The Science of Capturing the Invisible—Prompts

Sorry for missing last week’s prompt. It has been a rough week. I hope you are writing; I am managing only a couple a week. I may try to do a binge day, but the results are likely not to be very useful, even for editing projects.

Rather than using a sample prompt, let’s try to science a poem.

For the first prompt, write a love poem using the following terms: “hydrogen,” “subatomic,” “cloud chamber,” “bubble chamber,” “supersaturated,” “superheated,” “electromagnetic,” “recompressed,” “collider,” “interactions,” “voltage,” “amplifier,” and “positron.”

If none of those words resonate with you, try reading CERN article “Seeing the Invisible: Event Displays in Particle Physics” or the “Bubble Tracks: A Window on the Subatomic” from PhysicsCentral. Or use one of the articles as the subject of an erasure or blackout poem.

Finally write an ekphrastic using one of the images above. What messages or sigils do you see in the patterns?

The Duplex Poetry Form—Let’s Build a Great Poem

Well, this prompt was supposed to be up days ago. This week has not gone as planned, nor has 30/30 nor the last decade really.

These prompts are all inspired by the amazing poem “Self-Portrait as Etioly” by I. S. Jones and by the creator of the duplex form, Jericho Brown, and his brilliant “Duplex (I Begin With Love).” Click on the links to listen to a recording of the poet reading the poem.

The duplex is a combination of the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues. It is 14 lines, arranged in couplets in which the first line of the couplet repeats words and phrases from the previous line. For the last couplet, the last line repeats the very first line. For a better description of the poem’s movement, check out this interview with Jericho Brown.

For the first prompt, try to write your own duplex. And please share. I am in love with the form.

For the next prompt, use the line “Some of us don’t need hell to be good” as ghostline. Or use it as an epigraph and write a list poem on what we do need to be good (whatever that is). Another possible direction is to describe what we need hell to be. And as always, be sure to credit the poet for the inspiration.

For a third prompt, replace the verbs and nouns with their antonyms. What happens? This would be for the purpose of an exercise only as it would be too close to the original.

For a fourth prompt, use the line “‘Home’ means what you love cannot return the same” as a ghostline to erase after you’ve finished but give credit to the poet.

For a fifth prompt, write a poem using the following words found in “Self-Portrait as Etioly”: “spell,” “name,” “mother,” “return,” “open,” “thirst,” “face,” “mouths,” “pull,” and “ends” but try to use the verbs from the poem as nouns and vice versa.

Good luck with 30/30. You are almost there! And regardless of how many poems you did or did not write, The Luminaries and I are proud of you.