just good poetry

so i was reading my poets companion book by kim addonizio and dorianne laux when i came to the chapter about 20 minute poetry. it has different exercises that your supposed to do in twenty minutes. well one of the exercises is to write poetry on poetry. and they gave an example that a student had written for one of them that i thought was just amazing, so i thought i would share it with all of you. it is the perfect example of what writers go through.

Bare Branches
By: Lorine Niedecker
"What would they say if they knew
I sit for two months on six lines
of poetry?"

word of the week

so as a writer one must use the language in which they write in to convey what they want you to feel (a little obvious i know, i'm getting there).  but when all you have is words, what words you use are important. and in one of my writing books, it has an exercise where you randomly open the dictionary and write down every word you don't know from that page. it's to help build your vocabulary. you would think that you would know a bunch of words, but trust me, there are many that you don't. well, at least i don't. so i thought i would share a word once a week that i didn't know. i've discussed this in a different way in this post. so here's this weeks: rive.


rive: 1) to rend or tear apart
2) to break into pieces, as by a blow; cleave or split asunder.
3) to break or distress.

the poet's companion

so i'm definatly geeking out about my new poetry writing book called; the poet's companion: a guide to the pleasures of writing poetry by kim addonizio and dorianne laux. i've been reading it and have already done one exercise. it's an easy read and the exercises aren't over complicated. for each chapter there are multiple exercises to choose from and each stress the point that is being made in the chapter. i would strongly suggest this book for writers looking for a book that gives you helpful ideas and helps you impliment them. A+ to the writers!

prompts and practices

today before work at the comic shop i decided that i would do a writing excerise out of a book i haven't looked at in awhile. it's called prompts and practices by judy reeves. it's a cool book with a calendar for all 366 days out of the year. and with each day there is a little idea about what to write about for that day. it doesen't say how or what you should write. whether it's a poem, short story or prose. it just gives an idea and lets you run with it however you want. i really enjoy this book and it has some great ideas. for whatever reason i haven't looked at it recently so i thought i would open it again and see what today's prompt was. today's prompt was: it was a summer of blue-black nights. so i wrote this as my practice:


Kari sat on the front porch looking out into the world. Her chair was an old rickety thing that her grandfather had made when he first moved out west. Every time she rocked on the chair it creaked with a groaning of days long past. Even though her mother yelled at her not to sit in the chair, for she was scarred that the chair would break, the old chair was Kari’s favorite in the whole house. While rocking in the old chair Kari looked out into the wide open prairie of the west. Her family owned all the land around her to the point that she couldn’t see another house close to her. The closest person was 80 miles away in any direction. Kari liked it that way. It was like the land around her was her own personal ocean of green prairie and blue sky. Night time was her favorite time to site in the chair and look out into the world. The night was lit up with the stars and the prairie had a glow about it from the stars also. The world seemed so peaceful those nights. Tonight the sky was darkened. She couldn’t see the stars that well and the moon wasn’t shining like it normally did.
Kari heard the back door to the house slam and heard the old Chevy coaxed into being driven away. She ignored, for a moment, the silent sobs she heard from inside the house from her mother. All Kari could think about was that the sky wasn’t as beautiful as it normally is. Kari stood up and sighed. She opened the front door and walked into the house to help her mom with whatever she needed.


i must advise that i've just written this and it has had really no editing. but this is what came to my head when i read the prompt. there is a little symbolism with the sky not being as beautiful as it normally is with her family not working out as it should, but nothing too heavy handed i think. i like the short story i wrote and maybe one day i'll came back to it and expand on it. but for now i like it as it is.

dictonary writing exercise

so this morning i did a writing exercise to just keep my mind working. this comes from the same book i talked about in this post, the daily writer by fred white. i put two different exercises into one. one was to build your vocabulary list and then the other was the at random open up the dictionary and jot down any word you didn't know and then use it in a poem. so i put them together and opened up the dictionary at random and wrote down any words i didn't know into my notebook. then after i have a bunch of different words i tried to use them in different sentences.

for example: ripsnorter - something extraordinary. sentence: marianne's wedding dress was ripsnorter.

so i did a bunch of those. and while writing those sentences different ideas come to me about what kind of story i would write that would use these kinds of words. i remember doing things like this in middle school and high school. and it seems like just busy work, but i think it is a valuable tool (now that i'm older) to help build my vocabulary skills.

ps- when i used spell check for this post, blogger said that ripsnorter wasn't a word.

controversy writing exercise

so i'm always on the look out for different books that will help me write. whether it's inspirational books, how to books or anything else that will help me with writing. well i have a book called the daily writer by fred white. it's sub title is 366 meditations to cultivate a productive and meaningful writing life. so every page in the book is a different day and it then gives you a different inspiration on what to write that day. well for day july 3 the idea is controversy. and the idea was to write both sides of a controversy in a story. don't have them spewing crap at each other without listening, actually have it as a meaningful conversation. besides the writing excersice it also helps you look at both sides of a controversy that you probally wouldn't normally look at. well i picked abortion. which in our country is a HUGE controversy; to say the least. (and if you know me, you know me as a huge advocate for the right of choice. but choice in all things, i just believe that you should be allowed to have the choice. you have every right to not want an abortion but it's when you say i can't have one either then, because you think it's wrong, is when i dissagree with you.) so i went to the library and got a whole bunch of books on abortion. i made sure that i got pro-choice books and pro-life books. and then i just started reading the books and wrote down in my notebook, anything i thought that was important. i'm not fully satisfied with all the imformation i have; though i think it's one of those issues that i would never be fully satisfied. but i've started to plot out what the charactors would say to each other. what one person would start out to say and then finding the counter agrument in the notes i have. it's been really interesting look at the other side of the table and seeing what their arguement would be. this story isn't anything i would publish but it's a great writing exercise. i've enjoyed it so far and i'm looking forward to actually writing out the story.