A little rhyme action

I know that some of us have a hard time with rhymes when it comes to our poems, so I thought these might help. I use them every once in a while when I get stuck.

http://www.rhymezone.com/

http://www.rhymer.com/

http://rhyme.poetry.com/

The Deviant Life

If anyones interested deviantart (deviantart.com) has a lot of random poetry you can check out but you can also post poetry, art, prose, photography, etc... and receive comments and feedback worldwide.

Just a thought.

Limerickdb.com

There's this (verbose, nerdy, multi-thematic, stick-figured & all-in-all well-liked) webcomic, called xkcd. One day, on the author's blog (Blag), he discusses this Limerick database that he just made:

LimerickDB.com

February 4th, 2008

Remember limericks? They were huge in the mid-20th century, but fell on hard times over the last couple decades. Now so many dirty limericks are a generation out-of-date, and the really clever ones lie neglected and un-retold.

I want more limericks, and I want the cleverest ones collected somewhere. It strikes me that a certain modern system for collecting bits of funny text might be perfect for both these goals.

So, after a moment’s work, I’ve set up LimerickDB.com, which you’ll recognize as similar to bash.org. Submit away, both old and new! Anonymity is encouraged and a respect for meter is required. Dirtiness is not mandatory, but it helps.

This database of limericks is mostly (entirely) made up of limericks that contributers have sent in. Limericks are a form of poetry, after all. Submit your own! Who knows? It may become one of the top rated. Parental advisory: given that limericks are traditionally dirty, it's no surprise that the ones on the website straddle the line between amusingly dirty and too offensive. If you find a limerick so, then click that 'X' next to it to 'flag' it, which suggests to the moderator that this limerick be removed.

Enjoy!

A Good Essay on Form by Linh Dinh

http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/03/half_rigid_half_verse_1.html

Reading and Exercises for the Next Two Weeks

From The New American Poetry:

The SF Renaissance:

Robert Duncan

“The Song of the Borderguard”

“An Owl is an Only Bird of Poetry”

“A Poem Beginning with A Line by Pindar”

Jack Spicer

“Imaginary Elegies, I-IV”

Brother Antoninus

“Advent”

“A Canticle to the Waterbirds”

Madeleine Gleason

“Once and Upon”

Philip Lamantia

“Terror Conduction”

“Morning Light Song”

“Still Poem 9”

John Wieners

“A Poem for the Insane”

“A Poem for Trapped Things”

The Beats:

Jack Kerouac

"Mexico City Blues"

211^th Chorus

225^th Chorus

Ginsberg

“Howl”

“A Supermarket in California”

The Buddhists

Philip Whalen

“2 Variations: All About Love”

“Sourdough Mountain Lookout”

Gary Snyder

“Myths & Texts, Part III”

Other important Writers excluded from this anthology:

Joanne Kyger

Bob Kaufman

Journals Assignments

1. Considering the themes of romanticism, spirituality, and political engagement, describe how one of these poems fits (or doesn’t fit) into the broad themes of California poetry.

2. Do you feel a connection with any of the three themes listed above? Please discuss, using examples from your own work as well as the reading.

Exercises:

1. Write an imitation of one these poems

2. Write a poem describing, in emotional terms, the weather wherever you are during spring break.

Like This Wasn't Coming

So I'm really into Dadaism and bat-shit crazy art, and I think you all should be too.

http://www.maxernst.com/

Wait, what the hell am I doing? I'm not going to link all of these. I'm just going to name the notable ones...

Man Ray
Heinrich Hoerle
Marcel Duchamp
Kurt Schwitters
George Scholz
Otto Dix
Hans Arp
George Grosz
Raoul Hausmann

Most of these psycho bitches and babies are pretty well known, but a few are lesser known and equally amazing.

The Affecting Eye

theeffectingeye.smugmug.com

The exercise goes like this:

Chose one of the images from this website.

Write a poem about it, around it, in its vicinity, perhaps including something in the photograph.

In your journals, write a paragraph about why you wrote the poem you wrote about the photograph about which you wrote.