Do you miss the Writing 201 Poetry course by the Daily Post? If so, then join this blogging challenge and let the poetry flow!
How does it work?
Feel free to answer the prompt, twist it or ignore it; write a poem of your own or share a poem by another author. Write about your inspiration, your creative process or other poetry related thoughts, but this is in no way obligatory. Nothing is obligatory in this challenge. The idea is to get together, talk poetry and have fun!
How can you take part?
Anyone can take part, anytime you want. Publish your poetry post and add a link to it by clicking on the Poetry 101 Rehab badge below or share your link in a comment. Use the tag Poetry 101 Rehab, so we can find each other in the Reader.
I will act as your host, and I’ll be here for you to reply to your comments, read your poetry, like and comment. While this post is the starting point for the challenge, do visit fellow poets in the link-up and chat to them on their blogs!
This week’s prompt is LOCKDOWN.
lock(ed) down so tight
closed, guarded nannied, harried
we can't (even) breathe
may we come out now, please
we're all growed up now see?
My prompt today was inspired by recent events in Brussels, and if you feel so inclined you can read more about that on belgianstreets or in my recent post, ‘twentyfour’ here on this site. What will your take on the keyword LOCKDOWN be? Blog about it in a poetry post and share your link in the comments section of this post and by clicking on the Poetry 101 Badge above.
a great take on the Lockdown, especially the end.
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Thank you Melinda.
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You’re welcome
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It is frustrating, having a government that tries to regress its population to the toddler stage when faced with crises. I don’t think that’s productive for us even in the short run, let alone as a long-term operating mode. I like your poem. I think it’s true for many.
My own, not necessarily tamer series of potboilers is the pre-election campaign of tall tales calculated to terrify/frighten people into seeking protection under the beneficent care of government ,,, add your own identifier. Campaigns: http://wp.me/p5BCD4-hz
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I think you poem hit the spot perfectly, why do we end up electing the kind of people that we do. That’s a prompt for a much longer debate perhaps? Thanks again for participating here Liz.
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One of the more frustrating aspects is that the people, measures, initiatives that I vote for seldom come out on top. Even with the vote for U.S. president, every four years, my state’s electoral votes (almost?) always support the opposition.
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It’s deeply frustrating I know. All we can do is try to make the part of the world around us a better place and continue to rage against the machine. I guess.
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I have taken second, third, &c. looks at that approach over the years, and I have for the most part ceased to “rage against the machine”. While morally justifiable outrage feels so…righteous?… it doesn’t accomplish a lot. Also it requires negative energy, negative emotions to rage against anything, which turns “me” into “them” in many aspects. True change takes place on the individual level. One on one. In the community. Within the circle of friends. Sometimes, just a quiet reminder that I am a member of the group that they’re down on is helpful. The damage that the “machine” can do is on a surface level. It changes the environment. The support, positive interactions, neighborliness are one on one, and that is what reminds us that the machine is selling lies, but that’s not where we as individuals have to live.
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I salute you Liz. If we all shared these feelings, one on one, the would would indeed be a far better place.
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I feel your frustration and remember what happened in Spain in 2004.
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I too remember those terrible attacks on the trains, and so many other terrible atrocities. Time for the ordinary people to say stop. Instead of watching it all unfold on the screen on the wall. Not sure how, just feel we are becoming passive observers of a horror that threatens to engulf us.
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Here is my take on this week’s prompt and your extremely informative posts on this subject. It is an essay rather than a poem and does not directly address recent events. Faced with a media glare, I prefer to squint and comment on things that pop up in my peripheral vision. https://oudeis2005.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/encavernment-in-beckett-musil-and-kafka/
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I like your approach. And I am intrigued by your comment about commenting on things that appear in your peripheral vision – that I am sure is where the ideas that make a difference come from, the ones that we would never have if we only see what is right in front of our eyes, or the things we are pre-conditioned to see or expect. I always look forward to your contributions here because you make me think. Thank you.
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I’m… not entirely sure how this one developed. My pen ran away again, I think. Something along the lines of having two ideas and then they kind of collided and this was the end result: https://tuckedintoacorner.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/poetry-101-rehab-lockdown/
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However it developed it is perfect and actually sent a shiver down my spine as I read it…
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I love your take on lockdown. Could be a challenging prompt 🙂
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Here’s mine, Andy:
https://lazulitopia.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/heart-in-lockdown/
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Interesting how different communities deal with ‘rules’:
Hold
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I liked your comment on the ‘Amish’, and also your comment above on how we ‘see’ rules…thank you for contributing here.
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Andy, not sure you got my link from my new blog (J Lapis moved):
https://lazulitopia.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/heart-in-lockdown/
Thanks for the great prompts!
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Oh thanks, hard to keep track, would love to know what keeps you moving?
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What keeps me moving…hmm…need for change of pace/place probably– and the only free digs are at WordPress 🙂
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A fascinating story untold…
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The short version 🙂
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