Joules, or: Abundance

A waltmarie

Comprised of 5 consecutive American sentences

Cotton candy cumulus clouds float across the sky, veiling
the sun.
Picnicking families light charcoal afire; young'uns watch it
burning.
A barefoot three-legged race begins. Runners push off against
the earth.
Boys and girls on the merry-go-round squeal and giggle as it's
turning.
More hearty food is heaped upon white paper plates than they can
sustain.

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The waltmarie

Created as a nonce by Candace Kubinec.

• 10 lines
• Even lines are two syllables in length, odd lines are longer (but no specific syllable count)
• Even lines make their own mini-poem if read separately

No other rules for subject or rhymes.

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The American sentence

Allen Ginsberg, inventor of the American Sentence, felt that the haiku didn’t work as well in English. Ginsberg decided to remove the line structure of the haiku, maintaining the requirement of 17 syllables total. He felt that removing the line count freed the American Sentence up for the idiosyncrasies of English phonemes.

The requirements:

1. Composed in one line;
2. Syllabic, 17 syllables;
3. Condensed, written with no unnecessary words or articles;
4. Complete sentence or sentences;
5. Includes a turn or enlightenment.

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d’Verse poetics prompt:

‘Concrete or Abstract?’

At d’Verse, poets were prompted to write a poem using only concrete nouns, subject matter and imagery. For the purposes of this exercise, the following words are banned: soul, love, lust, dreams, sorrow, suffering, heartache, wonder, etc. 

Poet are to avoid writing directly of the emotions that concrete objects invoke. It should be left to readers to experience the emotions, without the poet referring to them directly.

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Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!