The Academy of American Poets defines “Erasure poetry” as “a form of found poetry wherein a poet takes an existing text and erases, blacks out, or otherwise obscures a large portion of the text, creating a wholly new work from what remains.” (poets.org)
It seems to me that erasure poem could be considered a form of “negation”–the challenge of today’s prompt explained by Maureeen at Napowrimo: “Today’s prompt is a poem of negation – yes (or maybe, no), I challenge you to write a poem that involves describing something in terms of what it is not, or not like.”
Poem removed by Poet Voice for revision and publication elsewhere.
Today’s prompt is another rewrite. Thorson says: “And now for our (optional) daily prompt. Hopefully, this one will provide you with a bit of Friday fun. Today, I challenge you to write a parody or satire based on a famous poem. It can be long or short, rhymed or not. But take a favorite (or unfavorite) poem of the past, and see if you can’t re-write it on humorous, mocking, or sharp-witted lines. You can use your poem to make fun of the original (in the vein of a parody), or turn the form and manner of the original into a vehicle for making points about something else (more of a satire – though the dividing lines get rather confused and thin at times).”
My attempt at the prompt on day 14 has an interesting twist. The poem is not so famous, but the poet is—Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In 1856, Barrett Browning published Aurora Leigh, a “novel in verse” that follows the title character, an aspiring poet, through several pot-boiling twists. In one revealing passage, Aurora’s cousin and would-be suitor, Romney Leigh, summarizes his attitude toward her and women writers of that era in a passage that I quote below. I rewrote that passage.
So, I rewrote the poem from a feminist perspective and titled it “Woman Poet Extraordinaire”
Woman Poet Extraordinaire
Therefore, this same world
that you understand and influence
with your strength and courage will
always be changed by you and
women of the world. Women brave,
strong, and at work in the world
will always change it by their very presence.
You are more than a doting mother and a wife!
You are more than a sublime Madonna ,
a seductress, or an enduring saint.
You are divine!
You are woman!
You are leader, artist, writer,
inventor, healer, builder.
You are poet extraordinaire!
Jacquelyn Markham (4/14/2023)
Here’s the original in which her cousin addresses her, knowing of her aspirations to be a poet:
Therefore, this same world Uncomprehended by you must remain Uninfluenced by you. Women as you are, Mere women, personal and passionate, You give us doting mothers, and chaste wives. Sublime Madonnas, and enduring saints! We get no Christ from you,—and verily We shall not get a poet, in my mind.
The Poetry Foundation explains: “As starkly sexist as the above passage might seem to contemporary readers, the idea that women and female experience were incompatible with poetry continued to hold sway for the next 100 years, until second-wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s brought a political and cultural watershed. Women fought for equal treatment and civil rights; meanwhile, women poets created structures to support one another while profoundly changing poetry itself.” (www.poetryfoundation.org)
We only have to look at the last two United States Poet Laureates to see “women poets extraordinaire”! Currently, Ada Limon and former, Joy Harjo. Two of my favorite poets.
Yes, readers, you know of the surreal painter Salvador Dali, but do you know the name of Remedios Varo, the Spanish/Mexican woman artist whose work only recently is being recognized? Like the artists, poets were influenced by the Surrealist movement. You may want to check this out from the Poetry Foundation.
Well, the poem prompt for day 2 was for a surreal poem, a bit complicated but interesting. Read the Day 2 poem prompt here, but the quick version was to choose some words from a list, ask questions for each and answer them. Those answers were worked into the poem. Below is my effort! I have actually created two line stanzas (couplets), but the WordPress format is not cooperating as yet. The poem is all there though!
Remedios Varo, La llamada (The Call), 1961, courtesy NMWA.org
Poem removed by Poet Voice for revision and publication elsewhere.
Launching the Poem-a-Day challenging this April 1, we begin with celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Na/GloPoWriMo this April. Today’s prompt from the NaPoWriMo is below:
“And here’s our own prompt (optional, as always) for the first day of Na/GloPoWriMo. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but they never said you can’t try to write a poem based on a book cover — and that’s your challenge for today.”
What are the chances that I would be visiting my sister on a south Georgia lake covered with Gallinules and reading a book of poetry to review for The Polish Review titled Yours, Purple Gallinule? Because of this serendipity, I chose for my prompt the cover of this beautiful book of poems by Ewa Chrusciel, Omnidawn Press, 2022.
So here’s my poem today!
Poem removed by Poet Voice to revise and submit for publication elsewhere.
Poet Voice 