All right, folks, autumn is in full swing (FINALLY!) and I’m back to writing poems. Which means I’m also back to bugging y’all with prompts to get you writing, too. 🙂 Today’s prompt comes from a brief discussion I had over at deviantART about short poetry. I tend to prefer medium-length to long-form poetry, and I’m … Read more
OK, so, not long ago, I finished my first paid translation project. (Hoorah!) It was a collaborative Russian-to-English project, in which I and two others translated a menu for a Mexican restaurant in our city. (Yes. A Mexican restaurant in Siberia. I recommend it!) Technically, I was the native-speaking “proofreader” rather than the translator. But I put that … Read more
Well, now autumn has come to Novosibirsk … which means it’s time for poetry again. For whatever reasons, I can’t bring myself to write poetry in the summer. Prose, fine. But the moment I try to sketch out a poem, it usually putters out like an old car running on fumes. Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s … Read more
Let’s do a little experiment. I’ll present you a poem — one of my 100 Themes poems, to be exact — in unpolished form. You take that draft, rewrite it according to your own style and creative fancies, and post it below (in the comments). Sounds a little awkward, perhaps, but bear with me. What … Read more
In my earlier post on poem starters, I promised I’d write a second article on handling one word prompts. Well, here I am, being as good as my word. One word prompts abound on the Internet, from my 100 Themes challenge to the Wednesday prompts on Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog. They’re a great challenge because they force you to … Read more