Haley Winans: “I love writing prompt poems because they pull you out of your familiar trajectories of composing poems and plop you into another headspace where it almost feels like an unpressured task or goal to achieve. Prompts grant you the off-putting space to create poems you don’t intrinsically think about producing. It’s a Russian roulette of prompt interpretation.” (web)
“Pilgrims of the Mound” by Conal AbatangeloPosted by Rattle
Image: “Shadowland” by Arthur Lawrence. “Pilgrims of the Mound” was written by Conal Abatangelo for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, October 2023, and selected as the Editor’s Choice. (PDF / JPG)
Comment from the series editor, Megan O’Reilly: “I found the poet’s use of language so unexpected as to be mesmerizing–I kept rereading phrases to savor them, and to marvel at how artfully and accurately they capture aspects of Arthur Lawrence’s ‘Shadowland.’ The rich but muted hues of the image are reflected in the phrase ‘a rain like night / which swallowed all the colors,’ and I was moved by the description ‘a line of ghosts unburying itself’ in relation to the crowd of figures in ‘Shadowland.’ I think the phrase ‘a bomb speaks’ is the one which will haunt me most–the idea of a bomb having a voice and something to say is an unsettling truth. Truth is something neither poem nor image shy away from, and I think that’s why they create such a resonant harmony.”
Nancy Carol Moody: “An early instructor noted that I liked to inhabit the liminal space. I was so green that I had to look up ‘liminal,’ an assessment which turned out to be spot-on. I’ve spent a lifetime straddling interstices. Writing poetry keeps me from slipping through the cracks.” (web)
Perie Longo: “Rarely, first words of a poem drift into consciousness from the fog of sleep and before coffee, and I write them down. Watching the poem grow from under the pale light of day is a gift that gives we poets supreme joy. Such is the way of ‘Said,’ perhaps a result of years of listening to couples speak to each other in therapy with a dab of my own history. I love the way poetry clears the air.” (web)
Prompt: “This prompt came from a workshop with Peter Campion: ‘I’d like you to write a poem no longer than twenty-five lines in which the speaker relates an encounter with an animal. The only other guidelines are that the poem should contain one sentence that’s five lines or longer, and one sentence that’s an interjection, exclamation, oath, or swear.’”
Susan Trofimow: “To be honest, I wouldn’t say I enjoy writing prompts. Often, I read one and my mind goes blank! But if I continue, and something clicks, I find myself writing poems I would have never imagined otherwise. Prompts challenge you. They focus you. They give you a net to shoot for and the chance, sometimes, to have some fun.”
Lexi Pelle: “When I read the story about bats having non-penetrative sex in a church I knew it needed to be in a poem. It made me laugh, but also made me think about the lengths (pun intended) scientists will go to understand the world’s mysteries, which feels related to the process of writing poetry.” (web)
Marty McConnell: “It’s only recently that I’ve begun trying to mine a fairly idyllic childhood for poems, as I believed for so long that no drama lived there. And now you all know my given name. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone in Brooklyn.” (web)