Saturday, January 12, 2008

Piaster: A fractional monetary unit typically one-hundredth

Every poem started presents an opportunity to get to the last piaster within. The wonderful thing about writing poems is that you never quite get there. Like many things worth doing, the journey is far more important than the destination.

Everything starts with inspiration or determination so while all those ideas are percolating and flowing to paper/screen enjoy the ride and try to stay out of your own way. After the flirtation, it is the time to begin your poem. A successful poem is a story, and like any story it should have three things: a beginning, middle and end, and as you refine your work make sure the poem has an arc. The prompts, ideas and exercises we toss around here at Piaster will help you fill in that story with four components.

  • Uses of image or images open enough to be accessible to the reader
  • Technique and form
  • Style
  • Voice
These four components give a poem its soul/essence or whatever you want to call it. We will talk more about this later; for now here is a piaster dealing with imagery to get you started.

Post a link to your work in comments. Do support each other and provide feedback to your peers. When commenting, try to say more than you like it. Mention something you specifically like and say why or ask a question. We're not looking for in depth analysis but we are looking for useful feedback as well as encouragement. Have fun.

17 comments:

Voices of NLD said...

I haven't written poetry since high school--my father saved my last poem which is somewhere in my blog--Mary Poppins is a junkie
If you can't trust
Mary Poppins who
can you trust?

As I said I haven't attempted poetry in many many years--Mary Poppins being an example why--but this looks like fun. And I love anything with a Pias in the title :)
More seriously it looks like something I can learn from

susan said...

Hi Pia,

You rock! Please pass the work.

paisley said...

wow... for me this is really a challenge... i will work on it tomorrow when i am fresh.....i like the idea tho,, and the presentation is lovely....

paisley said...

susan,, the feed to this blog for some reason is attached to black eyed susan... it doesn't bring up these posts at all... just thought you might want to know.....

paisley said...

ok kids... her we go.........

"reverberation"

jillypoet said...

Susan, I love this site! It looks great, it has a great vibe, and the content is way cool. I'm going to print the prompt and work on it tonight.

Christine Gail said...

Not sure if I was up to the challenge, but here goes

http://a-mus-ing.blogspot.com/2008/01/ripple.html

SA said...

Here is my effort, it's early so be kind.
http://andquethefade.blogspot.com/2007/12/test.html

Crafty Green Poet said...

brilliant challenge, I'll try my best...

Sherry said...

Okay,I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing but I had fun and that's all that matters to me!! Thanks for asking me to try Susan!!

http://thejournalsofthemeanderingmuse.blogspot.com/2008/01/last-piaster.html

deathsweep said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
deathsweep said...

I deleted my last comment because it brought you to a failed attempt. It's cotrrected now but I somehow feel wrong.

"Plop"

Tumblewords: said...

Thanks for an interesting site and great challenge.

Imagery Challenge

Tumblewords: said...

Thanks for your comment, Susan. I chose a semi-haibun format, I think! Three haiku linked to an event but, in this particular case, allowed no space between!

Sherry said...

I know so little about poetry...I'm learning and working my way around so many things...dabbling and touching and grasping, gripping and wanting to taste a bit of everything in life. I thank U.S. Parker for the critique of what I did and love the comment left for me...because it was so true and so "dead on". Always much to learn -- and these days I am like a sponge! It doesn't mean I will necessarily get any better at this...but it certainly won't be because I didn't try!

DayDreamer said...

Here's my submission to the prompt:
dropped earth

Deb said...

Oh, goodness. Who could resist? Not me.

Here's mine.