The last post focused on imitating others and repeating their words and style. Let’s repeat ourselves and others again—without the mockery though.

Most of us know of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”—it was an anthem for a generation—but Amy Newman’s version of “Howl” provide a younger generation of women with their own. I found her poem cheeky and humorous but not derogatory to Ginsberg’s. I hope you enjoy it too.

So if imitation is the highest form of flattery and to err is human, let’s take a poem we really like and muff it all up. Choose a poem whose structure you admire and use it for a template for your own poem. Here is Jack Spicer’s amazing poem “Psychoanalysis: An Elegy.” The full poem is found here.

Now below is my attempt to reproduce a similar format in a poem (full link here). Note that this poem is too close to its original (not in quality but in structure) for me to feel comfortable submitting it for publication). I think of this as an exercise poem only. After recent controversies with outright plagiarism and imitation in the poetry community, I hesitate to use others’ structures even with clear attribution. Parody of course is fine, but that is not the goal of this exercise.

For your first prompt, use the structure of Jack Spicer’s poem (his questions) but provide your own answers. See where it leads you. Again, this is just an exercise poem.

Painters and other visual artists often learn techniques by imitating the masters. It is expected and an accepted method of instruction. Writers, however, are supposed to pull from their own lives so that using another’s words is a betrayal of self and a theft. Most beginning writers imitate though—it is part of the process, which is why open mics usually have at least one poet using antiquated language in a rhyming sonnet that echoes the poems from an English lit class.

For the next prompt, choose a poem with a distinctive format/structure—a poem that you love down to your marrow.. Write a poem that matches the original’s structure but work to maintain your own voice. Again this is just an exercise.

For the final prompt, unleash your silliness. Let the painting below be your inspiration.

Good luck!