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 the magic of everyday things. I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.

EDIT: The Poetry Fishbowl is now closed.

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. You can pledge a certain amount (say, $10) toward a poem if somebody else puts up the same amount, or you can pledge to match donations up to a ceiling (say, $30) as long as other people are contributing. Matching donations are also allowed for the general fund.

4) Call for cosponsors. If you crave a particular poem but can't afford the whole thing yourself, you can team up with one or more other people to sponsor it. This is a good way to fund the epic poems with custom pricing. You can post your call for cosponsors in the comments here, or make a separate post on your own blog, or both. Please let me know when you're calling for cosponsors for a poem, so that I can echo that in a separate post here and more people will see it. Special thanks to

haikujaguar for this idea.

5) 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.

6) 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 "the magic of everyday things." I'll be soliciting ideas for ordinary people, commonplace miracles, ordinary but important events, everyday objects or creatures, things we take for granted, folklore or superstitions about everyday things, and poetic forms in particular.

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

June 9 2009, 17:20:22 UTC 12 years ago

New comment

Hummingbirds as faeries

Poem

ysabetwordsmith

June 9 2009, 17:45:15 UTC 12 years ago

From this I got the free verse poem "Quicker Than the Eye," about an ornithologist and a hummingbird feeder. Of course, you folks know what's going on because you've seen the prompt, but without that, the poem has a nice surprise setup.

13 lines, Buy It Now = $10

haikujaguar

June 9 2009, 17:20:55 UTC 12 years ago

You have a duplicate post here... which one do you want comments on? :)

Gah ...

June 9 2009, 17:28:00 UTC 12 years ago

Are you seeing two in my blog or one here and one over on

crowdfunding? I forgot to use the shorter "over here" message for the community, and it doesn't seem to want to edit posts.

Comments should go on the Forge message, but it's okay if I get some on the other too.

Re: Gah ...

12 years ago

janetmiles

June 9 2009, 17:23:21 UTC 12 years ago

Question -- in the second paragraph at the top, you give the theme as "The magic of everyday things," and the description of what you're looking for seems to match that, but in the first paragraph below "Feed the Fish!" it still says "Travel and Exploration." Probably not terribly confusing, but it might be.

Okay, prompts.

I don't know if this counts, but how about the way math shows up so much in nature, like sunflower spirals matching the Fibonacci series? Or the Golden Mean?

A modern superstition -- I know I'm not the only one who, when going through a traffic light that's turned yellow, taps my steering wheel and the roof of the car. I'm not sure if that's meant as an expression of gratitude (for still being upright and in control of the car) or a blessing / invocation (like knock on wood), but I always do it when I'm driving.

Correction and Poem

June 9 2009, 18:10:05 UTC 12 years ago

Thanks for pointing out the error; I have corrected that.

From your math prompt, I got "Immersed in Miracles," a poem about how we are surrounded by amazing things but rarely notice or understand them, using examples of math in nature.

30 lines, Buy It Now = $15

Re: Correction and Poem

whuffle

June 9 2009, 17:39:54 UTC 12 years ago

I've always wanted to see someone do justice in poetry to the magic that is a fresh and perfect spider web glistening with dew first thing in the morning.

June 10 2009, 03:03:20 UTC 12 years ago

From this I got "The Work Revealed," a poem written in unrhymed, unmetered quatrains. It tells how a spider spins a web during the night, which is revealed when the sun rises.

24 lines, Buy It Now = $10

minor_architect

June 9 2009, 17:41:04 UTC 12 years ago

Since one of your suggestions to us includes "folklore or superstitions about everyday things," I've got several of those for ya:

1) You can make a wish on a white horse of a red-haired woman. (Although with today's hair-coloring products, how would you know if she's a true red-head?)

2) If you find a button, you will have good luck for as many months as there are holes in the button.

3) If you accidentally put on any article of clothing wrong side out, you will have good luck for as long as you wear it that way.

4) Because salt is a preservative and remains stable for a long time itself, it has been known as a symbol of friendship. The ancient Greeks even believed that whenever salt was spilled, quarrels would result and friendships would come to an end.

5) (Just because I thought this one was amusing:) Apparently, frizzly chickens are supposed to keep witches away. In this instance, frizzly means "feathers ruffled in the wrong direction."

*studies you*

Somehow, I don't think you're the type to be scared away by a chicken! (Frizzly or otherwise.) I wonder how that superstition got started? :D

jenny_evergreen

June 9 2009, 17:56:54 UTC 12 years ago

See my comment about scrats...that might be it! :)

Thank you!

ysabel

June 9 2009, 17:50:56 UTC 12 years ago

So just what is it that cats are seeing when they seem to be transfixed by nothing? Or chasing things that aren't there?

June 9 2009, 20:32:55 UTC 12 years ago

I've actually explored this question before, so today I tried to do something new with it. "Cats Who Fear No Evil" is written in unrhymed, unmetered quatrains and gives some examples of the things they see and chase.

24 Lines, Buy It Now = $10

June 9 2009, 17:56:18 UTC 12 years ago

What I REALLY want is a poem about the magic of robins.

But I'll also give you this, which is probably more inspiring:
In folklore, a skrat is a creature that lives in a cave or beech tree, but moves into farmhouses. Anyone who has a scrat living in his farmhouse becomes rich. A scrat looks like a wet chicken, but can change itself to look like a small bird, goose, dog, cat, or hairy man.

June 9 2009, 18:00:55 UTC 12 years ago

This reminds me of the legends of brownies! I used to love stories about brownies. And I linked a picture of brownies, so... maybe brownies like chocolate? -_-

madshutterbug

June 9 2009, 18:03:50 UTC 12 years ago

Look at my fingers
versatile, nimble, and strong
yet very fragile!

An everyday thing are these
phalanges, digits, signals.

Poetry fishbowl!
What a marvelous idea
Wait! You write, not me.

:D
PS sent by

janetmiles so you should use her suggestions. *G*

June 9 2009, 21:31:20 UTC 12 years ago

I like the poem you wrote -- very amusing!

However, I decided to treat your post as a prompt anyway, on the topic of friendship. The result is a short and sweet acrostic poem, "FRIENDSHIP."

10 lines, Buy It Now = $5

ellenmillion

June 9 2009, 18:09:17 UTC 12 years ago

Indoor running water. It IS magic - you turn a knob and viola! Water! In variable temperatures!

The Internet. It's everyday now, but really, if you described it to someone 30, 40, 50 years ago, it would seem like crazy-talk.

June 9 2009, 18:47:51 UTC 12 years ago

I added your Internet prompt to the spiderweb prompt by

whuffle and I got "Spider Grandmother and the Lonely Ones," a free verse mythic poem about how people drifted apart and then were reconnected.

95 lines, Buy It Now = $47.50

Deleted comment

Freebie Poem!

June 9 2009, 21:42:29 UTC 12 years ago

I have decided to make this today's free poem, to be posted separately.

talix18

June 9 2009, 19:23:48 UTC 12 years ago

I seriously have been thinking about this since last week and don't feel like I came up with anything properly "ordinary". Maybe I'm just getting used to seeing the magic in everything!

- the weight of my cat when he's lying on or against me
- cars - I really am sort of amazed at traveling through space in these boxes mere inches from the road
- washing dishes as meditation (if only I could get there with the rest of the housework!)
- I was also thinking of birds - not hummingbirds specifically but the wonder of watching them at my feeders

I'll come back if I think of any more.

June 9 2009, 23:25:39 UTC 12 years ago

I put two of yours together, dishwashing and birds, because the window over our sink looks out at a bird feeder. The result is "Washing at the Window," a free verse poem about everyday enlightenment.

33 lines, Buy It Now = $15

Re: Poem

dianavilliers

June 9 2009, 21:08:24 UTC 12 years ago

This. The drifts of detritus that form in bowls on benches, the bottom of desk drawers and toolboxes. paperclips, pencil ends, obsolete data storage devices, oddly shaped pieces of plastic of no readily discernable purpose...

June 10 2009, 00:13:41 UTC 12 years ago

From this I got "Speak Down the Centuries," a free verse poem about the obscure importance of junk.

23 lines, Buy It Now = $10

miintikwa

June 10 2009, 01:12:51 UTC 12 years ago

The first star kisses the glowing moon.

And I donated what I could. I hope someone else can match it if my poem ends up being more than that. :)

June 10 2009, 01:47:47 UTC 12 years ago

I appreciate the donation. That's halfway to the sponsorship price for the poem I wrote. Maybe someone else will pick up the other half.

From your prompt I got "moments that fill the soul," a free verse poem full of sensory images about a summer evening beside a lake.

20 lines, Buy It Now = $10
$10 - $5 donation = $5 left to fill for sponsorship

Re: Thank you!

wyld_dandelyon

June 10 2009, 01:26:55 UTC 12 years ago

Paper.

Paper and paints, paper and pencils or pens, folded paper, paper and scissors, paper and glue (and glitter).

So many possibilities!

June 10 2009, 02:00:46 UTC 12 years ago

I love paper! There are so many different kinds, and so many possibilities. So I wrote "The Promises of Paper," about the tempting contents of a craft store.

15 lines, Buy It Now = $10

jolantru

June 10 2009, 01:28:24 UTC 12 years ago

Dust speckles.

June 10 2009, 02:19:11 UTC 12 years ago

From this prompt I got the free verse poem "Time's Keeper," about different types of dust and the hidden meaning of dust.

19 lines, Buy It Now = $10

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