Poetry Fishbowl Open!: ysabetwordsmith

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED for prompts. Thank you for your enthusiasm! I'm still writing, though, so keep an eye out for more thumbnails.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "outgrowing old idea." 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 "Learning to See" (Seeing Hearts, 17 verses available).

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 "outgrowing old ideas." 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, 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.

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. "Learning to See" belongs to Seeing Hearts and has 17 verses available.

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.

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 "outgrowing old ideas." I'll be soliciting ideas for scientists, devout empiricists, youth coming of age, coming out, adults in mid-life crisis, elders entering their wisdom years, folks dealing with a new ability, people who get a clue, people who don't get a clue, three with a new song's measure, abandoning an old ideology, being torn up over changes, finding a new ideology, deciding to help someone, asking for help and getting it, getting in over your head, proving yourself, researching new possibilities, how to change ideas you've decided you don't want to follow anymore, foxholes, dungeons, bars or taverns, colleges, counseling offices, other places that tend to rupture people's reality tunnels, and of course reality tunnels themselves, epiphanies, books, horrible realizations, painful psychological ruptures, decompensation, endings and beginnings, solution-caused problems, ethical dilemmas, Objects of Change Alignment, other reality-tunnel wrecking balls, 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, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal verses of "Learning to See.") The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

wyld_dandelyon

June 2 2015, 17:48:09 UTC 6 years ago

New comment

We see something as a problem because we don't know what to do with the situation. When you gain new perspective or new information, the "problem" can become an opportunity instead.

Gotta run now; maybe I'll have more ideas later. But I will tweet before I get on the road.

Poem

ysabetwordsmith

June 2 2015, 21:08:05 UTC 6 years ago

This inspired the free-verse poem "Dynamic Play." Lawrence has a morning routine for self-awareness. (If you were wondering how a 16-year-old boy got such a robust sense of self, this is how.) He's been a supervillain for long enough that he's not sure how to get out of it, so he does what is beginning to become a real habit for him: he thinks about Stan.

60 lines, Buy It Now = $20

rowyn

June 2 2015, 17:57:09 UTC 6 years ago

I'd like to see something on the Solution-Caused-Problems theme from your God of Drunks. That seems exactly his sort of trouble to run into. :D

June 2 2015, 22:07:19 UTC 6 years ago

This inspired the free-verse poem "Rebound Relations." Shaeth is not pleased to find one of his evil cultists draped over the temple threshold. But sometimes, once you've picked people up, they really don't want you to put them down again ...

86 lines, Buy It Now = $43

June 2 2015, 19:22:15 UTC 6 years ago

A backchannel prompt from DW user Lynnoconnacht about Shiv inspired the free-verse poem "Jarred." Getting out of prison shakes him up more than he wants to admit, but he has a few coping skills now -- and an unexpected source of support.

180 lines, Buy It Now = $90

janetmiles

June 2 2015, 20:10:48 UTC 6 years ago

The ultimate cluebat - the works of Freud, laminated, and carved into a baseball bat.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--pjeHrmPY08/VKlEymMY4jI/AAAAAAAABis/PjhefynfNJg/s1600/img_1037.jpg

June 3 2015, 02:18:16 UTC 6 years ago

This inspired the free-verse poem "The Fear of Truth." What do you do when your new brother-in-law beats up your sister and nobody will do anything about it? You mojo up a cluebat to deal with him yourself.

55 lines, Buy It Now = $20

siliconshaman

June 2 2015, 20:29:29 UTC 6 years ago

Hmm... outgrowing an old idea could be literal if you're part of a multiple personality system with an internal landscape.

June 3 2015, 01:32:07 UTC 6 years ago

This helped inspire the free-verse poem "Outgrowing Notions." Ham and Clement deal with unexpected changes. Mallory outgrows her pants, and Clarity distracts her with a discussion of upcoming college classes.

142 lines, Buy It Now = $71

June 2 2015, 21:14:24 UTC 6 years ago

"Unset Courses" is today's freebie.

Some ideas to outgrow

ng_moonmoth

June 2 2015, 22:04:18 UTC 6 years ago

Something I saw on my customary circuit of gender-related sites: "I'm not trapped in my body. I'm trapped in your perception of my body." Except I recognize the insubstantial nature of the trap, and am too busy working out the best way to demonstrate that to those who wish to use it to be confined by it too much longer. I'm also starting to work on techniques for hacking those perceptions so I can be perceived as I wish to be perceived, not as others wish to perceive me.

This may also be the spot where you write the second piece of that "Army of One" triptych you mentioned recently. There are plenty of old ideas in the Arms and the portal planets (habitable planets at endpoints of useable trade routes in the Lacuna) that would be well worth outgrowing. Spalling and V also have some issues they may be ready to move beyond.

One antiquated idea that definitely needs outgrowing is both Arms believing they need to defend the Lacuna from the other Arm. The current population of the Lacuna seems to be doing quite a good job of defending themselves from both Arms, thankyouverymuch, and recognizing this by creating an environment in which the Lacuna can function as a successful border state should reduce tensions all around. (I have some notes on how this got started and who was involved. Please PM me if you're interested.)

Re: Some ideas to outgrow

June 5 2015, 10:44:33 UTC 6 years ago

I wove in a lot of this to make the free-verse poem "Hacking Perceptions." Astin travels to Cascabel, making observations about xyr own identity and the aftermath of the war and the importance of making changes if any peace is to be had whatsoever.

196 lines, Buy It Now = $98

my_partner_doug

June 2 2015, 23:21:17 UTC 6 years ago

Seems to me that there's a difference between "outgrowing" (or discarding) old ideas that no longer serve a purpose, either individually or collectively - frex, "them folk aren't even fully human, their *place* is beneath us"; "women should be subservient to men"; "marriage is defined as being between one man and one woman" - and the destructive discarding of ideas that may be "old", but still relevant and meaningful to the majority - examples including but not limited to the needs to "maintain a social safety net", "eliminate the extremes between the wealthiest and the poorest", "take care of the earth (and the air, and the water) for the next generation and beyond".

Can you come up with something highlighting the difference between "old and outdated" and "old but still relevant"?

June 4 2015, 05:23:28 UTC 6 years ago

Your prompt contributed to the free-verse poem "Some Ancient Urge." Cuoio and Chiara enjoy a trip to the beach, further discussion about professional and cultural dynamics, some lovely Sicilian scenery ... and the next step forward.

450 lines, Buy It Now = $225

hopefully this will post..

natasiakith

June 3 2015, 00:28:06 UTC 6 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diagram_of_eye_evolution.svg

Re: hopefully this will post..

June 3 2015, 09:34:06 UTC 6 years ago

This inspired the free-verse poem "An Eye Toward the Future." It is basically a celebration of the evolution of the eyeball.

30 lines, Buy It Now = $15

June 3 2015, 02:39:52 UTC 6 years ago

Some backchannel prompts from Anthony Barrette inspired the free-verse poem "Tarnished Silver Myths." So many shining ideas turn out not to be true.

18 lines, Buy It Now = $10

rix_scaedu

June 3 2015, 06:49:29 UTC 6 years ago

Generational change in ideas - the sort of thing where an idea is radical when first proposed but after, say, four generations it has become the standard perceived view/wisdom. That in turn leads to leaving the previous set of ideas behind.

June 4 2015, 05:23:47 UTC 6 years ago

See thumbnail for "Some Ancient Urge."

June 3 2015, 09:19:29 UTC 6 years ago

A DW prompt inspired the free-verse poem "To Keep Growing." It follows Cassandra when she first starts staying with Groundhog, particularly once she regains enough energy to explore the Skylark Apartment Building. A little angst given their respective challenges, but mostly fluff about the lovely little community there.

536 lines, Buy It Now = $268

June 3 2015, 10:28:00 UTC 6 years ago

Several DW prompts contributed to the poem "Shades of Morality." It is written in unrhymed tercets. An atheist believes in humanity and does not want god-given wings.

48 lines, Buy It Now = $20

Done for the night!

June 3 2015, 10:42:02 UTC 6 years ago

Not quite all prompters covered, but close. More tomorrow.

June 4 2015, 20:54:58 UTC 6 years ago

Several prompts led to the free-verse poem "One Wants to Be Together." Stan invites Lawrence to a family gathering. All kinds of old expectations get turned upside-down.

478 lines, Buy It Now = $239

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