Poetry Fishbowl Report for Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The August theme was "corruption and redemption." At first the prompts trickled in, and then a firehose turned on, and continued for most of the day. There were 131 comments, with a lot of crosstalk, some of which inspired poems. That's a record. I worked from 1 PM to 5 PM. (Yes, I know, that's crazy.) The main fishbowl thus counted about 14 hours, allowing for lunch and supper breaks. So that set a new record for work time. Plus I've clocked another 5 1/2 hours or so on subsequent poems, continuing to work through prompts that I missed earlier. Length was fairly distributed, some in each category except for short. There were several form poems including haiku, tanka, and sonnet. Also interesting was a prevalence of one-word titles, which I rarely do unless the words are unique constructions; this fishbowl just seemed to run to explorations of pure concepts. We got some good twists on the meaning of the theme too.
A total of 24 people sent prompts, another record. Please welcome our 5 new prompters, the most this year: moonwolf1988, ankewehner, westrider, lilyayl, and Shirley Barrette. You have them to thank for the second freebie poem.
Donations went amazingly well. We reached the $200 threshold for an extra fishbowl featuring a poetic series. Based on poll results, that will be Monster House, and I've penciled in the date as Tuesday, August 16. Donations continued to climb, so I offered an impromptu perk, a free epic poem, if the level reached $300. It did, and the poll selected " The Canticle of Days." Thank you ever so much.
More new stuff: The linkbacks perk worked very well, so the whole of " Purity" is now visible. The ticker with the little goldfish indicating donations also proved popular. I'm pretty sure that these contributed to the extremely high activity level. I plan to carry on a separate discussion about what worked and what could use some tinkering for better control.
There are two new series listed on the serial poetry page, "The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia" and "The Clockwork War." See also the new entries in Monster House, The Ocracies, The Origami Mage, Path of the Paladins, and Sort Of Heroes. There are several new verses of " Fiorenza and the Witch-Son" too; that one is just a few verses from completion now.
Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the August 2011 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
" The Accidental Hero" (The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia)
" The Clockmaker's Country" (The Ocracies)
" Contagion"
" Entropy's Blessing"
" Falling Up" (Sort Of Heroes)
" foxwater" (The Origami Mage)
" Greasing the Wheels" (Torn World)
" Hag-Ridden"
" Knifewalking"
" master of water, master of wood" (The Origami Mage)
" No Vacancy" (Monster House)
" Of Gold and Fishes"
" Redemption"
" Stained" (Path of the Paladins")
" The Canticle of Days" (from July 2011, Path of the Paladins)
" Following Along" (from the July 5, 2011 fishbowl, Sort Of Heroes)
" Purity" (from July 2011, Path of the Paladins)
" A Turning Point in the Clockwork War" (from July 2011, The Clockwork War)
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 August. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.
Currently sponsored poems have all been posted. Backchannel copies have been sent to their respective prompters. There is no general poll this month.
The August perk-post is " Perspectives." This month's donors include: janetmiles, marina_bonomi, viva_la_topknot, lilyayl (DW user ailelie), the_vulture, Shirley Barrette, Anthony Barrette, ladyqkat, zianuray, laffingkat, and eseme. Please welcome new donors viva_la_topknot, lilyayl, Shirley Barrette, and Anthony Barrette. They contribute to that second freebie poem too. And four new donors is also the most for this year. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm.
The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.
A total of 24 people sent prompts, another record. Please welcome our 5 new prompters, the most this year: moonwolf1988, ankewehner, westrider, lilyayl, and Shirley Barrette. You have them to thank for the second freebie poem.
Donations went amazingly well. We reached the $200 threshold for an extra fishbowl featuring a poetic series. Based on poll results, that will be Monster House, and I've penciled in the date as Tuesday, August 16. Donations continued to climb, so I offered an impromptu perk, a free epic poem, if the level reached $300. It did, and the poll selected " The Canticle of Days." Thank you ever so much.
More new stuff: The linkbacks perk worked very well, so the whole of " Purity" is now visible. The ticker with the little goldfish indicating donations also proved popular. I'm pretty sure that these contributed to the extremely high activity level. I plan to carry on a separate discussion about what worked and what could use some tinkering for better control.
There are two new series listed on the serial poetry page, "The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia" and "The Clockwork War." See also the new entries in Monster House, The Ocracies, The Origami Mage, Path of the Paladins, and Sort Of Heroes. There are several new verses of " Fiorenza and the Witch-Son" too; that one is just a few verses from completion now.
Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the August 2011 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
" The Accidental Hero" (The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia)
" The Clockmaker's Country" (The Ocracies)
" Contagion"
" Entropy's Blessing"
" Falling Up" (Sort Of Heroes)
" foxwater" (The Origami Mage)
" Greasing the Wheels" (Torn World)
" Hag-Ridden"
" Knifewalking"
" master of water, master of wood" (The Origami Mage)
" No Vacancy" (Monster House)
" Of Gold and Fishes"
" Redemption"
" Stained" (Path of the Paladins")
" The Canticle of Days" (from July 2011, Path of the Paladins)
" Following Along" (from the July 5, 2011 fishbowl, Sort Of Heroes)
" Purity" (from July 2011, Path of the Paladins)
" A Turning Point in the Clockwork War" (from July 2011, The Clockwork War)
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 August. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.
Currently sponsored poems have all been posted. Backchannel copies have been sent to their respective prompters. There is no general poll this month.
The August perk-post is " Perspectives." This month's donors include: janetmiles, marina_bonomi, viva_la_topknot, lilyayl (DW user ailelie), the_vulture, Shirley Barrette, Anthony Barrette, ladyqkat, zianuray, laffingkat, and eseme. Please welcome new donors viva_la_topknot, lilyayl, Shirley Barrette, and Anthony Barrette. They contribute to that second freebie poem too. And four new donors is also the most for this year. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm.
The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.