Poetry Fishbowl Report for Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The December theme was "oceans and other waters," selected by the audience in a poll. A prompt from minor_architect also spawned a surprise guest theme: Christian mysticism. Jesus came to my fishbowl (I did say "everyone" is welcome...) and stuck around for several poems. " His footprints," "Only Begotten Earth," "The Stone and the Ocean," and " Turtles and the Sea" all draw some inspiration from that prompt -- and " A Breath Upon the Waters" is not directly related but does feature an angel and a saint. Of those, "His footprints" has a lively conversation about spirituality going in the comments.
A good batch of prompts arrived early. My writing started out somewhat slow, with longer poems, though I picked up speed later on. A flurry of prompts late at night had me playing whack-a-mole for the last part of the session. (That is perfectly okay.) I worked from 1:15 PM to 1:45 AM, so about 10 hours 30 minutes, allowing for lunch and supper. I wrote 21 poems, almost all free verse. The average ran longer this month: no short poems, mostly medium, three long ones, and a single epic. A total of 17 people sent prompts, a nice enthusiastic bunch. I was pleased to see some big batches again; that seems to boost participation, and certainly makes it easier for me to mix and match. Please welcome new prompters fayanora and thesilentpoet. You have them to thank for the second freebie poem.
I also appreciate the folks who have been linking, echoing, quoting prompts, tweeting, and otherwise promoting the fishbowl. This week I've had multiple appearances from new people, not just in the fishbowl but also in comments on the poems. Outreach is working; please keep it up!
Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the December 2010 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
EDIT 12/10/10 and 12/12/10: Added poems.
" after the humans"
" A Breath Upon the Waters"
" The Click-Whistle of Cthulhu" (a Cthulhu Mythos poem)
" Gaia, Gladiatrix"
" His footprints"
" Interfacing"
" Menfishers"
" Of Salt and Water"
" Song of the Sirens"
" Titanic Adventures"
" Turtles and the Sea"
" Washed Away"
" Water-Roads"
Note that "going to the ocean" (an Origami Mage poem) has been sponsored, but not released yet; it will be published later because it occurs very near the end of the series. Also, "A Breath Upon the Waters" has been partly sponsored and will appear eventually.
Buy Some Poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the list of unsold poems from December. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.
Remember that you can also commission me to make papercraft copies of poetry, suitable for scrapbooking or framing. These make nice holiday gifts. I've posted some recent examples.
All fully sponsored poems have been posted. Copies of the others have been sent to their prompters backchannel. This month's donor perk-post covers " Metaphor and Simile." The first part of the generally sponsored poetry poll is up, so you can allocate funds. Watch for the secondary poll selecting individual poems; that will appear Friday evening or later.
Donors for December include: ellenmillion, marina_bonomi, thesilentpoet, minor_architect, itew, laffingkat, fayanora, janetmiles, and the_vulture. Please give a warm welcome to new donors thesilentpoet and itew. They helped bring you that second freebie poem.
In further exciting news, there are TWO new k-fans this month. Three cheers for laffingkat and the_vulture! These folks really help me bring home the bacon. They're hobby-editors who publish large amounts of my poetry for your delectation.
Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm. You make the fishbowl thrive.
The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page. I have recently UPDATED the landing page, so please take a look if you haven't visited it recently. "Upcoming Activities" with the two next monthly themes is now closer to the top of the page. The "Poetry Fishbowl Patron" icon, reserved for donors, now appears with the other fishbowl icons. The "Cyberfunded Creativity" section has new links to definitions and communities. A new section has been added to describe donor perks. Below that, all the donor perk-posts have been listed, divided by the years, with the month name and its topic. Remember that those are custom-locked posts, though, so the links will only work for current donors. Any time you are a donor, you can go there and read all the previous perk-posts.
A good batch of prompts arrived early. My writing started out somewhat slow, with longer poems, though I picked up speed later on. A flurry of prompts late at night had me playing whack-a-mole for the last part of the session. (That is perfectly okay.) I worked from 1:15 PM to 1:45 AM, so about 10 hours 30 minutes, allowing for lunch and supper. I wrote 21 poems, almost all free verse. The average ran longer this month: no short poems, mostly medium, three long ones, and a single epic. A total of 17 people sent prompts, a nice enthusiastic bunch. I was pleased to see some big batches again; that seems to boost participation, and certainly makes it easier for me to mix and match. Please welcome new prompters fayanora and thesilentpoet. You have them to thank for the second freebie poem.
I also appreciate the folks who have been linking, echoing, quoting prompts, tweeting, and otherwise promoting the fishbowl. This week I've had multiple appearances from new people, not just in the fishbowl but also in comments on the poems. Outreach is working; please keep it up!
Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the December 2010 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
EDIT 12/10/10 and 12/12/10: Added poems.
" after the humans"
" A Breath Upon the Waters"
" The Click-Whistle of Cthulhu" (a Cthulhu Mythos poem)
" Gaia, Gladiatrix"
" His footprints"
" Interfacing"
" Menfishers"
" Of Salt and Water"
" Song of the Sirens"
" Titanic Adventures"
" Turtles and the Sea"
" Washed Away"
" Water-Roads"
Note that "going to the ocean" (an Origami Mage poem) has been sponsored, but not released yet; it will be published later because it occurs very near the end of the series. Also, "A Breath Upon the Waters" has been partly sponsored and will appear eventually.
Buy Some Poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the list of unsold poems from December. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.
Remember that you can also commission me to make papercraft copies of poetry, suitable for scrapbooking or framing. These make nice holiday gifts. I've posted some recent examples.
All fully sponsored poems have been posted. Copies of the others have been sent to their prompters backchannel. This month's donor perk-post covers " Metaphor and Simile." The first part of the generally sponsored poetry poll is up, so you can allocate funds. Watch for the secondary poll selecting individual poems; that will appear Friday evening or later.
Donors for December include: ellenmillion, marina_bonomi, thesilentpoet, minor_architect, itew, laffingkat, fayanora, janetmiles, and the_vulture. Please give a warm welcome to new donors thesilentpoet and itew. They helped bring you that second freebie poem.
In further exciting news, there are TWO new k-fans this month. Three cheers for laffingkat and the_vulture! These folks really help me bring home the bacon. They're hobby-editors who publish large amounts of my poetry for your delectation.
Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm. You make the fishbowl thrive.
The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page. I have recently UPDATED the landing page, so please take a look if you haven't visited it recently. "Upcoming Activities" with the two next monthly themes is now closer to the top of the page. The "Poetry Fishbowl Patron" icon, reserved for donors, now appears with the other fishbowl icons. The "Cyberfunded Creativity" section has new links to definitions and communities. A new section has been added to describe donor perks. Below that, all the donor perk-posts have been listed, divided by the years, with the month name and its topic. Remember that those are custom-locked posts, though, so the links will only work for current donors. Any time you are a donor, you can go there and read all the previous perk-posts.