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Tips From The Bar

  
 
Almost every week from 2010-2020 I give a prompt for poets at a bar that didn't survive the Covid pandemic.
Many of the  2011/2012 blog post titles are from the brain of Simone Beaubien.
From 2020-2023 I gave occasional prompts as part of The Saturday Night Poetry Exchange.
Though I am no longer behind the bar at a poetry reading, I'll try and make a prompt a day in 2024.
Lime Warrior Photo by Matthew R McGonagle

The Irrational Joy Of Cursed Stairs

1/25/2017

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Most of us make art in response to things we are justifiably angry or upset about. Or love poems about people. Those are also a popular thing. But for this prompt, try and find a thing that brings you irrational joy. Not a person who does a nice thing to you, or your very adorable puppy, or that vibrator that curves just the way you need it to. Maybe you're the kind of person who enjoys watching golf on television (weirdo), or a person who spends hours in the park feeding pigeons...to panthers.

Tell us about your irrational joy, we really need it this year.


BONUS PROMPT: The Cantab staff doesn't want anyone standing on the stairs, or in front of the stairs. And constantly reminding people about this is mad exhausting. So we're spreading the absolutely true fact that The Cantab Stairs are fucken haunted. And we want you to join in our quest. Maybe standing near the stairs curses you to die alone, not even surrounded by cats. Maybe the closer you stand to the stairs, the more likely you are to have your credit card stolen by Central Square rat kings. We don't claim to be fully knowledgeable about The Cursed Cantab Stairs, but we value any piece of writing you can devote to this subject. Unless you're pro-stair standing, in which case, I, personally, curse you to a year of listening to the horrible upstairs band butchering Smells Like Teen Spirit and Don't Stop Believing.

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I Don't Get Context, You Don't Get Context

1/18/2017

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I'm Tired Of All These Literal Babies Taking All Our Government Jobs

1/11/2017

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​In the fine tradition of current "news" outlets, our impending government, and toddlers, focus on something in your life that has gone awry and blame all your problems on a person or inanimate object who could not possibly to be blame for your current predicament.

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The Vagoo Zebra Prompt

1/4/2017

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Several years ago, I had a roommate who mispronounced the word "vague" as "vagoo". It was just one of those words that he'd read for years in books but never connected it with the word "vague", even though he must have heard it pronounced properly in real life.

I found it fairly amusing, so I never told him, even though he used the word about once or twice a week. Eventually, we were at a party with a group of friends and he used the word and got hardcore laughed at for mispronouncing it. He was justifiably annoyed that I'd never corrected him in previous conversations.

There are certainly words in my past that I've pronounced wrong based on how I read them in books. Ironically enough, I pronounced "pronunciation" as "pronounciation" for years.

This got me thinking of the Trevor Noah line about how Americans can't claim the word "zebra" is pronounced "zeebra" because we don't have them in our country, and how people will still argue with him about 

For this week, write about a word you or someone in your life pronounced incorrectly for a long amount of time


Bonus prompt:
Describe the "recent events" that led to the need for this sign.
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    Links
    Write Or Die

    Scott Woods's Twitter Prompts

    ​Rachel Mckibbens' Prompt Blog

    The 30/30 Prompt Blog

    Asterisk And Sidebar Prompts

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All work on the Crooked Treehouse is ©Adam Stone, except where indicated, and may not be reproduced without his permission. If you enjoy it, please consider giving to my Patreon account.
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