poetree

POETREE is a Dreamwidth-based community for discussing and sharing poetry. Each week the admins select a host whose job it is to share at three or four poems and an optional meta post or question for the audience. While hosts are often poets sharing their own work, poems in the free domain or those posted with permission of the author are also welcome, and people who have never written poetry themselves have hosted wonderful themed weeks in the past.

If you are interested in hosting a week, feel free to leave a comment indicating your interest at the current signup post & to take a look at the Recommended Posting Format page. You do not have to be a Dreamwidth member in order to host a week, and non-Dreamwidth members can participate in discussion through OpenID or anonymous comments.

Roughly every third week one of the admins organizes a community themed week delving into a particular aspect of poetry or poetry culture. For more information about these and other themed weeks, please see the themed weeks master post.

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Community Calendar

CURRENT WEEK: Community Themed Week: Emotional Intimacy

HOST(S): alee_grrl, bookblather, jjhunter, kaberett, lizcommotion, and The Secret Society of Stealthy Sonneteers

CURRENT CHALLENGES: Climbing the Poet's Tree: Challenges #34 - 36 (deadlines June 22nd, July 20th, and August 15th respectively)

NEXT COMMUNITY WEEK: Mon., Jul. 15th - Sat., Jul. 20th

" " TOPIC & SIGN-UP POST: Diction's Dicty Delights - organizer: jjhunter

PREVIOUS WEEKS/HOSTS: Themed Week & Poetry Host Introduction Posts

=

FEATURED POSTS:

Meta: translating Japanese
- lnhammer / poet-translator L. N. Hammer

Poetry Trick or Treat: Halloween Haiku
- various members of the community

On illustrating poetry
- meeks / artist Marika Purisima

+ more

Last updated: 6/19/2013 by jjhunter

poetree_admin

jjhunter

As part of our efforts to encourage and support more poetry collaborations for Pod Together 2013,

poetree is issuing three special tie-in challenges. Note that as Challenges #35 and 36 are significantly more ambitious than usual, the corresponding prizes are significantly more substantial.

For Everyone
Sign up to write or record poetry for Pod Together 2013 by June 22nd (signup deadline).

Of those who comment on this post with a link to their signup at

pod_together by the June 22nd deadline, the following day one person will be randomly chosen as the winner. ( Prize options )

For Writers
Draft a poem or poem series of 1,000+ total words for

pod_together by July 20th (day prior to check in #2).

Of those who comment to that effect on this post by July 20th, the following day one writer or writer group will be randomly selected as the winner. ( Prize options )

For Performers
Finalize your audio recording of part or all of a poem or poem series for

pod_together by August 15th (audio files due).

Of those who comment to that effect on this post by August 15th, the following day one performer or performer group will be randomly selected as the winner. ( Prize options )

kaberett

One: I am trans and I am disabled. For me, intimacy often has physical aspects:

lightgetsin wrote an excellent essay on some of these intersections, last year, entitled Do I Do It For You? Service kink and disability, on some of the ways in which disability can encourage or compel physical - and emotional - intimacy.

Two: when we talk about intimacy, about trust, we often frame it in terms of the physical. In terms of romance, yes: we fall in and out of love, and making that fall physical is only a little stretch; but also in terms of closeness, as Simon Armitage's Homecoming: Think, two things on their own and both at once/The first, that exercise in trust, where those in front/stand with their arms spread wide and free-fall/backwards, blind, and those behind take all the weight...

These are my two things, each on their own and both at once. These are what I carry with me when I offer you this poem.

For more about this poem - in origin terms - please see Gabe Moses' website, and his reading of the poem.

( How To Make Love To A Trans Person, Gabe Moses [explicit; detailed discussion of surgery] )

jjhunter

Society members by code numbers: 9 – lexigent; 16 – fyreharper; 24 – J.J. the Pointed Verse of Reasoned Debate; 28 – firecat; 29 – lizcommotion; 34 – okrablossom; 35 – Pau Amma; 40 – bookblather; and 41 – primeideal.

"There's something intimate about secrecy. When someone glances about and lowers their voice, you instinctively lean in. Whatever it is that the two of you discuss, your soft-voiced conversation creates a illusion of a private space, one set apart from the crowded world outside.

"Let's create such a space here [...]" Thus begins the Covert Collaboration Challenge, "a little experiment in secrecy as a recipe for intimacy". Over the course of a week, myself and my eight fellow Society members wrote two original sonnets; the majority of the lines in each were written with only one to two preceding lines for reference, and in the case of the second sonnet, the prompt ("spontaneous musicals, or What if life was more like theater?'").

==

METAMORPHIC UNDERSTANDING

( full text of the 'Shakespearean' sonnet behind the cut )

==

HELLO, TROLLEY

( full text of the 'loose Petrarchean' sonnet behind the cut )

===
All are welcome to comment and discuss. Society members, was this experiment successful in fostering intimacy? Do you have any favorite exchanges or quotes you'd like to share from our Top Secret discussion threads?

poetree_admin

jjhunter

As written or spoken language in extraordinary form, poetry is a natural home for metaphor and emotional intensity. Feelings that may be difficult to express in everyday language find potent release in matching the form and feel of words and their meanings more tightly to their intended effect.

Thus, the closer we get to talking about what is not ordinarily said, or deeply personal, or complicated and achingly vulnerable - in short, the closer we get to emotional intimacy - the more we turn to song and poetry to bypass the usual boundaries of polite distance and speak heart-to-heart.

This week at POETREE, we hope you will join us in letting go a little of that protective distance, and engage openly and honestly with our various hosts' offerings on the theme of emotional intimacy.

( Schedule behind the cut )

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Last edited 6/19/13 by jjhunter

poetree_admin

alee_grrl & jjhunter

The admins are pleased to announce that this year

poetree is officially affiliating with the

pod_together challenge, and we will be collaborating with the

pod_together admins to support and encourage more people to produce and record poetry for Pod Together 2013.

What is

pod_together, you might ask?

pod_together: a collaboration challenge for writers and podficcers

Open for sign ups June 9 to June 22 on DW, LJ, or tumblr

Pod Together is a transformative works collaboration challenge for writers and podficcers, or in the case of poetry, poets and performers. Poets write poems specifically to be performed, and performers record audio versions of their performances.

If you're thinking this sounds a great deal like spoken word / slam poetry, that is indeed one tradition you could be drawing on! You are not, however, limited to writing in a slam poetry style if you sign up as a poet. Rather, the collaboration element of this challenge is that each poet or group of poets works with one or more partner performers to write a poem or poem series for that specific person or persons to perform. Performers help poets incorporate elements that play to their strengths as performers.

You may sign up as an individual poet or performer, and be matched with someone to work with, or find your own collaborators and sign up as a group. The deadline to sign up one way or another is this Saturday, June 22nd.

( As part of supporting and encouraging more people to sign up to write or perform poetry, POETREE will be hosting a parallel icebreaker week, offering opportunities for poetry project creators to share their work at this community, and running three related 'Climbing the Poet's Tree' challenges with prizes open to anyone who signs up for something poetry-related for pod_together )

Last edited 6/19/13 by jjhunter

poetree_admin

alee_grrl

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

cadenzamuse

I discovered slam poetry through Hillary Kobernick. I was vaguely aware of performance poetry before. But a friend led me to The St. Sebastian Review (a queer Christian literary magazine that is Relevant To My Interests), and The St. Sebastian Review led me to Hillary Kobernick, who was at the time a Masters of Divinity student in classes with some of my friends at Emory University, and Hillary Kobernick's blog (hillarykobernickpoetry.tumblr.com) introduced me to slam poetry.

I tell you about these serendipitous connections because a: I think that spoken-word poetry is an exercise in fostering serendipitous connections and b: I think that Hillary in particular is a curator of these connections. Her blog is a mix of quotes and essays and videos of slam poets and spontaneous thoughts, and I think her ability to make space for disparate things to mingle and grow together comes through in her poetry as well.

In "The Last Judgement," Hillary connects Michelangelo's image of God creating Adam on the Sistene Chapel Ceiling and his painting "The Last Judgement" with various people's beliefs about sin and love, informed by her political and religious beliefs.

*

"The Last Judgement" by Hillary Kobernick
(transcript not currently available)

Things to Discuss:

When I hear/watch spoken-word poetry, I'm reminded of the best kind of late night freeflowing conversation, where you get to the end and ask each other, "How did we get here?" So...how did Hillary get here? What connections did she make that were unexpected to you as she made them, and which ones only seemed unexpected after the fact?
Wikipedia quotes Bob Holman, a poetry activist, calling spoken-word poetry "the democratization of poetry." He also says, "The spoken word revolution is led a lot by women and by poets of color. It gives a depth to the nation's dialogue that you don't hear on the floor of Congress." What oppressed or minority ideas are given a voice in Hillary's poetry? Do you react differently to these ideas in Hillary's poem than you do when you encounter them in other forms?
In Sarah Kay's TED talk, she discusses how her first impression of spoken word poetry was that it was angry. Do you find that to be the case? Why or why not?
There is an improv word association game that provides you with two prompts, and you try to associate your way from one prompt to the second. I'm going to open a round of that in the comments, just for fun. Feel free to use this game or any of the comments here as inspiration for a creative work.

Things to Try:

Check out Hillary's blog. Maybe even use one of Hillary's writing prompts to write a poem.
Watch another of Hillary's slam poems on YouTube. My second favorite is An Open Letter to Lynn Westmoreland.
Hillary is part of Atlanta's Art Amok! poetry slam team, which is currently raising money to go to the National Poetry Slam. Consider donating at their indiegogo page.

cadenzamuse

Hi! I'm

cadenzamuse, and I'm hosting a week on some Atlanta spoken word/slam poets that I like.

I am not a slam or spoken word poet, so I don't know very much about it other than a: it's an out loud/performed type of poetry and b: I like it. So I turned to Wikipedia to learn about the basics.

Wikipedia says that modern spoken-word poetry originated from the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and was also shaped by the beatniks. It has deep roots in Black culture and politics.

Poetry slams are spoken-word poetry competitions that started in the mid-1980s. Slam poetry has roots in dub poetry and hip-hop (which are also both often political art forms).

But that's really dry. So how about some spoken word self-definitions?

Become a slam poet in five steps, by Gayle Danley
( Transcript from Youtube, with ersatz stanza breaks by cadenzamuse )

Some questions to discuss:

Have you encountered spoken word poetry before? What have you liked or disliked about it?
How do you define spoken word poetry?
How is spoken word poetry similar to or different from other forms of poetry developed by oppressed populations?

Some things to try:

Write a spoken word poem following the steps laid out by Gayle Danley. Feel free to share it with us!
If you have some extra time, watch another excellent introduction to spoken word poetry at the TED Talk "If I Should Have a Daughter" by Sarah Kay.

poetree_admin

POETREE @ Dreamwidth: Emotional Intimacy: June 17th - 22nd

In honor of QUILTBAG pride month, poetree is hosting a community themed week on 'Emotional Intimacy'. Sign up to share your thoughts or creative efforts June 17th - 22nd.

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Copy and paste-able html code for Dreamwidth:

( textarea box behind the cut )

Copy and paste-able html code for Livejournal and other platforms:

( textarea box behind the cut )

Note that you can change the banner size manually - it's currently set at 300 pixels wide, which matches the original image width.

poetree_admin

jjhunter

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

poetree_admin

jjhunter

Comm member

ysabetwordsmith is hosting her monthly crowdfunded Poetry Fishbowl today. All are welcome to leave prompts related to this round's theme of sleep and dreams.

===
Are you a member of poetree? If you plan on hosting an online poetry event of some kind, please let the admins know by PM or mention in the weekly Sunday Picnic post, and we will post a short advertisement on your behalf to the comm.

poetree_admin

In honor of QUILTBAG pride month, our next community themed week focuses on emotional intimacy.

Emotional intimacy includes but is not limited to sexual or romantic intimacy. For more information about nonsexual intimacies, see

ysabetwordsmith's excellent reference series on the topic. If you do choose to tackle the topic of sexual emotional intimacy, we ask that anything more explicit than PG-13 territory go under a cut tag.

In addition to poems that focus on or convey emotional intimacy, we invite discussion and reflection on what elements of poetry itself, or what particular types of poems, are especially well-suited to conveying emotional intimacy. Why do people historically turn to poetry and song to express intense feelings? Is there something about the ambiguity or coded language of certain types of poetry that fosters intimacy and expression of sentiments that feel too big or too private to share easily in prose?

( Here is one possible post idea, please feel free to share more in the comments )

If you would like to participate, please comment on this post to claim a particular open slot and some sense of what content you'll post. You may also use the comment section to solicit collaborators for a group post.

( Available days behind the cut )

Last edited 6/17/13 by alee_grrl

poetree_admin

You may have noticed some changes recently to

poetree's tagging system. Throughout the month of June, the admins will be working their way through the community Archive to bring our historical tagging up to date.

Community members and others posting to

poetree are not required to know how to tag their posts appropriately; however, if you're curious, you are welcome and encouraged to browse the following reference guide and leave any feedback in the comments.

( Guide to POETREE's tagging system behind the cut )

Last edited 6/2/13 by jjhunter

bookblather

( How the Grinch Stole My Heart: Dr. Seuss and Tradition )

alee_grrl

May and June are months of transition in the academic world, usually marking the end of spring sessions and the start of summer ones. These are also the most common months for graduation ceremonies, at least here in the United States. Bigger universities will also sometimes have December ceremonies, but many school have only one commencement and it is most frequently held in May or June. Commencement ceremonies are all about transition, and the focus of the speeches is usually on inspiration and lessons that graduates should take with them as they move on into the rest of their lives.

In 1990 Theodor Geisel published his last book, Oh! The Places You'll Go. By the time I graduated from high school in 1998 it had become a common gift to graduates, and a common theme for graduation speeches. Dr. Seuss did not avoid difficult topics simply because his target audience was children. Like another famous and inspirational childhood hero, he talked about these things because children needed to hear about them. He framed his ideas in whimsy and imagination, and I think that may have held his very best lesson. Whimsy and imagination are always important, no matter your age.
( Read more... )

jjhunter

Now wait a minute, Mr. Socks Fox!

When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle
with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle,
THIS is what they call...

a tongue twister supreme! Today we have three takes on the closing tweetle beetle battle portion of Dr. Seuss' 'Fox in Socks', as well as a bonus reading of the entire poem with commentary by

kate_nepveu. You can listen to each via their respective embedded player (note that you may need to click the play triangle twice), or download the audio files by right-clicking and saving-as the hyperlinks.

kate_nepveu - 'Fox in Socks' with commentary [mp3 link]

( Three takes on the Tweetle Beetle Battle excerpt by kate_nepveu, mmcirvin, and jjhunter respectively )

Listeners, if something particularly delights or intrigues you about one or more of these recordings, tell us about it in the comments. Likewise, readers, please feel free to share your own thoughts about the experience of recording from 'Fox in Socks'.

Fox in socks, our game is done, sir.
Thank you for a lot of fun, sir.

poetree_admin

jjhunter

Comm admin

jjhunter is hosting another round of How Are You? (in Haiku) today.

Pick a thing or two that sums up how you're doing today, this week, in general, and tell me about it in the 5-7-5 syllables of a haiku. I will leave anonymous comments screened unless otherwise asked; feel free to use this to leave private comments if that's what you're most comfortable with.

---
Are you a member of poetree? If you plan on hosting an online poetry event of some kind, please let the admins know by PM or mention in the weekly Sunday Picnic post, and we will post a short advertisement on your behalf to the comm.

poetree_admin

jjhunter

Dr. Seuss is as well known for his illustrations as for the poems that accompanied them. As an artist, his strong lines and bold colors have a playful, evocative effect of personality practically bursting off the page and hauling the poet (and readers!) along for the ride.

For our challenge this week, artist Tod Wills (also known as

djinni) has created an illustration of an original character very much in the spirit of Dr. Seuss.
Original art by Tod Wills of a two-legged blue critter with a white stripped tail wearing pointed boots and a crumpled stovepipe hat, from which a curling branch sprouts to tease a very long-necked red bird-creature with almost vestigial wings

Original art by Tod Wills of a two-legged blue critter with a white stripped tail wearing pointed boots and a crumpled stovepipe hat, from which a curling branch sprouts to tease a very long-necked red bird-creature with almost vestigial wings

Your challenge, should you chose to accept it, is to write your own original poem of any length about this mysterious blue critter and his long-necked companion in the style of Dr. Seuss, and comment on this post with the details between now and this Saturday, June 1st, ~~1:00PM~~ 7:00PM EST. Our judge this round is

alee_grrl; the prize is Tod's original watercolor illustration of the art above, which the admins will mail to the winner or a recipient of the winner's choice. Note that anyone is welcome to enter and eligible to win regardless of their affiliation (or lack thereof) with the POETREE community aside from the admins themselves.

( Larger version of the art prompt available behind the cut )

To help people get started, let's begin by brainstorming what makes a poem a "Dr. Seuss"-style poem. How would you describe his poetry to someone who has never read one of his books? What type of words or rhythm 'sounds' like Dr. Seuss?

Last edited 6/1/13 by jjhunter

poetree_admin

alee_grrl

This week we are celebrating and exploring the poetry of Dr. Seuss. The son of German immigrants and brewmasters, Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He developed a love of rhyme as a child, and credited his mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, with instilling this love. She had chanted little rhymes to soothe her children to sleep. He started using Seuss, the middle name he shared with his mother, as a pseudonym while attending Dartmouth College. After he graduated from Dartmouth, he briefly attended Oxford University, where he met his first wife, Helen Palmer. After returning from a tour of Europe, he pursued a career as a cartoonist.

Much of his early career was spent doing advertisements for Standard Oil Company. But as World War II approached, Seuss began doing political cartoons for PM, a liberal magazine. He also joined Frank Capra's Signal Corps, where he helped making training films. This is where he learned the art of animation. During this time he was commissioned by Viking Press to illustrate a selection of children's sayings, and while the book wasn't a huge success his illustrations were met with critical acclaim. This would lead to his first children's book, To Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street. He went on to write and illustrate 44 children's books before his death in 1991, and his works have continued to inspire children and adults. For more on his fascinating life, please see: "Dr. Seuss" Biography, and the Dr. Seuss wikipedia article.

This week we are going to be exploring and celebrating Seuss's poetry in a variety of ways, including a tongue twister-challenge, a new Climbing the Poet's Tree writing challenge, and some in depth exploration of individual poems. There are still open spots if you are interested in participating!

( This week's schedule )

Last edited 6/1/13 by jjhunter

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POETREE

June 2013

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Page Summary

poetree_admin - Under the Branches of the Poet's Tree
poetree_admin - Climbing the Poet's Tree: Challenges #34 - 36
kaberett - Exploration of a poem: How To Make Love To A Trans Person
jjhunter - the Secret Society of Stealthy Sonneteers
poetree_admin - Intro to Community Week: Emotional Intimacy
poetree_admin - Special Announcement
poetree_admin - Sunday Picnic with Kite Flying
cadenzamuse - "The Last Judgement" by Hillary Kobernick
cadenzamuse - Introduction to Atlanta Slam/Spoken-Word Poetry Week
poetree_admin - Please Signal Boost
poetree_admin - Sunday Picnic with Grilled Peaches & Puns
poetree_admin - Event: Poetry Fishbowl
poetree_admin - Signup for Next Community Week: Emotional Intimacy
poetree_admin - Sunday Picnic starts June off right
poetree_admin - Community Tagging
bookblather - How the Grinch Stole My Heart: Dr. Seuss and Tradition
alee_grrl - Dr. Seuss, Providing Lifelong Lessons and Inspiration
jjhunter - the Tweetle Beetle Battle from 'Fox in Socks' (Audio)
poetree_admin - Event: How Are You? (in Haiku)
poetree_admin - Climbing the Poet's Tree Challenge #33: Write a poem in the style of Dr. Seuss
poetree_admin - Multi-Hosted Week: The Poetry of Dr. Seuss

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Recent Entries

Sticky: Under the Branches of the Poet's Tree

Climbing the Poet's Tree: Challenges #34 - 36

Exploration of a poem: How To Make Love To A Trans Person

the Secret Society of Stealthy Sonneteers

Intro to Community Week: Emotional Intimacy

Special Announcement

Sunday Picnic with Kite Flying

"The Last Judgement" by Hillary Kobernick

Introduction to Atlanta Slam/Spoken-Word Poetry Week

Please Signal Boost

Sunday Picnic with Grilled Peaches & Puns

Event: Poetry Fishbowl

Signup for Next Community Week: Emotional Intimacy

Sunday Picnic starts June off right

Community Tagging

How the Grinch Stole My Heart: Dr. Seuss and Tradition

Dr. Seuss, Providing Lifelong Lessons and Inspiration

the Tweetle Beetle Battle from 'Fox in Socks' (Audio)

Event: How Are You? (in Haiku)

Climbing the Poet's Tree Challenge #33: Write a poem in the style of Dr. Seuss

Multi-Hosted Week: The Poetry of Dr. Seuss

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