Alessander's Mad Poets (AMP!) Forum Prompt Intro.

OK.  As many of you know, I've sent this via message. However, new members aren't privy to this, so perhaps this is a more efficient way to get this to everyone, past, present and future.

Ok my fellow mad poets, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but like many an artist, I’ve procrastinated a bit.  However, April and Spring are nearing, and it is time for us to waken from our cocoons and fly into action.  April also happens to be National Poetry Month, so this is as good a time as any to introduce some poetry prompts to hopefully get our creative juices flowing.

However, a few points first to let you know where I’m going with all this.   I plan on messaging members of AMP! a prompt.  I will mostly be taking and paraphrasing material from In the Palm of Your Hands: the Poet’s Portable Workshop by Steve Kowit.  It’s the one I used and liked best in my creative writing classes, and if you’ve been shopping around for a good workshop book, I strongly recommend it.

Methodology :  Simple.  I will send group members a message entitled after what type of prompt I’m proposing, I.E. if the heading for a message is “Prose Poem”, then I will be explaining what a prose poem is, and more importantly, I will also offer an example or two that hopefully will inspire you to try something new or expand your poetic palette.  The prompts are designed mainly to motivate, but also to inform and challenge us to break from our creative ruts that we sometimes fall into.

You don’t have to respond to all the prompts – naturally, only those that intrigue.   Still, like with working out, it’s a good idea to exercise different parts of your creative body, even if it seems like a chore at times.   In short, try something different; flex your artistic muscles!  In the event that you do create a poem in response to a certain prompt, I would ask that you insert in the quote (most preferably), or subtitle, or notes for reviewer section of the piece, which prompt you worked from so that we could put it into context, something like “AMP! Prose Poem Prompt” or “AMP! Concrete Poem Prompt,” and of course I would ask you post it up on the group page so that we could see our attempts and laugh at each other's lunacy!

Anyhow, I don’t have any prearranged plan about which prompt I’ll choose or the interval between prompts.   I’m just gonna wing it.   Hopefully, the prompts will inspire (activity, activity, activity!) and some good things will emerge from these petite experiments. 

That is all,

Alessander.

looking forward to your prompts, more often my poems just show up like changes in the weather, but there was a group many years ago, that inspired me to scratch pen to paper. it was a good exercise

Bump. 

I'm adding two new prompts (as of 4-1-13).

The Visual Prompt
The Blues Prompt