The A and I Poetry challenge is open to everyone, from complete beginners to advanced writers or aspiring poets.
The challenge runs March to October, 2018.
Each month we will share tips, offer a monthly poetry prompt and post link backs to your published Poetry posts.
Please scroll down to see this month’s Prompt, guidelines, poetry writing tips and last month’s entrant links.
I am co-hosting this challenge with Ineke from Scrapydo – Ineke and I met here on WordPress.If you wish to read the story of how we meet click here.
A and I Poetry Challenge Guidelines
- For General instructions on joining in, click the Poetry Challenge Page.
- Everyone is very welcome to enter and age is no barrier.
- Write any kind of poem that you like, (the below prompt for this month, is merely a suggestion); it can be fun, or serious.
- Write in any language that pleases you, and note that it certainly doesn’t have to be in English. As this is a joint challenge with Ineke, from Scrapydo2, note that she will also post the challenge in Afrikaans on her blog, so if that language suits you better, visit her here.
- Add the A and I Poetry badge if you so wish. (optional)
- Publish the poem on your blog before the 27th day of that month adding the tag A and I Poetry Challenge to your post.
- Once you publish your blog post, please leave a comment here on this page and also at Ineke’s blog, here, listing the URL link to YOUR poem. [Others can then find their way to your post and we build a supportive community of poets who visit, read and comment on other’s poetry.
**If you don’t post the link to our blogs with your poetry, it is really hard for us to find you and include a linkback to your blog, for the next month’s challenge.
Poetry Challenge – May Prompt
*Write a poem using this photograph or one of your own as inspiration.
N.B. If you choose to use your own photo, please post the photo along with the poem.
Here is my submission for this month:
Caught in the Bubble
Bubbles of air, glass and space,
Where’s the herd who grazed this place?An artist form with eyes a-looking in.
Glass beads reflecting, seeing out, within.A shrunken, perhaps yes, a distorted view,
Representing and offering a different hue.Art is crazy, challenging, new,
Breaking barriers, often pushing taboos.Take a peek and see much more,
Something’s looking back at you, for sure.~ Amanda
I struggled with the subject matter for this poem, even though it was my own photo.
Apparently the Japanese creator wanted to accentuate the outer husk or shape of the animal by enhancing it with these beads of glass and acrylic.
Poetry Challenge Entrants for April:
- Ineke writes on a close friendship in Same Time, Same Place
- Amanda’s entry is found on the April post here
- Tanya takes on a nostalgic trip back in time at pandapoet96.wordpress.com
- Gerard posted his usual fast poet contribution in the comments of last month’s post here
- Also in the comments of my April post: Monk3ydavid@wordpress.com
- Rimons33.wordpress.com/ writes about anonymity
- Wayne writes about longing and grief for something now lost at The Rooster Times
- Peppered with Stories wrote several poems during the month of April
- Melvin got in early in the month with a tale about feeling chained here
- Manya Mexi had some humorous drama in the bathroom in Boulevard of Broken Bathrooms
- Poetry Challenge submissions in Afrikaans include:
- Amanda at PenPunt makes her mother proud
- versevirdieverdwaaldes.wordpress.com/ writes a short but very interesting poem
- Last but not least: purplepumpernickelblog.wordpress.com/
Poetry Tips
- Formatting – Tools to help you format your poems on your blog, including how to add extra lines in your post without WordPress expunging them on posting, can be found here
- Live your poem. When you write, imagine you are a participant in your poem. Look around. See what’s happening. Feel the texture of the sticky pine cone. Feel how difficult it is to pull your fingers apart to type afterwards. Listen to the sounds around you. A robin? A whippoorwill? A Tasmanian devil? Smell your panic. Taste the dryness on your tongue, the thin salt. Activate all your senses. Galway Kinnell once said, “If you’re going to write about a frog, become that frog. Inhabit frogness.”
- Don’t think too much, just write it down.
Ray Bradbury once said, “Throw yourself off a cliff and build your wings on the way down.” Don’t think too much about what I’m going to write. Let the poem create itself. Discover what you are doing in the process of doing it. It evolves as you put pen to paper. - Incorporate poetry devices
What else can make your poetry shine like the summer sun? Imagery, metaphors, and symbolism-to name just a few poetry devices-are subtle ways to improve your poetry. By adding rhyme, irony, or tone to your work, you create a phoenix from a dead piece of paper.
Readers enjoy poetry with meaning, that has a beat or an easy flow, and can be secretive but not beyond their understanding. Great poets know exactly how to incorporate the many elements of poetry into their work.
Research the many poetry devices (others include simile, figurative language, synecdoche, allegories, and musical devices) and begin practicing with them in your own poetry. Write a poem with a theme you enjoy but base it around irony or a metaphor. Continue to practice each device and work them all into different poems to experience each one’s effect.
You can find many examples and ways to use poetry devices by reading books on the subject or doing a simple search online. Study and learn each device, because you never know when one might work perfectly for what you are trying to write.
In a nutshell:
- Use poetry devices to give your work substance.
- Readers enjoy reading poetry with inner meaning or special attributes.
- It takes practice, hard work, and dedication to master devices like Symbolism, Imagery, or Rhyme.
- Finding out about each poetry device is easy; just search online or at your local bookstore or library.
[Source Credit: https://forum.rhymezone.com/articles/884-5-tips-for-writing-better-poetry-how-to-jumpstart-your-writing-by-john-bon%5D
I can’t wait to read what you come up with this month.
Don’t forget to link back to this post, on your poetry submission post, and leave a link and comment here so Ineke, Amanda and others can find your post.
Have fun!
~ Amanda and Ineke
I must say that you and your challenge are partly responsible for my taking part in this April’s NaPoWriMo for the first time. 🙂 I wrote a poem for your challenge and for the first day of spring, and right about then first heard of this month-long challenge and jumped at the opportunity to poem some more. I did it too, a poem a day to the prompt throughout April. Thank you for this and the support. 🙂 Will come back here in May, I just need some time off.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course, Manja! You need a break after that mammoth effort! But I am glad to hear you have been writing loads. You are welcome back whenever you feel up to it!! Enjoy the break!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting photo prompt! Made me think. I hope to do one in English too but in the meantime here is my Afrikaans one.
https://scrapydo2.wordpress.com/2018/05/02/a-en-i-poesie-uitdaging-no-3-druppels/
Druppels= drops
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is so very different reading a translated poem than in its original language. For those who are able to read Afrikaans they will enjoy checking out Ineke’s blog post. For me, relying on Google translate, one can see Ineke has employed several poetic devices to great effect.
LikeLike
It is the same with translating the Eng into Afrikaans. Thanks for your kind words!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am impressed with anyone who is able to translate from one language to another. It is not so easy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A and I poetry challenge #3: Hope in its eyes.
Hope…
Is that what I am perceiving?
Yes, that’s hope in your eyes!
Eyes looking towards the horizon,
planning your next run to the immense meadow,
run and don’t look back!
Shinning and gorgeous creature…
creature reflecting hope in its eyes,
run, I am telling you…
free of any danger you are.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you for this poem filled with hope and makes me think of free spirits! And you have created a wonderful poem that sits perfectly in association with the photograph. I do hope you continue writing and posting in the poetry challenge, next month.
LikeLike
Thank you, I love writing because it has helped me in difficult times and I never imagined I’d sharing it with others. I am looking forward to the next challenge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awesome! I am pleased that you will join in again, next month. Have a great weekend!
LikeLike
Amanda, this is my English entry for May; I will also submit an Afrikaans poem at a later date. https://wp.me/p9ruaE-5b8
LikeLike
Thank you so much, Hester. I can’t wait to read it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love your poem; it’s an excellent description of the photograph and a gives the reader a glance into the artist’s mind as perceived by you. I am learning so much from this blog challenge and your tips / tutorials. I hope that I will be able to keep up in the coming months.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hester – thank you for your kind words and I am very happy to hear that you are enjoying the challenge. Ineke and I are also learning too, both from the entries and the tips shared! And the part that I love the most is that we have a new community of budding poets and writers! I look forward to what we all come up with in the remaining months.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the linkback, Purplepumpkernickel. I am so glad you joined in again! Well done!
LikeLike
Thank you Manja. Can’t wait to read it!
LikeLike
A bit late but from the heart. 🙂
https://manjameximovie3.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/a-good-heart/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just in time, my Afrikaans entry for this month’s challenge https://wp.me/p9ruaE-5c5.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent. I will translate it later this morning. Thankss so much for participating, Hester.
LikeLiked by 1 person