Day Three

Happy Friday, everyone, and happy third day of National/Global Poetry Writing month.

Today, our featured participant is Eden Ligon, whose response to Day Two’s prompt about childhood and growing up is both sweet and bittersweet.

Our resource today is the University of Pennsylvania’s free, online class on Modern & Contemporary Poetics. In this go-at-your-own-pace course, instructor Al Fireis takes you from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman up to the more-or-less present day, with stops along the way to see the sights and sounds of the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat poets, the L=A-N=G=U=A=G=E poetry movement, and more.

And now, last but not least, here is today’s optional prompt. In his poem, “Treasure Hunt,” Prabodh Parikh brings us a refreshingly different view of what being a poet is like – that is, if you grew up on the cultural notion of poets being wan and ethereal, or ill and doomed. Parikh’s boisterous pirate of a poet might be an “unreliable” character, but seems like he’d be the life of any party, and quite satisfied with his existence. Today, we challenge you to write a poem in which a profession or vocation is described differently than it typically is considered to be. Perhaps your poem will feature a very relaxed brain surgeon, or a farmer that hates vegetables. Or maybe you have a poetical alter-ego of your own, who flies a non-wan, treasure-hunting flag with pride.

Happy writing!