Joanna Preston: Tasmanaut Poet
We’re now well into the second half of the month. Here in New Zealand the days are markedly shorter, and the trees are all autumnal. (And that’s just since yesterday.) Every time we pass an equinox I get surprised all over again by the way the season seems to gather speed. So, your task today …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 19"
An oldie but a goodie, from Rita Dove via Robin Behn & Chase Twitchell’s The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach – one of the first books I ever bought online, and one I still go back to. As I do to this exercise. The Ten Minute Spill Write a ten line poem that …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 18"
Welcome to Friday Pi-Day! Your task today is to write a poem based on Piphilology – the creation of mnemonic phrases to help you remember the digits of π. (For those of you who have forgotten your mathematics, π is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.) The standard Piphilology approach is to …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 17"
Time for another ekphrastic poem. Today’s exercise takes its inspiration from UA Fanthorpe’s poem “Not My Best Side”, which in turn responds to Paolo Uccello’s quite strange painting, St George and the Dragon. What I love about Fanthorpe’s poem is the way it takes the three different viewpoints – the dragon, the maiden, and St George …
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A year ago today, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire. I know, it feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? Nonetheless, it was one year ago. Your task today is to write an erasure or blackout poem about the cathedral and fire, using one of the many news articles about the fire, the post-fire …
Continue reading "NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 15"
A Dark Feathered Art 