I need to tell you in all sincerity that picking two favorites out of your tweets was difficult beyond description. I truly enjoyed all of the writing that came out of the poetwist200 list. Applause to all

Fave pick #1

gather the cracked and brittle shards /…

therer2doors - aka - Angie Werren

I really liked how this poem juxtaposed opening sharpness with the softness of a new day dawning, and how beautifully it balances an underlying hope against the realism and angst of doubt. Poetically, I really like the spareness of the piece and that each and every word is critical to the poem. Overall I get the sense of trying to recover something that has broken, which is powerfully impacting and effective (for me).

Thanks for the wonderful contribution Angie.

Fave pick #2

frothing stacked goblets/…

Kate_TW - aka Kate Temple-West

This poem really got me with its vivid visual imagery that is paired perfectly (for me) with the innuendo I read in the poem.

The whole piece calls to my mind the image of a wedding, guests attired to the nines about to toast the happy couple. But, there is something dark and edgy lurking around that the speaker in the poem knows about. Perhaps one of the happy couple was spied 20 minutes ago in the back seat of the limo with the others best friend? I of course don’t know what the poet had in mind, but there are myriad possibilities, and the poem ignites my imagination to try and conjure up what underlies the rich imagery of this scene. I find that very compelling and enjoyable indeed.

Thank you Kate, for your wonderful contribution.

———-

Rules?

Now, being that I am awfully fond of discarding most rules as I see fit, I have to tip my hat to our leading resident rule breaker Carlton Halpert for the stunning use of all 91 poetwist200 words. Sigh…I can only say, I wish I’d have thought of trying it myself.

Not that I could have rivaled in anyway, the ballad of baxter which is comprised of 12 haiku interlacing potentially autobiographical facets of the mysterious Baxter. The sense of the sureal in this is as profound, as it is enchanting.

My personal fave chapters are 3 & 12, but I find the whole greater even than the sum of its wonderful haiku-vignette components. The incomplete mosaic of the character writing is beyond intriguing. Perhaps there will be more messages home from Baxter? We can only hope…

Thanks Carlton for the inspiring, wonderful contribution - I really do hope we hear more from Baxter.

———-

Most Words Used

Well, wouldn’t you know - we have three-way tie for most words used.

So here they are, all tweeting in at 14 of the poetwist200 words in a single tweet. And they all achieved this feat while still saving space to include the poetwist hash tag. Very impressive.

Back just in time for the 200th prompt - jeremylewit - with:  blind as limbo/…

And a very new writter in the poetwist crowd - Kate_TW  - with:  again in limbo/…

Finally, one of our long standing poetwist regulars - tumblewords - with:  novice faith in limbo/…

Hmm, limbo limbo limbo - wonder what’s up with that…

Thanks and congratulations to everyone for making this such a wonderful celebration of the 200th poetwist prompt. Here’s hoping we’ll all be writing and reading together for another 200 at least

Cheers & ta!

4 Comments »       (what is this?)

We’re having a little tw’elabration for the 100th poetwist writing prompt on twitter, and everyone’s invited whether you tweet or not.

You can either join in here at The Pedestrian Crossing or over on twitter - whatever gig you’re into. I really hope to see you, one place or the other.

The First 95 is a link to a pdf containing the first 95 word prompts I posted on twitter.

So, here’s the deal. Write a micropoem, or piece of microprose using as many of the first 95 words as you can within the 140 character limit.

If you’re tweeting, you’re used to the 140 character gig, and for those of you blogging you can count characters (140 max including spaces & punctuation), or you can write up to 20 words - which won’t be exactly the same, but close enough.

Tweeple, I’ll see you on twitter.

Bloggers, if you would post your microwrites in the comments here I’ll check back in a few days so I can reply to everyone who writes

I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s wonderful creations!!

8 Comments »       (what is this?)

Here are a few of my publication highlights from 2008, perhaps you will find some of these interesting.

In September, I was selected as one of the winners of the Late Blooms Poetry Postcard contest.

This is a wonderful contest for women poets over the age of 40 who have not yet published a full length collection.

In this contest, the seven winning poems are paired with artwork from seven women artists and a series of art quality 5 x 7 post cards are produced for sale (winners receive 10 20 sets of cards they can sell at readings, etc.).

The 2008 series is available from series editor Lana Ayers on her website, as is the 2007 series. Both groups of cards are really gorgeous.

As a side bar for you writers out there, if you follow the link you may notice that I was a finalist in 2007 with a poem of the same title as the one I won with this year.

The 2008 poem is a new version of the same poem I submitted in 2007. Just something to keep in mind - the crafting process is often quite iterative, and can yield more than one good finished version of a piece of writing.

…

It was also my privilege to be selected for inclusion in two wonderful anthologies in 2008.

The first is Pontoon #10, the tenth anniversary edition of this wonderful journal from Floating Bridge Press.

One of my favorite poems from recent work, a piece called ‘waiting,’ appears here in the tremendous company of a great many truly gifted poets. This really is a volume worth reading.

You can read a bit more about it via this link (which includes a link near the bottom of the page where you can purchase a copy if you want).

…

The other 2008 anthology my work appears in is Migraine Expressions, edited by Betsy Blondin. And I am truly delighted to have my work included this wonderful book.

In this case, the poem that appears is one of my all time favorites, ‘a comment on migraines and subtitles,’ written in 2003 and published several times since then.

Migraine Expressions contains writings and images from artists, writers, and other individuals with migraine disease. And it is a tremendously powerful collection of work.

Each individual piece of writing or visual art speaks volumes about this diverse and troubling disease, and the exquisite editing of the book makes it all resonate in harmony. The order of work, and the pairing of the written and visual work paints a distinctive tableau that truly gives this collection an integrated and independent voice of its own.

The icing on the cake is that the book is produced as a beautiful 8.5 x 11 inch hardcover publication printed on heavyweight paper, with great design, and containing really superior reproductions of the visual artwork.

The book is available through Amazon via the marketplace, or the editor’s website. The marketplace seller, Word Metro Press, is actually the editor, Betsy Blondin. Ms Blondin, a migraine sufferer herself, conceptualized this project, obtained grant money to help fund it, was the point of contact for everything from submissions to questions, and is one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Her energy and dedication was and is an inspiration.

…

indy work, all of it - in case you care…

6 Comments »       (what is this?)

metal teeth
skitter
& chills rasp
my spine,
white world angling
away beneath
my heels.

the edge of day
a slab
ready to slide,
I crane my
neck up into the
paling gray—

dawn, a wizard’s
spell
transmuting
verglas to
gold—
elemental rapture,
wet eyelash
falls
to my cheek.

…

Search Engine Stories - writing prompt - ‘verglas’ - 15 Dec 08

…

10 Comments »       (what is this?)

machine rage - cat#AA868 ………. Copyright 2008 Kayt Hoch - rights reserved.

Unfortunately, the conversion to JPEG isn’t very kind to text and fine detail. So, I’ve created a pdf (using a high resolution TIFF) for those of you interested in looking more closely at the image/details. machine rage pdf

Be real, and don’t steal the image.

I’m easy to work with, just contact me if you want to use or get a print of the image and we’ll work something out. That will be easier than spending your time trying to get rid of the copyright info on the image anyway.

This piece was created in response to the SES prompt linked at the end of the post. turns out, I mis-read the post at SES - no prompt this week -

For those of you interested in some very basic information about how this image was put together, read on.

(more…)

15 Comments »       (what is this?)

Orion’s Belt
staples the sky—
precise as a tailor’s
needle.
the moon blinks,
wordless as blue flame
caressing firewood
to ash.
snow
begins falling—
a music like
your breath
dreaming.
this moment I
hold fast,
fragile as moth wings
pushing through
cosmic ether.

…

Search Engine Stories - prompt - 22 Nov 08 - ‘Sky Full of Butterflies’

11 Comments »       (what is this?)