Gathering Poems: Write Across America (Baltimore)

I have shared some of these poems during the days I wrote them, but I wanted to gather them together. These are all inspired by the National Writing Project’s Write Across America: Baltimore marathon. I mostly ignored the official prompts and instead, focused on the artist and their work.

Peace (and poems and place),
Kevin

Poetry: Clay Face

Clay Face

Here’s another in a series of short poems inspired by the National Writing Project’s Baltimore stop for its Write Across America project. This poem is inspired by the clay sculpture work of Paula Whaley — learn more about her with this video.

Peace (smoothed out),
Kevin

NWP Write Across America: Baltimore

Home - Write Across America

The National Writing Project’s Write Across America place-based adventures continues into the school year, and I continue my practice of using the resources — when the resources get shared beyond the Zoom sessions that I nearly always miss — for some morning writing. This week, the project focused on artists in Baltimore, and it is a pretty fascinating collection.

Here are three poems (so far), inspired by three Baltimore artists and their work.

The first was from the work of Kathleen Fahey, who does old cranky-style videos, which are spooled stories that someone literally cranks to move along. Pretty cool and gives a story a forward motion.

A Tale Like This

The second poem came after exploring the work of Joyce Scott, who works with beads and glass and fabrics and more.

Beads

The third was focused on visual artist Ernest Shaw Jr., whose work is inspired by West African tradition and who does a variety of styles of art, including street murals. I listened to a video profile, taking notes on his words and then remixed his words into an art-themed poem.

In The Words of Ernest Shaw

Peace (in explorations of art),
Kevin

Digital Poems from NWP’s Write Across America

This summer, the National Writing Project hosted a series of virtual visits to Writing Project sites for writing events in its annual Write Across America project. I didn’t attend any of the virtual writing events, alas, but I did use the resources generated by each site to write and compose digital poems. I’ve shared them periodically, but I wanted to gather them in one post.

Nebraska

Georgia

Virginia

Connecticut

California

Arizona

I enjoyed the challenge of using places for inspiration, but I appreciated the resources gathered by NWP friends in each of those sites, as the breadth of images, stories, videos and other elements provided many inroads for writing.

Peace (Landscapes),
Kevin

 

Write Across America Poem: Canyon Dreams

I finally got to see the prompts from the last summer stop for the National Writing Project’s Write Across America, and the Central Arizona Writing Project focused on the Grand Canyon as its source for writing. Some other day, I am going to gather the digital poems I did this summer into one post.

Peace (and poems),
Kevin

Poem: That Dog Might

This week’s stop for the National Writing Project’s Write Across America was at the South Coast Writing Project at UC Santa Barbara (California) and the theme was social justice.

I chose an image by photographer Mary Ellen Mark called The Damm Family In Their Car, which was a powerful visual of a family on the edge, and the description with the image mentioned the family’s dog, too, and that dog — Runtley –  became the focus of my poem.

(Note: Copyright protections means I could not use the actual image and the dog image here was generated by Adobe Firefly)

Peace (and Support),
Kevin

Digital Poem: On Hobbomock (Sleeping Giant)

The latest stop for the National Writing Project’s Write Across America – where different Writing Project sites are hosting writing activities – was Connecticut and the focus was on state parks. Interestingly, I grew up in the town next to one of the parks — Sleeping Giant State Park – and spent a lot of time there.

But I didn’t know much of the myth of the Giant, so I enjoyed learning more of the Native American stories and then using some of that in the digital poem. The Sleeping Giant actually looks like a giant, on its back, napping.

Learn more about the Sleeping Giant.

Peace (and Poems),
Kevin

Write Across America: Ghost Story of Northern Virginia

The latest stop on the virtual summer writing tour of various sites of the National Writing Project — known as Write Across America – was in Northern Virginia and the theme of exploration was ghost stories.

I missed the Zoom session but I used some of the resources to explore some interesting stories, including that of the “Female Stranger” of Alexandria, which features a headstone in a graveyard and only hints at her story. This one informed my poem.

Here some of my other poems from my other stops –

Nebraska

Georgia

Hawaii

We/US

Peace (In Explorations),
Kevin

 

Write Across America: Georgia (Shout The Jubilee)

This poem is part of the National Writing Project’s summer Write Across America project, which different NWP sites and affiliates across the country are hosting place-based writing sessions.

I guess I tend to not be part of the Zoom sessions (so far) but I do use the resources and prompts for my own writing, on my own time. The latest visit was to Georgia, and one of the resources was a page about the McIntosh County Shouters, and their use of song and dance to tell stories, and to remember. The video I watched was about Jubilee, and that inspired the poem.

Peace (and Dance),
Kevin