I was quite taken with the Friday post at How A Poem Happens. Poet Idra Novey shared her poem Trans and described its creation. In it she used the prefix trans- as the title of her poem and created sections that begin -late, -gress, -mogrify, -form, and -scend.
I love the idea of taking a prefix and using it to form a series of words, each their own piece of a whole. So, your challenge this week is to write a poem around a prefix. Leave me a note about your work and I'll post the results here later this week.
P.S. - If you need help generating a possible word list, try More Words. Enter your prefix or word of choice and click search for words. Scroll down the page (past the definitions) until you find the link for list all words starting with __. You'll find this a helpful tool. I'm thinking about the word down and the link generated a list of 114 words, including downhill, downcast, downpour, downtown, downtrodden, downwind, and more.
I love the idea of taking a prefix and using it to form a series of words, each their own piece of a whole. So, your challenge this week is to write a poem around a prefix. Leave me a note about your work and I'll post the results here later this week.
P.S. - If you need help generating a possible word list, try More Words. Enter your prefix or word of choice and click search for words. Scroll down the page (past the definitions) until you find the link for list all words starting with __. You'll find this a helpful tool. I'm thinking about the word down and the link generated a list of 114 words, including downhill, downcast, downpour, downtown, downtrodden, downwind, and more.
hi, Tricia -Fun! I've got Pre of the Fixed" up over at The Drift Record Of course, I tweaked the stretch a bit - what's new?
ReplyDeleteOVER
ReplyDelete--lay
When my beloved husband died,
And after I cried
For a thousand days,
Making myself unhappier
In a thousand ways
I realized that the problem
Was neither warmth nor sex,
But that like that turtle
“Twixt plated decks,”
I have no one to lie over
Or under me.
That fact alone
Practically sundered me.
--mantle
Looking into the mirror
A year after his death,
I saw an old woman
with eyes like shallows:
cold, inhospitable,
covered with rime.
I shall get to know her
In time.
--come
We shall,
I shall,
Make a life,
Not a better,
Not a wife,
But a new
And fierce
Alone.
What was two
Is now
Quite
One.
c2009 Jane Yolen all rights reserved
Oh, Jane. Thank you for sharing yourself in these stretches. I am in awe.
ReplyDeleteJulie--off to read your poem right now!
Tricia--thanks for these stretches. I love this. Here's my poem, though I didn't actually follow your directions. And that website wouldn't give me a list because my prefix is too long. Always the troublemaker, that's me.
circum-
be
circum-
spect
don’t dive in
to that hole.
is there a bottom?
circum-
navigate
instead.
black.
endless.
peer in,
gasping.
scrabble back from the edge.
circum-
locution
may be the only
way around the
unanswerable
question.
drown it in words
larger than the hole
itself obliterating
its unknowableness.
study the
circum-
ference
of the
question.
is it
pi times
the d(ying)
all around you.
the dying that
you fear?
circum-
scribe
your thoughts,
defined
within
walls of words,
borders of phrases,
continents of
poems.
--Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
At last! I have been trying to get myself involved in these wonderful stretches forever and I finally just told myself to treat it like a warm-up exercise and I can play with over time. I chose the prefix "semi" and this turned out to be semi autobiographical. I also had fun linking the prefix word to the next word in the poem.
ReplyDeleteSEMI
---sweet
heart
I am not
very
not often enough
to be confused
with the lady on the corner
who gives homes
to lost kittens and birds with broken wings
bakes cookies for the homeless
and knits tiny blankets for dying
fetal alcohol babies who
can't stop crying
but I have my good days
and everyone knows that
too much sugar rots your teeth
---formal
wear
makes my skin itch
truly
panty hose is cruel
putting on a skin
two sizes too small
is someone's idea of fun?
give me bare feet
painted pointed toes
tank tops and worn jeans
the perfect outfit
for the dirt runway
on the way to the garden ball
---wild
flowers---
sometimes won't sprout
until after a time of great disturbance
like fire
they need the pain to force
the beauty to the surface
without the pain
the beauty that might be
remains hidden
much like the pieces of me
the rest of the world sees
reflected
in all I've overcome
to find myself
blooming
when I least expect it
- - - Susan Taylor Brown, all rights reserved
Susan and Laura and Julie--I am in awe.
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat, semi-sweet, circumfortable. delicious,delectable, delightful feast of words.
Jane
Jane, I sent your poem to my mother, who lost my father 4 years ago and is just beginning to breathe again. So thank you--it's stark yet lovely at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI went a little sideways with this stretch after googling "prefix" and discovering the SI (metric) prefixes on Wikipedia. The numbers were just so big and the prefixes sounded like spells...
The Sorcerer Chants
Tera
It twists like fire
in my mouth: sands pour
into glass and mass,
demanding the spell-shape.
Peta
I aim the word
like an arrow with eyes
and magic hisses
the name of every star.
Exa
Thought trembles down
the bones of mountains.
My incantation
rises like a golem.
Zetta
I leave behind silences,
as if I were dragging
a thin, jagged tail
through the dust.
Yotta
It isn't enough to tell
the size of the darkness
I have bloomed
into being like a new flower.
—Kate Coombs
P.S. Jane, I reviewed The Scarecrow's Dance on my book blog, Book Aunt, on Sunday. Don't think I said anything untoward, though (speaking of prefixes)(and poetry)!
ReplyDeleteKate - I've never heard of that before - the "SI metric prefixes." Cool interpretation of them as spells! I'm going to try to come up with a poem using them, too (maybe not to share. I call the ones I don't share "pomes." )
ReplyDeleteNice work, everyone. Isn't stretching fabulous?
Already saw the review, and thanks, Kate. Am deep into a golem novel, so was interested in your line about golems. Synchronicities and all that. Fascinating poem.
ReplyDeleteJane
What a great bunch of poems so far...and it's only Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteSusan, so glad you jumped in, and I love, love, love
tank tops and worn jeans
the perfect outfit
for the dirt runway
on the way to the garden ball
And Kate--wowza. Here's my favorite part, which made me shudder a bit:
as if I were dragging
a thin, jagged tail
through the dust.
Not quite sure I'm ready to post anything on the page yet, so I'll start here.
ReplyDeleteSub
-divide
Cleave attention
halve time
part ways
our days are
split and split and split
-atomic
It’s really all about
the little things
the tiny
bits and pieces of
our lives
-ordinate
I am
so small
so insignificant
so meaningless
in the grand scheme
of things
-sist
still …
I
am
here
Tricia, if that's your "not ready" work, I want to see the "ready" stuff! I like how you mix the meanings between stanzas with accuracy and symbolism.
ReplyDeleteJane, I had to search to spell "golem"; I found myself, of course, writing "gollum"!
Julie, I have piles of pomes on my computer. It's a good kind of thing to hoard.
And thanks, Laura--that bit made me shiver, too. The sorcerer turned out extra evil.
I'm attempting the poetry stretch--but don't think the poem I'm working on belongs in the company of the exceptional ones I've read in the comments.
ReplyDeleteTricia,
ReplyDeleteHere's my poem. Don't say I didn't warn you!
OVER
--weight
post-menopausal maven
dreaming of the past...
of her cinch-tight waist,
taut abdomen,
the slender hourglass
of her youthful flesh,
the furtive looks of desire
men cast in her direction.
--abundant
breasts
concealed beneath a tent-size cotton shirt
worn by a Dolly Parton pretender
with grooved shoulders
who's bound up
in a maximum security brassiere.
--whelmed
by the thought
of daily workouts,
of toning limp muscles,
of shedding the excess pounds
time has awarded her--
a sexagenarian--
on her long, meandering journey
from unknowing ingenue
to aged sage.
Wow! These are wonderful! I've been grading papers all evening and finally had a chance to check out this week's Poetry Stretch. I'm so glad I did.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to give this one a try, it's pretty rough, but here's what I have so far. (I couldn't get the italics to work in stanzas 1 and
2.)
Un
able
to hurt Mom again
I lie
My red swollen eyes—
just allergies
Un
true
all of it
every promise
every I love you—
the devoted father
I thought I knew.
Un
fair
the way you left
without a hug
without good-bye
without telling me—
Why?
Un
likely
to forget.
Un
willing
to forgive.
Whosh, Linda. Thanks--and me just about to go out for a nice dinner.
ReplyDeleteJane
Thanks, Jane. It needs A LOT of work, but I just wanted to jump in and give it a try before I wimped out. I hope to work on it some more for Friday's post.
ReplyDeleteOh all of these are just great. Why did it take me so long to jump into this fun?
ReplyDelete