W3 Prompt #16: Wea’ve Written Weekly

Posted on August 17, 2022August 16, 2022 by ben Alexander

Intro

Dear friends,

Welcome to our W³ Poetry Prompt, which goes live on Wednesdays at The Skeptic’s Kaddish.

You may click here for a fuller explanation of W³; but here’s the ‘tldr’ version:

Part I

The main ingredient of W³ is a weekly poem written by a Poet of the Week (PoW), which participants respond to in verse.

Part II

The second ingredient is a writing guideline (or two) provided by the PoW. Guidelines may include, but are not limited to: word counts, poetic forms, inclusion of specific words, and use of particular poetic devices.

Part III

After four days, when the prompt closes, the PoW shall select one participant’s poem as the W³ prompt for the following week, and its author becomes the next PoW.

Simple enough, right?

Okie dokie ~ Let’s do this thing!

I. The prompt poem:

‘Calcutta calling’ by Punam Sharma

sitting in the cramped hostel dormitory
I measured your rain, that splashed
on my hand-washed laundry. Drenching it
in petrichor redolent with first crush

eating griddle hot kathi roll at the corner street stall
I inhaled your smoky, saporous smell
and that piquant, fiery taste of you
still lingers on my fickle tongue

the hole-in-the-wall used-books stores
the addas over endless chais*
nurtured my hesitant, timorous voice
giving it an audience that knew the art of listening

you spread your arms like an aging matriarch
enfolding my bewildered, unsure self
and in the midst of clutter, chaos and cacophony
I found I could stand on my feet

my buoyant thoughts often meander
along the bends of the river Hooghly
Calcutta, your captivating ways often have me
loitering in the bylanes of the yester years.

*tea

II. Punam’s prompt guidelines

Write a poem in ‘Cascade’ form on the theme of ‘Freedom’;
Use personification in your ‘Cascade’ poem.

What’s a ‘Cascade’ poem?

‘Cascade’ form is all about receptiveness, but in a smooth cascading way like a waterfall.

The poem does not have any rhyme scheme; therefore, the layout is simple.

Say the first verse has three lines. Line one of verse one becomes the last line of verse two. To follow in suit, the second line of verse one becomes the last line of verse three. The third line of verse one now becomes the last line of verse four, the last stanza of the poem. See this structure example below:

A/B/C, d/e/A, f/g/B, h/i/C

III. Submit: Click on ‘Mr. Linky’ below

In order to participate and share a poem, open up this blog post, outside of the WordPress reader. At the bottom, just below these words, you will see a small rectangular graphic with the words ‘Mr Linky’. Click on that to submit.

Submissions are open for 4 days, until Sunday, August 21, 10:00 AM (GMT+3)

Last week’s W³ poem

This week’s W³ prompt poem (above), composed by Punam, was written in response to last week’s W³ prompt poem, which Britta Benson wrote:

‘Longing for water’ by Britta Benson

Longing for water,
want of drifting.
My speck in amongst souls,
like plankton.
Food for someone.

Longing for water,
medium of flow and undertow.
One continuous journey
with the murmurs of a heartbeat
that does not need to arrive.

Longing for water,
the tickling freshness of currents.
Temperature changes in swirls.
To be nothing in something
and everything in this all.

Longing for water.
When I’m truly rested
in the ease of travel,
I’ll remember who I am.
And then, I’ll swim.