tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47363899435659872722024-02-01T21:56:09.353-05:00The Last PiasterU.S. Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10400415071953426408noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4736389943565987272.post-29290567136694347902008-02-02T20:18:00.003-05:002008-02-06T09:29:02.233-05:00Write All About It<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsUIm6NW78J9rkNqB6dlNtGq7BoN8v0vLoKoftnrcxkQF9GR8r3NrL8QunisE65qHcwRuNy7fsZ2N1oPxkmOExY2Vg-CuwnbXdwRS6Qr74DVuXKCuG_qmrR3zrt8e_-jbsYl26bB_3y42-/s1600-h/write+all+about+it.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163212437010524258" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsUIm6NW78J9rkNqB6dlNtGq7BoN8v0vLoKoftnrcxkQF9GR8r3NrL8QunisE65qHcwRuNy7fsZ2N1oPxkmOExY2Vg-CuwnbXdwRS6Qr74DVuXKCuG_qmrR3zrt8e_-jbsYl26bB_3y42-/s200/write+all+about+it.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Global Affairs<br /><br />Science, Medicine and Ethics<br /><br />Going Green<br /><br />American Society<br /><br />Spirituality<br /><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="font-size:130%;">Piaster 004</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Often writers look inward to their detriment. Use one of the topics given to broaden the perspective of the character(s) in your poem. Last week's piaster challenged you with writing similes. The exercise created some great figurative phrases. In the current exercise, add depth to your poem by again using simile. Your poem should make a commentary on culture, world affairs or humanity in general. Try to illustrate conflict and conclude with resolution on some level. The resolution does not mean you solve the issue, but the work must draw a conclusion about your topic. Try to avoid generic phrases, images and sound bites. Your title must be used at least once in the body of the poem. Minimum two strophes. No line length restriction.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>As always tell a story, make sure your poem has a beginning middle and end.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Please leave a link. We’d also like permission to repost your draft here in a central location where all participants and readers can get an overall sense of what this piaster inspired. If you prefer not to have your draft here, publicly decline when you post your link. Each draft will have its own page for comments, and we will link to your individual blogs encouraging readers to read more of your work. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4736389943565987272.post-25935100539016690232008-01-27T18:13:00.000-05:002008-01-28T21:04:30.673-05:00What do you see?Once again we ask that you create vistas for your readers. The first piaster simply offered an action with a defined result. Our second, urged you into the dark to create an outcome. The third piaster is similar to the second but expands like ripples from a pebble hitting the water. Remember the first piaster? Rocks, ripples and water? Ignore the babble seems I am making white noise again. I want to remind you that like us, These exercises are all connected and have a purpose.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Piaster 003 Vision Burn Brain Drain</span><br /><br />Integrate each of these 11 phrases unchanged and in the order listed throughout your poem. There are no other restrictions. This exercise should cause a few of those synapses to fire.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5es9ILPyEhmXQWzzi55iMloxHfXCCagfaJKHx_i___N_D8KT4Mhf6jslHRXjIzW0zMh2vzj5MCj4R458736xsWHOn_LzEWr4cba6Ge14ruG8JP_TZYlkJTACjPoc42qRUssYVaAn5Zuaa/s1600-h/Piaster+003+Vision+Burn+Brain+Drain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 179px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5es9ILPyEhmXQWzzi55iMloxHfXCCagfaJKHx_i___N_D8KT4Mhf6jslHRXjIzW0zMh2vzj5MCj4R458736xsWHOn_LzEWr4cba6Ge14ruG8JP_TZYlkJTACjPoc42qRUssYVaAn5Zuaa/s320/Piaster+003+Vision+Burn+Brain+Drain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160327344265165522" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />the moon, broken off like<br />a red flower brilliant as<br />her fingers delicate as<br />the island stretches off the coast like<br />your backbone rigid like<br />the bicycle careening down the hill like<br />soft as<br />crazy bird its song like<br />she spun off like<br />his monotonous voice like<br />days pass like</span><br /><br /><br />Next piaster we look at style, word choice, and how they fit together to affect imagery.<br />Note on poem structure: as always construct your poem as a story with a beginning, middle and end. Or you could use a variation of three-part organization:<br /><br />· The description of the scene.<br />· A meditation on that scene (Examine the experience.)<br />· A resolution or understanding of the scene. (In this structure the resolution should take place where the poem began but become altered by the meditation.) The key is that the resolution returns to the opening in an altered way.<br /><br />Example:<br /><br />· Scene: The poem begins with the speaker overlooking a beautiful bluff, sun sea blah blah blah.<br />· Meditation: She remembers an event that occurred there. Her first romance, perhaps a whispered secret or an over indulgence of a controlled substance whatever; this causes the speaker to reflect inward and examine deeper feelings around that event and how those experiences changed her.<br />· Resolution: She scans the bluff feels the sun, sea and realizes she is standing in bird droppings, and not far off the Starbucks at the strip mall has intruded on the space and maybe the view ain’t so great unless you have blinders on, and maybe thats how memory works also.U.S. Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10400415071953426408noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4736389943565987272.post-80605616725362152972008-01-24T20:55:00.000-05:002008-01-24T20:57:25.104-05:00A Piaster Pause: The White Noise Tour<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI76m5DudG8CPzG6FjHjLhxu7DWTArAu3RQxyYAllqJjWo4Mm5U86pRMCoV4EjsUdQ-VC17CXxvsFEGCdm9ZPENvE0sBmmOoFf1sy2a37IIiSbEZdgt6YroonLBdwJfnZzAJZkRI7lggnU/s1600-h/Vis1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156953277994173570" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI76m5DudG8CPzG6FjHjLhxu7DWTArAu3RQxyYAllqJjWo4Mm5U86pRMCoV4EjsUdQ-VC17CXxvsFEGCdm9ZPENvE0sBmmOoFf1sy2a37IIiSbEZdgt6YroonLBdwJfnZzAJZkRI7lggnU/s320/Vis1.jpg" border="0" /></a>Mantra 1 Keep imagery open avoid dense descriptions.<br />Mantra 2 Poems need a beginning middle and end.<br />Mantra 3 Review revise, revisit.<br />Mantra 4 Keep plenty of unblended scotch close by.<br /><br />Oops, I’m sorry about Mantra 4 somehow my grocery list got on my mantra list. I’m convinced multitasking will be the end of me. Once on my anniversary I gave the Dean lingerie and my significant other a paper on the use of iambic abstractions by the Maori tribe of New Zealand. While I did not get lucky in the bedroom I did get tenure. Who knew he wore a size 10?<br /><br />Settle in folks while I add to the white noise of poetic babble. If you listen closely and use only your left eye you may discover the anagram hidden in one of the sentences in this paragraph. Meaning often can be obscured by the fact that we love to hear ourselves talk, often that talk creates poetic white noise. Try this Mantra 3 exercise at your leisure. Find the last poem you wrote that you did not like. Reduce each stanza into one single line that sums up the stanza. Now once the poem is reduced compare the reduction to the original. Now without looking at the original rewrite the poem around the reduced line or lines. Is it better or worse? Did the poem’s meaning change? How about you put them both in a post and drop a link in the comment section of this post. We’d love to see and comment on it. We can call it “The White Noise Tour.” You can locate this post at anytime using the U.P. link on the right column. Now I have to get to the store I’m feeling Mantra 4 and that decanter won’t fill itself.U.S. Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10400415071953426408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4736389943565987272.post-62166328324563686082008-01-20T09:47:00.000-05:002008-01-24T20:58:13.564-05:00Piaster 002<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKYzL2Tp0Ph5LWBpku08W4kPAb5pTy2ExcuvjfOhE7ri6W6A_J2E4HHy0UMx5rerqZB97bnZmjejCmPBdxxD1NxVwZL9hgdivMrGwV6sEP6P2TqHcPBX8JmUSXRxpDDCcch12A0NEYlazV/s1600-h/002.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157585561355053106" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKYzL2Tp0Ph5LWBpku08W4kPAb5pTy2ExcuvjfOhE7ri6W6A_J2E4HHy0UMx5rerqZB97bnZmjejCmPBdxxD1NxVwZL9hgdivMrGwV6sEP6P2TqHcPBX8JmUSXRxpDDCcch12A0NEYlazV/s320/002.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Previously we talked a wee bit about imagery, and we offered an exercise that required description of a physical act but had a list of words that could not be used. The purpose was to illustrate a way to keep the image open. Open is good, open means the reader can understand and still has room to interpret and wander around a bit inside the poem to make it their own. This is a critical attribute if you want your reader to share the experience. Here is an example: Let’s say I want my protagonist to go down into a cold windowless basement. I could say:<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">“It was black as night and the damp cold reached into her core.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Sure that works, but the first problem is we have all read those exact words used that way before. The second problem is the reader can do nothing but observe. Consider:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">“Her eyes useless she searched with numb fingertips.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The second sentence probably brought an image to your mind while the first one did not. The second sentence begs to continue the first not so much. This is what I mean when I say open. With further thought I know you could write a much better line than I did.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Piaster 002</span><o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The scene:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">A person walks down into a dark cold basement.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Write a free verse poem 25 words minimum begin your poem with your variation of the demonstration line. Be conscious of word choice keep it open for the reader. Remember your poem must have a beginning, middle and end. <span style="font-size:0;"></span>Avoid cliché and have fun.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">For those that did the first Piaster now is a good time to go back to that poem and note how you used imagery. Is it open? If not try rewriting it.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">A word about the images we use: They are a kind of extra piaster to help jump-start your work. Do not describe the image but use it as a door, look past it, imagine what happened before and after the image. Don’t let the image influence you. You influence the image. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:0;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:0;"></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4736389943565987272.post-54966677032556065962008-01-18T17:50:00.000-05:002008-01-19T10:20:18.731-05:00A Piaster Pause<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI76m5DudG8CPzG6FjHjLhxu7DWTArAu3RQxyYAllqJjWo4Mm5U86pRMCoV4EjsUdQ-VC17CXxvsFEGCdm9ZPENvE0sBmmOoFf1sy2a37IIiSbEZdgt6YroonLBdwJfnZzAJZkRI7lggnU/s1600-h/Vis1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156953277994173570" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI76m5DudG8CPzG6FjHjLhxu7DWTArAu3RQxyYAllqJjWo4Mm5U86pRMCoV4EjsUdQ-VC17CXxvsFEGCdm9ZPENvE0sBmmOoFf1sy2a37IIiSbEZdgt6YroonLBdwJfnZzAJZkRI7lggnU/s320/Vis1.jpg" border="0" /></a> Intrepid and resolved, I stand before you admittedly weak and fettered with the myriad of soapboxes I carry. Sure you can push me off but I have more. Today I want to seriously discuss a crime of such premeditation that NBC should do a monthly expose on it. <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I want to talk about Poem Abandonment (Please give me a minute to gather my strength I am having a Hillary moment). I know that all over this blogosphere in cold and cramped, hard drives live-orphaned poems. Little troopers who gave it their all for this or that prompt, brave little soldiers who expressed themselves in Romneyian fashion scripted tight to the spin of their creators. Revisit those that shouted for change or who doggedly stayed the course McCain-like. Do not judge by culture or conviction those Huckabeed lines for they are sincere and deserve a second look. Poets, let's be green, recycle those old poems: review, revisit, revise. Al Gore would want you to.</p><p class="MsoNormal">U.P. climbs off soapbox goes to take nap…</p>U.S. Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10400415071953426408noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4736389943565987272.post-14674871350508579172008-01-12T13:20:00.001-05:002008-01-19T10:23:48.309-05:00Piaster: A fractional monetary unit typically one-hundredth<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">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.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">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.</span></p><ul type="disc" style="font-family:georgia;"><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Uses of image or images open enough to be accessible to the reader</span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Technique and form</span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Style</span></li><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Voice<br /></span></li></ul><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >These four components give a poem its soul/essence or whatever you want to call it.</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" > We will talk more about this later; for now here is a piaster dealing with imagery to get you started.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYAiWIRElGmbcvEkefuCfn5Myr3cbDwV6vWeBNQ8uy73D0_1dLiMkxBCP4ITMyZ2hkz0_t8UbO7am5KqplXnZFcWrk-h8v_XY3xMUpHswpFAKnADAo1dxvjZKtkRKmMo4F-MFlKeIsD4NR/s1600-h/001.jpg.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYAiWIRElGmbcvEkefuCfn5Myr3cbDwV6vWeBNQ8uy73D0_1dLiMkxBCP4ITMyZ2hkz0_t8UbO7am5KqplXnZFcWrk-h8v_XY3xMUpHswpFAKnADAo1dxvjZKtkRKmMo4F-MFlKeIsD4NR/s400/001.jpg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156249586007828354" border="0" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"></p><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >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.</span><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:0;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>U.S. Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10400415071953426408noreply@blogger.com17