W3 Prompt #38: Wea’ve Written Weekly

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 five 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?

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Okie dokie ~ Let’s do this thing!

I. The prompt poem:

‘Generation Gap’, a poem by Denise DeVries

We stand beyond the reach of lights,
surrounded by home’s benevolent dark,
the night’s fragrance of wood and fields,
faint sounds of nature from all sides,
the spangled firmament recalling my dreams
of dancing planets and spinning stars.

For my granddaughter, the black unknown
is brimming with dangers and threats, evil doers
and malevolent beasts, nightmares
she was taught to fear, unfamiliar with awe.

I want to take her hand but only say
“look up.” We stand on silenced gravel
exhaling tiny clouds and wait
for the constellations to clarify.

II. Denise’s prompt guidelines

Is a poet who uses a computer cheating? Is it acceptable to use syllable counters and an online thesaurus? Rhyming dictionaries? Random weird word or portmanteau generators? Rhyming software? How about form generators? Spellcheck? Chatbots? Is there a hierarchy of acceptability? When does a tool become a crutch? These are some of the existential questions of our age.

Today, let’s befriend the robots and allow them to help us write a poem on any topic.

Using some type of computer aid, write the first line of a poem. Then, follow it with between two and 18 of your own lines. You may use one of the links below or another site you like. Tell us which tool you chose.

1. Random Word Generator
2. Word Contraction Generator
3. Poem Generator

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 5 days, until Monday, January 23, 10:00 AM (GMT+3)

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Last week’s W³ poem

This week’s W³ prompt poem (above), composed by Denise, was written in response to last week’s W³ prompt poem, which Sarah David wrote:

‘Fruitful’, a poem by Sarah David

tell me your story again
the one your brothers ignored
the one that made you curious
in spite of others' scorn

place your feet on this ground
under nature's open ears
the past deficient not in wealth
but in spirit, pooling tears
into cupped hands, upended now
and replaced with graced years

fill your basket with these blooms
picking from vines overgrown
reject the lies you were told
replace with compassion now shown