Poetry Fishbowl Open!: ysabetwordsmith

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

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

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "first contact." 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.

Click to read the linkback poem "Worse Than the Disease" (Polychrome Heroics, 19 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 "first contact." 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 feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.

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, Digg, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, or any other social network.  Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl, #promptcall, and #crowdfunding. 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. Comment with a link to where you posted. "Worse Than the Disease" belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics and has 19 verses.

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 $100 by Friday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl. These will usually be series poems if I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size.  If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; three of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be three months in a row. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day. If donations reach $300, there will be a half-price sale in one series to be selected in an audience poll.

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 "first contact." I'll be soliciting ideas for aliens, fantasy races, explorers, ordinary people in extraordinary situations, fish out of water, other folks who may be the first to meet strangers, crashing a starship, stumbling over a settlement, discovering new ideas, touching each other, plot twists, alien planets, other realms, mysterious temples, schools, doors and gates, stone circles, crop circles, other places where strange meetings occur, sufficiently advanced technology, magical artifacts, ray guns, peace treaties, 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 Lewis Turco's The New 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, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal verses of "Worse Than the Disease.") The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

my_partner_doug

June 3 2014, 18:00:24 UTC 7 years ago

New comment

No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Who do you contact first in case of an emergency?

A space-faring alien race makes first contact with Earth, and requests meeting with a rather odd sampling of Terrans, not all of whom are human, and *none* of whom are political or military leaders.

Poem

ysabetwordsmith

June 3 2014, 18:29:45 UTC 7 years ago

From your prompt about an odd sampling, I got the free-verse poem "One of Each," posted as today's freebie.

7 years ago

Missed one:

June 3 2014, 18:02:03 UTC 7 years ago

How about a sequel to "LOL Aliens"?

June 3 2014, 18:07:39 UTC 7 years ago

A backchannel prompt from Naomi Rivkis asked to see Rosita connecting with her birth family. "All the Colors" is a free-verse poem about the ups and downs of family bonding.

144 lines, Buy It Now = $72

technoshaman

June 3 2014, 18:14:19 UTC 7 years ago

The Lacuna meet something ... Different.

The Heroes encounter something that needs Tim's expertise.

Don Candido arrives in the village.

June 3 2014, 19:30:27 UTC 7 years ago

Your prompt about Tim inspired the free-verse poem "In Drab Silence." Travel to and from other dimensions means that not only do people speak different languages, they use different senses to do so.

66 lines, Buy It Now = $33

siliconshaman

June 3 2014, 18:44:37 UTC 7 years ago Edited: June 3 2014, 18:55:11 UTC

Not your usual First Contact: PolyChrome Heroes meets Elven High Fantasy Universe. The Elves want to talk to the 'natural leader' i.e the strongest mage.

One of the ships brought into the Lacuna's scrapyard [the Minotaur's backyard] isn't human...and it's alive, sort of.]

The aliens arrive and want to talk to the Earth's dominant species, the cats!

June 4 2014, 03:40:16 UTC 7 years ago

"Over the Old Bridge" features a pair of elves coming to Terramagne looking for help with a magical problem. This poem is written in free verse.

200 lines, Buy It Now = $100

janetmiles

June 3 2014, 18:56:59 UTC 7 years ago

_Star Trek_'s Prime Directive - honored more in the breach than in the observance

Breaking in a new doctor or therapist

Love at first sight (which I didn't believe in, until I met Dale. Zot.)

June 3 2014, 20:34:17 UTC 7 years ago

Your "love at first sight" prompt got me thinking about the soulbond trope and how it rarely plays out well, neither furnishing a good explanation of the mechanics nor the value of friendship in making a healthy progression through boundaries to intimacy. Then I hit on the idea of bonding pheromones as something akin to epoxy glue. The result is "A Two-Part Solution," a free-verse poem about a bonding dynamic that actually makes sense. Because nothing fixes a dippy romantic trope like shoving some science all up inside it.

17 lines, Buy It Now = $10

Re: Poem

rix_scaedu

June 3 2014, 19:38:34 UTC 7 years ago

A first date.

Meeting a partner's family for the first time.

The first day at a new school.

June 3 2014, 21:52:20 UTC 7 years ago Edited: June 7 2014, 07:21:43 UTC

Your "new school" prompt dovetailed neatly with Danso's situation, so I wrote about his first day going back to high school after time spent on the streets taking care of several younger superkids. He's having a hard time getting back into the "teen" role after that, but school and some new friends his own age will definitely help. "Like Unformed Clay" is written in free verse.

90 lines, Buy It Now = $45

June 3 2014, 19:51:53 UTC 7 years ago

A Dreamwidth prompt turned into the sonnet "Mutual Superstitions." It talks about how science and religion are often seen as superstition to each other, but in truth they are two sides of the same coin and we need both.

14 lines, Buy It Now = $10

June 3 2014, 20:07:18 UTC 7 years ago Edited: June 3 2014, 21:01:26 UTC

Brushwolf gave me a prompt over on Dreamwidth. I loved the idea of European invaders as the undead! "As Usually Happens" is a free-verse poem, a little surreal, a little creepy, about first contact on Vancouver island.

20 lines, Buy It Now = $10

the_vulture

June 3 2014, 20:56:30 UTC 7 years ago

My first contact with the Goddess happened one cold, but quiet winter evening many years ago. I was outside taking a break from a bit of socialization when a glow through the trees drew me to the bank of a frozen lake. There, the snow on the ice and pine trees glittered under the glow of the Moon, radiant and full in the night sky. I had seen many full moons prior to that evening, but that was the first that I knew them for Her and She beckoned to me...

June 3 2014, 22:02:57 UTC 7 years ago Edited: June 3 2014, 22:04:36 UTC

Well, you gave me an awesome start, so I wove a lot of this into the poem. "One Quiet Winter Evening" is free-verse about making contact with the divine and realizing for the first time what that really means.

23 lines, Buy It Now = $10

Also, this just filled in the last square in my 2-1-14 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. Can't call all the bingo lines because a bunch of stuff is still unpublished, but I've at least written to blackout. *happydance*

Two prompts today

ng_moonmoth

June 3 2014, 21:13:45 UTC 7 years ago

When you announced the theme for this month's Fishbowl, my mind quickly landed on the perennial issue of cultural first contact. Here are two ideas, both of which I see as allowing a broad range of outcomes:

A successful monoculture encounters a diverse cultural ecology, and both must struggle for their very survival in the aftermath of the encounter.

A small segment of a self-organizing culture has become isolated. Upon encountering a centrally-controlled culture, it needs to find a way to marshal the resources it needs to return to its home.

These may both describe the same story, or may not.

Re: Two prompts today

June 4 2014, 00:02:09 UTC 7 years ago

And now I've got cargo cults on my brain... :P

moriwen1

June 3 2014, 21:19:06 UTC 7 years ago

Someone takes part in a meaningful experience for the first time, which had previously been inaccessible to them due to a disability.

A first contact meant only for a single person.

Someone realizes that the first contact with an alien species happened long ago, unnoticed, uncelebrated.

Of two close friends, one spends their life seeking out and dreaming of contact with nonhuman beings. The other sees no need to do so, because they've already met such beings.

Someone looks in a mirror for the first time after a major personal change -- internal or external.

June 4 2014, 08:15:53 UTC 7 years ago

Your prompt about disability inspired the free-verse poem "Going Places." Isra never went anywhere just for fun, because her wheelchair made it not fun. Then she gained wings during the Fledging, and she learned to fly, and going places became something she could enjoy.

60 lines, Buy It Now = $20

June 3 2014, 22:25:53 UTC 7 years ago

A Dreamwidth prompt about television signals in space got me thinking about what would be required to catch them. "Against Interstellar Distance" suggests that although a telescope wouldn't do the trick ... maybe not everybody needs one. This poem is written in free verse.

29 lines, Buy It Now = $15

June 4 2014, 00:32:14 UTC 7 years ago

A Dreamwidth prompt touched on something I was just talking about recently, what it's like to meet other people like yourself for the first time. "A Study in Contrasts" is about the mental adjustment required to recognize and accommodate that change.

27 lines, Buy It Now = $15

siege

June 4 2014, 01:04:46 UTC 7 years ago

We are taught, and both math and experiment bear out, that to transfer maximum power requires minimum contact -- essentially a problem of surface area, whether spread over time or space. You see, what happens is that the more you remain in contact, the more energy is eventually reflected or retransmitted back to you. Yet to transfer enough energy requires bandwidth, either of time or space! If you don't want to have to return again, you have to deliver a sufficient amount of energy in the first contact. This is the principle behind breaking things in martial arts and construction, or in delivering propaganda and proselytization: maximize impact, minimize reflection.

-

Every experience has a first time.

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Sometimes the aliens are us.

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Why are we always making contact? And with whom or what?

June 4 2014, 05:45:19 UTC 7 years ago

Your first prompt became the free-verse poem "Chopping Wood," about masters and students of the martial arts.

20 lines, Buy It Now = $10

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