Poetry Fishbowl Open!: ysabetwordsmith

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! 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.

In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is hidden, lost, or microscopic things, selected by the audience in an earlier poll. I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing 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.

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) Matching donations. If you crave a particular poem but can't afford the whole thing yourself, you can team up with someone else to sponsor it. Matching donations are also allowed for the general fund.

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. Details are here.

5) Spread the word! Post about the Poetry Fishbowl on your blog and link to it. Tell your friends about it and encourage them to participate. Rate my poetry on Poetry Blog Rankings so it will attract more attention.

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.

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 through LJ's private-message function. If you're not logged in but you want to see the poem inspired by your prompt, give me your eddress; I recommend using {at} and {dot} to discourage spammers. 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.

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 hidden, lost, or microscopic things. I am especially looking for:

enigmatic characters,

secrets,

mysterious events,

lost cities,

miniscule objects or creatures,

cryptozoology,

obscurities,

and poetic forms.

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. The rest will go into my archive for magazine submission.

arielstarshadow

March 10 2009, 16:48:33 UTC 12 years ago

New comment

I'd tell you to try a poem about Catherynne Valente's city, Palimpsest as it's most assuredly a hidden city, but I doubt you've read the book.

So instead, I'll offer up Atlantis and Avalon - and how about connecting the two somehow?

Poems

ysabetwordsmith

March 10 2009, 17:31:09 UTC 12 years ago

I got sucked into both of these, actually.

"Palimpsest" is a free verse poem describing a layered city in three different metaphors.
14 lines, Buy It Now = $10

"The Infinite City" is a free verse poem describing and connecting five mythical locations including the two you named.
37 lines, Buy It Now = $15

Enigmatic characters and miniscule objects or creatures

janetmiles

March 10 2009, 17:04:28 UTC 12 years ago

How about Josiah Carberry, professor of psychoceramics?

Or Beauvais Lyons?

Or DNA? Or, perhaps, oooh. How about something from the point of view of the amino acids that make up a DNA strand? Or even tinier, the hydrogen bonds between the amino acids, since the amino acids usually get all the attention.

Re: Enigmatic characters and miniscule objects or creatures

March 10 2009, 17:48:44 UTC 12 years ago Edited: March 10 2009, 17:49:57 UTC

Okay, I put together the latter section of your prompt with others from

newroticgirl and

zianuray to get "The Hands That Hold the World," which I'll be posting separately as today's freebie poem.

12 years ago

newroticgirl

March 10 2009, 17:08:34 UTC 12 years ago

Heeheehee... tiny things. The joke around the house is that my 100lb shepherd mix is a tiny puppy. So tiny he's microscopic!! :D

But as for serious prompts (since I don't know if microscopic pets works as an inspiration for ya) how about: a secret/hidden river?

I even found a picture.

Poem

March 11 2009, 03:09:41 UTC 12 years ago

From this I got "The Lost River," a poem about desertification written in tercets.

21 lines, Buy It Now = $10

whuffle

March 10 2009, 17:13:17 UTC 12 years ago

Lost socks: we all know that dryers eat socks leaving you with only one out of a pair. So where does the other sock go? Is it just hiding in some deep crevasse of the dryer? Is there a 4th dimensional portal that transports the socks away to a different plane?

I'd love to see your interpretation!

March 10 2009, 18:35:19 UTC 12 years ago

From this I got "Socked Away," which does not have rhyme or meter, but does have structure: four verses of five lines, each verse with a similar opening. The poem explains the purpose of disappearing socks and other items.
20 lines, Buy It Now = $10

Re: Poem

March 10 2009, 17:15:49 UTC 12 years ago

Here's another lost that people don't write about often enough:

El Dorado

minor_architect

March 10 2009, 17:17:29 UTC 12 years ago

I've got two ideas for you this time, take your pick:

* The things you see out of the corner of your eye that are never there for your second look, and

* The Library of Alexandria.

I hope you can get some use out of these!

(Also, pssst: you may wish to take down the mention of poems for Valentine's Day. ;)

March 10 2009, 18:55:44 UTC 12 years ago

Naturally I had to go with Alexandria. The result is "The Ghosts of Alexandria," a free verse poem about the futility of burning books and the implacable resurrection of ideas.
38 lines, Buy It Now = $15

Another poem

Thank you!

dulcinbradbury

March 10 2009, 17:18:48 UTC 12 years ago Edited: March 10 2009, 17:19:06 UTC

Ghost ships -- Mary Celeste, the Carroll A. Deering, the Jian Seng. :)

Yay for Ghost Ships!

March 10 2009, 20:42:54 UTC 12 years ago

I love ghost ships, so I included all of those plus the granddaddy of all. Naturally this poem needed to be lyrical, so it could serve as a sea chanty, though it turned out to rhyme in couplets instead of ballad pattern. "Vandervecken's Fleet" is a homage to ghost ships of all kinds.

36 lines, Buy It Now = $15

moosl

March 10 2009, 17:24:46 UTC 12 years ago

Gallery of historical UFO photos

Gallery of macro photography

Kitten in a pocket

Formerly hidden ladybug

Hidding cats

Lipstick with hidden blade

Intereactive exploration of the nano-scale world

March 10 2009, 21:04:56 UTC 12 years ago

I combined the formerly hidden ladybug with the lovely photo from

dianavilliers to create "The World of Small," a poem written in tercets about the tiny marvels of nature.

18 lines, Buy It Now = $10

zianuray

March 10 2009, 17:30:03 UTC 12 years ago

paramecia

quarks

(hidden) violets under a late snow

ladyqkat

March 10 2009, 17:42:16 UTC 12 years ago

Having just read about it I would love to see your interpretation of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, a 'temple' that has been caron dated to be 17,000 years old and deliberately covered up when abandoned, not by natural means, but similar to the burial mounds found in many places in mid-western America.

March 10 2009, 19:29:21 UTC 12 years ago

I found the image of the buried temple haunting, so I wrote a haunting free verse poem about why it was buried: "The Secret of Göbekli Tepe."

10 lines, Buy It Now = $5

haikujaguar

March 10 2009, 17:56:50 UTC 12 years ago

Perhaps the difference between a hidden memory/dream and a lost one.

March 10 2009, 21:20:18 UTC 12 years ago

I put this together with "childhood memories" from

tonithegreat to create "Creatures of Memories and Dreams." This poem is written in unrhymed couplets with heavy repetition and mystical, phantasmagoric imagery; and it explains how spirit and flesh come together to create us.

24 lines, Buy It Now = $10

another one

jolantru

March 10 2009, 19:25:27 UTC 12 years ago

Viruses/virii.

Aurora borealis.

Family secrets like a curse or a genetic condition.

March 11 2009, 00:47:44 UTC 12 years ago

From this I got the free verse poem "Family Curses," the second one (after "SKPA in San Francisco" back in October) about an unusual support group.

11 lines, Buy It Now = $10

Every so often we find an inhabited one

dianavilliers

March 10 2009, 19:45:17 UTC 12 years ago

(I've been saving this one for this fishbowl....)

lizamanynames

March 10 2009, 19:50:27 UTC 12 years ago

Those angels who suppossedly spend all thier time dancing on the heads of pins.

Ooo, pretty!

March 10 2009, 22:46:38 UTC 12 years ago

From this I derived "The Dance of Angels," a poem written in unrhymed couplets about invisible things and why they are there.
10 lines, Buy It Now = $5

Also, you really want to see the picture and article on this site:
http://www.headofapin.net/

tonithegreat

March 10 2009, 20:17:10 UTC 12 years ago

How about faded memories from very early childhood?

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Poems

Enigmatic characters and miniscule objects or creatures

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Thank you!

Yay for Ghost Ships!

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another one

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Every so often we find an inhabited one

Ooo, pretty!

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