Request for Poems:Cinquain

Happy New Year to everyone! Here's hoping 2009 conains lots of poetry!

I volunteered to help Tiel keep this site going and I've enjoyed my first month and hope that it will continue. But, we need help to get the word spread that we are still alive and kicking. So, any advertising you can do for Totally Optional Prompts would be appreciated. Thanks!

How did your cinquain writing go? I find them kind of addicting! Please leave a link to anything you'd like to share.

Totally Optional Prompt: Cinquain

I don't know if you're like me but I'm so glad that Christmas is over and now my school vacation can really begin.

My problem with vacations, though, is that I have a hard time writing. Here I am with extra time on my hands but my brain is MIA!

So, I thought a nice short prompt would be appropriate for this week. (At least for me, anyway!)

Let's try to write a cinquain. Here's a short description of it and a couple of examples:

A Cinquain is a short, unrhymed poem consisting of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines. Like the game Mastermind (I think!), it takes a few minutes to learn but a lifetime to master.

An effective cinquain is one that has a shift of focus in it. In other words, it starts simply and innocently but by the end makes a comment about life by showing instead of telling.

A cinquain also has a title to help explain the poem but that title usually does not act as the first line of the cinquain.

Examples:


Love Restored

Curvy,
sexy and sleek…
he admires her body
then takes out the keys for his old
Corvette
~Deborah P. Kolodji


Laramie Night Wind

lonesome
long howl from some
coyote soul . . . hollowed out
down to the heart & a mile from
morning
~Ann K. Schwader

If you have a longer poem in you, you could try writing it as a series of cinquains. Or, you could write anything else you want, of course; we'd still love to see it next Thursday.

Request for Poems: Opposites

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves today regardless of what you are celebrating whether it be Christmas or Hanukkah or just Thursday.

So, what opposites did you write about? Okay, I'll admit that I haven't had much chance to write anything this week but, I'm hoping to catch up on Friday.

Please leave a link to any poem you'd like to share.

Totally optional Prompt: Opposites

First of all, to everybody celebrating a holiday, here's hoping yours is pleasant!

I know holidays are supposed to be these special, magical times, but, most often, they turn out to contain a lot of work and stress and disappointment. And that brings me to this week's prompt: let's talk about opposites. It could be opposite people (like my husband and I are total opposites!), opposite expectations, opposite reactions, etc.

So, lets rub two different things together and see what sparks we can make in our poems.

Come back Thursday (Yikes! That's Christmas day; I've still got so much to do!) or sometime after that when all the hullabaloo is over to share what you've written.

And don't forget to check out the Monday Poetry Train Revisited tomorrow.

Request for Poems: Firsts

Here it is another Thursday and it's time to post your "first" poems.


Did this bring back any memories? Did you find it hard to narrow your ideas down? (I did!) Was it hard to even find the time to write with holiday preparations?


Please leave a link to your poem whether it be a first or not.


Also, don't forget to visit Monday Poetry Train Revisited every Monday and leave a link to any type of poem. This is a great site to share a poem that doesn't fit any of the prompts out there. It's a no-stress place so check it out, please!

Totally Optional Prompt: Firsts

There is something very memorable about the firsts in our lives. I remember my first day of kindergarten, clinging desperately to my mom with one hand and having the teacher, Mrs. Neilson, practically pulling my other arm out of its socket trying to get me away from her. Kind of ironic that I became a teacher!

Anyway, that's the prompt this week: write a poem about a first in your life. The possibilities are endless, really.

First vehicle
First kiss
First marriage
First grade
First flight
First drink

I could go on all day! Instead, I think I'll go write a poem.

Please come back on Thursday to leave a link to your first anything and if this doesn't inspire you, then leave a link to any poem you'd like to share.

Request for Persona Poems

Who were you?
What were you?
Where did you go?
What did you do?

Please leave a link to your Persona Poem in Mr. Linky. Even if you didn't have any luck writing to the prompt, we're still interested in reading anything you wrote this week. (or whenever!)

Totally Optional Prompt: Persona Poem

You know what I like best about poetry? The freedom! I'm able to do whatever I want with words and lines. And I especially feel that way when I write a persona poem. I can be whoever and whatever I want.

So, that's your prompt this week: be someone or something else. Write a poem in the voice of whomever or whatever you'd like. Here's your chance to shed your own skin and be someone or something else. You could be Shakespeare, Obama, Britney Spears, Shaquille O'Neil, an airplane, a coffee cup, anything!

Like Atticus says to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, you never know other people until you walk around in their shoes. This is your chance to do just that.

Please come back on Thursday to leave a link to whatever you've written this week. Even if you're just yourself, we still want to read about it!

And the most important thing? Have fun! Feel the freedom of being able to do whatever you want with words!

Request for Unsavory Poems

You know, I had a hard time with this one! Here it is my own prompt and it took me all week to come up with something. Hope you had better luck than I did!

Please leave your link to anything you wrote this week, unsavory or not! Mine definitely is!