Poetry Challenge #318-Caution! Experimentation in Progress
How often do you shift-select keys at the top of your keyboard when writing poetry? Input an ampersand? Willy-nilly asterisk? Better yet, because Oct 18th is National Cupcake Day—add an exclamation point—let’s do it!
Don’t know and can’t find much by way of biographical information about the Challenge Prompt poet of the week, but what we have managed to find is intriguing:
Carol Snow was born on Oct 18, 1949, and she lives in San Francisco! That’s reason enough to bust out the cupcakes—
Happy Birthday Carol Snow!
After a lot of clicking I found one photo of the poet Carol Snow (not to be confused with the novelist of the same name).
So why choose Carol Snow to be the inspiration
for this week’s challenge?
Carol Snow is currently alive and writing. She has published 4 or maybe 6 volumes of poetry (depending on which online source you check) including Placed: Karesanui Poems (Counterpath Press, 2008), The Seventy Prepositions (University of California Press, 2004), and Artist and Model (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990) . . .
& for her work, Snow has been honored with a Pushcart Prize, Poetry Center Book Award and Joseph Henry Jackson Award in Literature.
What’s more she taught at UC Berkely in 2002 (and for all I know she may well still teach there.)
& her poetry is different, in technical terms we call her an “Experimental Poet.” From what I’ve seen she utilizes more computer keys and white space that many poets . . .
Here’s how Wikipedia* puts it:
Experimental literature is a genre of literature that is generally "difficult to define with any sort of precision."[1] It experiments with the conventions of literature, including boundaries of genres and styles; for example, it can be written in the form of prose narratives or poetry, but the text may be set on the page in differing configurations than that of normal prose paragraphs or in the classical stanza form of verse.[1] It may also incorporate art or photography. Furthermore, while experimental literature was traditionally handwritten, the digital age has seen an exponential use of writing experimental works with word processors.[1]
Here’s one more poem by Carol Snow before we get to the challenge:
Poetry Challenge #318
Caution! Experimentation in Progress
Fanny Howe, who Wikipedia named “one of the most widely read of American experimental poets,” describes Snow’s work as
“post-traumatic—half-seen, half-remembered, half-named—the event more than half gone….
Picture a traumatic incident. It can be one from your life. Or someone else’s. Or perhaps, a traumatic incident involving a cupcake.
Now, write a poem about that incident—but do as Carol Snow might –write only part of it. Write it so it’s half-seen, half-remembered, half-named. Experiment with punctuation to invite readers to fill-in-the half-memory.
If you find this kind of experimentation challenging, draw inspiration from Carol Snow’s poetry.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, Write It!
*Service Announcement: Consider donating to Wikipedia; lighter and cheaper than those encyclopedia sets we used to use to decorate our homes…
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2700+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
