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The Red Scare | Poetry Prompt

Tamara Woods Leave a comment

This month’s prompt is about the alleged ties to Russia. The past month, it seems like every other day there was another potential connection with the Trump cabinet and Putin. What does it all mean? What does it mean to you? Is it the true story? Is it a smoke screen? Is there more to this than we’re hearing? Are we focusing too much on those Russian ties?

You tell me.

I want your poetry. Dark, angry, heated, light, loving, a snarky grin, and a cheeky smirk: give it all to me! This is your opportunity to discuss these matters in a way, in a real way that we don’t often get to in the “real” world. There’s no attack here, no judgment. Only a bunch of poets putting their pen to paper to write about one of the most remarkable presidencies that I’ve ever lived through.

Tell me more.

Email your poems to thereveriejournal@gmail.com.

The best of your work will go to a collection for publication in 2018. After the first year is over. I know many poets procrastinate and are instead going to wait until the last-minute. I would encourage you to write as things are happening, even if there’s something that I don’t create a heading for, write it. And if there’s a heading that you think I should suggest and haven’t, send me a tweet @ReverieJournal or @penpaperpad.

 

Thank you and get to writing!

Syria | Poetry Prompt

Tamara Woods Leave a comment

Before this prompt, the ideas have been fairly esoteric in nature. This month, I was waffling between the word I was interested in hearing more about. However, with President Trump’s position on the Syrian crisis, the refugee, and the response to the Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical attack against his citizens; I had to know, how do you feel? What do you think about this red line? How are you processing this? Do you agree or disagree with our actions in Syria? Give your thoughts a voice and share them.

Syria

One of the reasons behind this poetry anthology is to take a look at what’s happening in President Trump’s first year in the White House. Poets throughout history have evoked emotional responses and to keep track of the world’s happenings.

This is your opportunity to write something real. Be bold and unapologetic. And it will have the opportunity to be published as a statement about the first at President Trump’s first year. This will lean neither for nor against it. Each month I will offer you a different prompt for this activity. You can interpret any way you would like. But the roots of your poem should be with the 45th President of the United States.

A portion of the proceeds will be dedicated to a charity of our choice. The rest will go to the upkeep of this website. Some changes are coming in the future of The Reverie Journal, but we need money to make it happen.

Write your poem about fake news. Let us know if you’d like to submit for possible publication and let’s see what we can create.

Add your link in the comments section, or if you don’t want to add it to the comments, send it to me via email at thereveriejournal@gmail.com.

Fake News | Poetry Prompt

Tamara Woods 1 Comment

I thought at first about using “Alternative Facts” but I feel like “Fake News” could lead to some much more interesting thoughts and comments.

Go there. Where? Wherever your mind takes you when you hear these words. These prompts are about what you’re feeling, what you’re seeing. What’s going on in your world. This is the most remarkable presidency in our lifetime regardless of where you sit on the political line. Write something real. Don’t be afraid.

This is your opportunity to write something real. Be bold and unapologetic. And it will have the opportunity to be published as a statement about the first at President Trump’s first year. This will lean neither for nor against it. Each month I will offer you a different prompt for this activity.You can interpret any way you would like. But the roots of your poem should be with the 45th President of the United States.

For this first prompt, let’s talk about fake news.

A portion of the proceeds will be dedicated to a charity of our choice. The rest will go to the upkeep of this website. Some changes are coming in the future of The Reverie Journal, but we need money to make it happen.

Write your poem about fake news. Let us know if you’d like to submit for possible publication and let’s see what we can create.

Add your link in the comments section, or if you don’t want to add it to the comments, send it to me via email at thereveriejournal@gmail.com.

Resistance | Poetry Prompt

Tamara Woods 1 Comment

In times of stress, times of trouble, and times of need the one thing a writer can do, is write. Our experiences, feelings, emotions, thoughts, observations can be used as damning slashing hacking at the establishment or a soothing balm to try to heal wounds and bring the people together.

resistance

This prompt isn’t about one political leaning over another. It’s about you telling your tale:  your feelings, your thoughts, what you observe. You’ve probably noticed the term “The Resistance” more and more on social media in terms of people who are resisting President Trump’s changes.

It’s your turn to be raw. Open. To take the inundation of news, information, fake news, alternate facts, and to process it into something that makes sense to you to share with other.

This is your opportunity to write something real. Be bold and unapologetic. And it will have the opportunity to be published as a statement about the first at President Trump’s first year. This will lean neither for nor against it. Each month I will offer you a different prompt for this activity.You can interpret any way you would like. But the roots of your poem should be with the 45th President of the United States.

For this first prompt, let’s talk about resistance.

A portion of the proceeds will be dedicated to a charity of our choice. The rest will go to the upkeep of these web site. Some changes are coming in the future of The Reverie Journal, but we need money to make it happen.

Write your poem about resistance. Let us know if you’d like to submit for possible publication and let’s see what we can create.

Add your link in the comments section, or if you don’t want to add it to the comments, send it to me via email at thereveriejournal@gmail.com.

There will only be one of these per month. And a couple of other softer prompts as well just for fun. I’ll be trying to get interviews with poets on here and to do some other new things. A new year, let’s try a new method to our writing.

Be inspired and inspiring!

Older Queer Voices: The Intimacy of Survival | Submission Opportunity

Tamara Woods Leave a comment

Older Queer Voices: The Intimacy of Survival—A call for submissions in response to the harder times that have come back around.
Do you remember surreptitiously flipping through your library’s card catalog to search out who you were and finding only references to “the male homosexual” or “sexuality, aberrant” and no listings at all for gender? Did you strain to hear when your parents lowered their voices to talk about “those” women who lived together in a house at the end of the block? Do you remember the closet? Do remember the Johns Committee? How about the Reagan era when access to women’s, to all people’s, healthcare was curtailed, people with disabilities lost access to key services, and the AIDS crisis emerged?

Those of us who survived these years can help recreate the edifices of care and activism that we once constructed for ourselves and then perhaps abandoned because they were no longer needed. It’s time to reach back and get them. Our experience, the successes we had, the mistakes we made, the voices of those who were left out, and the ways we thrived can be added to the already formidable power of younger generations of queer folk as we gather together in resistance.

Co-editors Sarah Einstein and Sandra Gail Lambert are looking for creative nonfiction and poetry for an online anthology to launch shortly after President Trump is sworn into office. Tell us your stories of not only what you survived, but especially the particular mechanisms of how you found your “people” and the ways you supported and celebrated each other.

Submission Details:
Older Queer Voices: The Intimacy of Survival
Co-edited by Sarah Einstein and Sandra Gail Lambert
An online anthology scheduled for release in early spring.
Creative nonfiction and poetry. No upper or lower word limits. Previously published pieces accepted but the author must own the rights

Deadline: As soon as possible. January 10th at the latest.
Possible AWP reading.
Submit to: olderqueervoices@gmail.com

Beating the Big Bad | Poetry Prompt

Tamara Woods 1 Comment

This weekend we were waiting on the islands for the hurricane to hit. Well it had been downgraded to a tropic storm, but with the potential for 50 mph winds and so much rain, the name isn’t really that important. Initially, we didn’t know anything was going on. We’d gone to watch Star Trek indulging in our nerdy side. I loved it and totally bought the StarTrek insignia cup.  Afterward, I turned on my phone and my Math Guy’s mother had texted us to see if we were ok. Apparently, Hawai’i was a state of emergency from this tropical storm. Who knew?

(This was a reminder that it’s good to check in with local news on a daily basis, just to make sure you’re not in danger of being blown into the Pacific.)

We hunkered down in the house, grabbed delicious snacks with healthy choices for the next couple of days. And wine.

The rain and it blew most of the afternoon into the night. Our house didn’t see the worse of it and we mostly just read and played PokemonGo.

What does this have to do with today’s prompt?, you ask, your frow furrowed. Well fellow Poet, let me tell you today’s prompt:

Write a poem about when you expected something terrible- a big bad to happen- but instead was pleasantly surprised. Share your poems either through a backlink or adding your poem’s link to the comment section below.

Remember, we’re potentially looking at these poems submitted for the anthology. What is this, you ask? Learn more about it here. Be sure to backlink your posts or share your link in the comments below.

Happy writing!