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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

Just Because Something Smells Terrible, Doesn't Mean It's Dead

2/22/2017

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Every couple of years some out-of-touch New Yorker writer, or some bitter, unsuccessful poet, writes an article about how poetry is dead. And, as much as poets should ignore them, the people who write these articles are either so amazingly ignorant, or else such trash writers, that we can't help but analyze how the article is wrong.  It's especially fun when you know the person who wrote the article, and you think "Of course they think poetry is dead, every time they open their fetid mouth on stage, flies appear. Their poetry was dead on arrival, but some of the rest of us are doing just fine."

I remember reading several articles during the Great Boy Band Boom of the late 1990s that announced that rock and roll was dead. Really, journalists are just eager to declare as many things as possible "dead" before people realise that journalism is, not dead, but certainly corrupt and irrelevant.

Write a premature eulogy for an art form that is doing just fine, thank you very much.
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Inspired By An Acquaintance Who Once Stood At A Urinal Next To George Clooney & Didn't Know What To Say

2/15/2017

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Celebrities are just like us, I've heard. They eat, they sleep, they poop, they accidentally text embarrassing photos to corrupt journalists. It's completely possible that you've run into someone totally famous as the two of you went about your daily routines, and, presumably, you both survived.

Write about a time when you crossed paths with a celebrity and how it did or didn't affect your life.

Or, write about a time you THOUGHT you crossed paths with a celebrity but it turned out to be another schmoe like us.

OR, write about a time you interacted with someone you thought was a schmoe like us, but it turned out to be a celebrity. 

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First, Most Recent, Final

2/8/2017

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Choose an activity you love, or one that you fear. Remember what it was like the first time you engaged in that activity, as well as the most recent time you engaged in that activity. Now, imagine what it will be like the final time you have that experience.
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One Is Simply The Best, One Is Whatever You Need

2/1/2017

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Believe it or not, some people prefer live music shows to live poetry shows. Some people even watch recordings of artists performing before an audience on platforms other than Button Poetry. It's true.

Many a shift at work I've heard coworkers and customers discussing various musicians whose concerts are up o Youtube, discussing various aspects of their performances. Choose a musician, or comedian, or, if you're going to be like that, poet, who has multiple concerts or, at least, clips from multiple performances up on Youtube (or Vevo, or w'evs). Take two clips from very different points in their career and compare and contrast them, go into detail about which you prefer and why.

For example, you might pick a Tina Turner concert from her Private Dancer Tour (1985) and one from Poland in 2000.
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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.
  • Tips From The Bar
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