicurean Caravan" is a free-verse poem about Shahana and Ari guarding a shipment of spices as they travel. It made a nice backstory for "Divergent Paths."

88 lines, Buy It Now = $44

rowyn

April 16 2013, 19:34:16 UTC 8 years ago

I'd like to know how Radd is doing and what he's up to now. :)

April 17 2013, 03:39:57 UTC 8 years ago

Rejoin Radd in the free-verse poem "Enlighten the Dark Corners." A weary traveler collapses in the road outside his church.

219 lines, Buy It Now = $109.50

the_vulture

April 16 2013, 19:56:23 UTC 8 years ago

There's a cottage full of kids, looking after a battered paladin, waiting for their story to be continued (whilst the paladin dreads the continuation of his). :)

April 17 2013, 01:25:40 UTC 8 years ago

Here then is the free-verse poem "An Impetuous Presence," in which Johan tries to deal with life among wild children with a new novice, where nothing can be concealed for long and unexpected discoveries are made without half trying.

129 lines, Buy It Now = $64.50

kelkyag

Okay...

Prompt: More Jeanne?

technoshaman

April 16 2013, 20:04:04 UTC 8 years ago

Jeanne d'Arc encounters English nobility for the first time, and has to figure out how to act towards them...
(ripe with gender and class issues)

Re: Prompt: More Jeanne?

April 16 2013, 20:06:55 UTC 8 years ago

I love this prompt, and will save it for future reference in that series.

Today's theme is Path of the Paladins. Got anything for that?

kestrels_nest

April 16 2013, 21:28:42 UTC 8 years ago

A thought. I have listened to rape victims, and something I have heard from more than one is that it complicates intimacy. Even with the most gentle of partners, that particular sort of touch brings back the echo of the original trauma. Would the disciplines of a paladin affect that, and how? And what about the trauma of a Goddess? Part of the nature of divinity is that memory does not fade, so how does She deal with what is both violation and repudiation of Her divine nature?

April 17 2013, 00:01:58 UTC 8 years ago

From your prompt about goddess trauma came the free-verse poem "Hallowing." Syvera, lady of beasts and Diawn, god of plants come together to help Gailah with her troubled past. I promise that there is no magical healing c*** of any kind in this poem.

Also, I'd been wondering why Gorrein was bleeding away followers so darn fast. Now we know. In retrospect, this ought to have been obvious. *chuckle* The clue, he has it not.

136 lines, Buy It Now = $68

Re: Poem

siliconshaman

April 16 2013, 21:28:52 UTC 8 years ago

Hmm... I wonder if Ari might not question her path if she runs across a young man who fancies her?

Here's a thought, do the Gods, and more importantly one Goddess in particular, walk among mortals? And what would be our pair's reaction be if they met her.

siege

April 16 2013, 23:13:35 UTC 8 years ago

In concert with the above comment, or separate from it, I'd like to suggest dreamwalking as a prompt. With even a trickle of magic available, there must be some who can tread in the dreamtime as sure-footedly as they walk the world -- or even better.

Also, are there any disabled paladins still serving? Blind or deaf, missing limbs or other body parts... war is ugly stuff, and curses can strike children (even in the womb) just as surely as adults.

wyld_dandelyon

April 17 2013, 01:30:36 UTC 8 years ago

The aftermath of a village needing to eat their seed-stock to survive a winter.

The first spring flowers

A paladin's tools of the trade aren't always obvious (or sharp)

Sometimes regalia is important

April 17 2013, 04:57:09 UTC 8 years ago

See "Dog Tired" for a different set of paladin tools. Can you say cluehammer?

April 17 2013, 01:55:26 UTC 8 years ago

Who turns to Gailah, not as priest or paladin or devoted follower, but just as the goddess they need to talk to / hear from / interact with?

Travelling companions for Shahana and Ari, not necessarily followers of Gailah, or even human?

April 17 2013, 04:57:58 UTC 8 years ago

See "Enlighten the Dark Corners" for someone turning to Gailah.

rix_scaedu

April 17 2013, 03:23:36 UTC 8 years ago Edited: April 17 2013, 03:24:02 UTC

Lost or wayward paladins finding their way home.

April 17 2013, 07:15:38 UTC 8 years ago

Okay, this is a very loose interpretation of home, but I couldn't help thinking about the aftermath of battle from "This Beaten Drum." So here is the free-verse poem "Mortal Coils," about Gailah meeting Darthur beyond the gate.

58 lines, Buy It Now = $20

laffingkat

April 17 2013, 03:31:00 UTC 8 years ago

I'm thankful for the theme this round! I'm too wiped out to have any useful suggestions, but I would be particularly happy to read any poems involving someone who is overwhelmed and weary finding a source of hope.

April 17 2013, 03:42:20 UTC 8 years ago

See above "Enlighten the Dark Corners," which incorporates someone weary and overwhelmed. You'll probably like "An Impetuous Presence" and "Hallowing" too, which have both been opened for microfunding.

Done for the night!

April 17 2013, 07:16:34 UTC 8 years ago

Okay, I've written a boatload of epics today and I'm bushed. I think I've gotten most of the prompts at least tangentially.

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