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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 World's Saddest Lobster

8/27/2014

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We don't actually know if this lobster, who was recently caught in Maine, is any more or less sad than your average captured lobster but it certainly is bluer. But what happens when someone does catch The World's Saddest Lobster? Does it become an allegory for a person of unusual traits being brought into the public eye? Is it all about escape from giant creatures intent on eating you? Do we follow the blue lobster as it lives out its life as an exhibit in an aquarium? Do we just write a Blues Poem about it?

It's your choice because you're not the one with rubber bands around your claws.

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Bonus Prompt: Keep Me Away From Bukowski's Place

8/27/2014

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In addition to the weekly prompt, one of our beloved regulars, Tom Daley, wrote a poem about writing a poem in Emily Dickinson's bedroom, which he actually did.

Your bonus prompt (which always seems to happen when April Ranger is in the room) is to write about which dead person's  room you'd most like to spend an hour in.

Writing. Or investigating. Keep it clean, folks. 

Or don't.
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So So So Very Long, Please Forget To Write

8/20/2014

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This month, The Cantab lost some beloved regulars, including long time server and mixologist, as well as two time Cantab Slam Team member, Melissa Newman-Evans. Several regulars read their poems of remembrance. Whatever.

So often we buff poetic about the people we either miss or anticipate missing, but what about those people who just refuse to go away. This week's prompt is to write postcards to people who won't leave.
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The Skyline Slanders The Night As It Falls

8/13/2014

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Oh, city, you vain vain fool. Some mornings you think you look best at dawn. Other days, you imagine dusk is your best side. Either way, you check your reflection in the eyes of your people and think you look terrible at night. The stupid night, can't it tell what it's doing to your profile? How it accentuates the vastness of your downtown. How it puckers the seams of your city limits. That night is totally doing this on purpose, and you know some stuff about the night that it doesn't want your inhabitants to know. Tell them. Tell them every rumor you've ever heard about the darkness.

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New York Times Minus Context

8/6/2014

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The Twitter Feed New York Times Minus Context is short phrases from the New York Times excluding, well, context. Take a phrase from The New York Times, or another book  or periodical and use it as the center of your poem.

My favorite examples include:

“woman hatin’ nerd toucher”

“She is young and she is happy, and that is interesting.”

“I get it, okay?”

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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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