Poetry Monthly

You gave Philip Sidney’s framing device lots of ink and thought this month and as a result, wonderful window poems have emerged all July. Seeing what you’ve done has made a deep and indulgent reading experience. A big thanks to Philip for the idea and here are three notable creations to peek at:

Hudsonmoon’s window looks on profound loss and explores, beautifully, the all-encompassing questions of faith, pain and survival in a candid, autobiographical piece:  

http://www.abctales.com/story/hudsonmoon/gloom-ramble

Pat G gives us history via an art exhibition and successfully fuses three frames through time, creating a disquieting, voyeuristic effect:

http://www.abctales.com/story/pat-g/photograph-exhibition-poetry-monthly

Terry O’ Leary’s window shed brilliant light on bleak social dilemmas with his hypnotic and rhythmically structured poem:

http://www.abctales.com/story/terry-oleary/view-window-poetry-monthly

Canonette will be taking us on our August journey with her psychogeographic stroll, so grab your rucksack and let’s go:   

The Brief: Psychogeography – mapping the mind.

1960s Paris.  Some drunken avant-garde intellectuals, namely The Situationists, come up with the idea that urban planning is controlling and oppressive; their solution is to explore the city randomly on foot. 

Tear up the street plan! Throw away the map!  Embark on an unplanned journey through your environment.  Be a Flâneur – observe your surroundings, record people's gestures and conversations, be aware of your feelings, get in touch with your memories.

Many poets have been great walkers.  It doesn’t have to be an urban stroll – Wordsworth was inspired by rural walks.  Helen Mort is also inspired by her walks in the country.  Check out the work of Agnes Lehoczky who writes about geography and memory. Explore Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities - exquisite and fantastical urban constructions in prose poetry. If you can’t get out or are feeling lazy; then take a ‘micro journey’ around your home or take a walk through a town or city of your dreams or nightmares.

Liberating stuff! If you’d like peer criticism; state clearly underneath your piece and post by August 31st. Please email me: ray@abctales.com if you’ve got an inspiration for the monthly brief. Thanks to all for your poetic gusto.

Vera.

Image in header: http://tinyurl.com/otybljo  

Comments

Many thanks for the honors, Eds. loving the poetry form lately. It's been taking me places I never expected to go. 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Many thanks, from me too, for the honors (it made my day)!! 

And thanks also for the suggested theme which provided me with badly need 'inspiration'...

Terry

I'm loving Vera's wildly popular Poetry Monthly intitiative.  Well done everyone.

Peter.

 

... that a poem I really struggled with and changed many times should be picked out from among so many fine pieces of writing. Thank you. Thank you.

Glad it's taken off! Did this with ABC member Canonette last year and we got great poems from it and most importantly, confidence to share our work routinely and improve from constructive peer criticism. Still havent written much myself yet... live in hope. After the school hols perhaps. smiley