W3 Prompt #42: 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 read before participating in the prompt.

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:

‘I Reap What I Sow’, a ‘Golden Shovel’ by Tanmay Philip

My solitude has made me sick
There’s no one to lay my heart on
It’s always been I, me, and my
Would be nice to share this journey
But when I fall asleep… oh my!
The strange folk I meet in my dreams
If only I had that same will
During the day when I wander
To meet people and bond like this
Asleep I thrive, awake — desolate
But moonlight can’t help me grow my field

Tanmay’s “shoveled” poem: a haiku by Matsuo Bashō

Sick on my journey
my dreams will wander
this desolate field

II. Tanmay’s prompt guidelines

1. Write a “Puente” poem;
2. The middle stanza should contain the title of a song;
   • You can add more words to the middle stanza if you wish.

Puente?

The form has three stanzas with the first and third having an equal number of lines and the middle stanza having only one line which acts as a bridge (puente) between the first and third stanza. The first and third stanzas convey a related but different element or feeling, as though they were two adjacent territories. The number of lines in the first and third stanza is the writer’s choice as is the choice of whether to write it in free verse or rhyme.

The center line is delineated by a tilde (~) and has ‘double duty’. It functions as the ending for the last line of the first stanza AND as the beginning for the first line of the third stanza. It shares ownership with these two lines and consequently bridges the first and third stanzas.

Example: ‘To Find a Better Life’

“I can’t read or write 
but experience taught me 
wrong from right” 
were grandpa’s final words as Roberto 
began his journey on the migrant trail 

~to find a better life~ 

he’d suffer hunger, thirst 
and blistered feet to 
leave the Mixteca world 
of the Zapotec to become 
a stranger in a strange land. 

Copyright © 2008 James Rasmusson

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, February 20, 10:00 AM (GMT+3)

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Last week’s W³ poem

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

‘Concrete jungle’, a tanka by Angela Wilson

you hold me with pride 
crowning me with neon lights 
come join the party 
I am old but full of life 
steaming from the underground