tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82625445124616032512024-02-18T17:31:38.443-08:005th Coffee - A WRITER'S BLOGAuthor/Editor, T. Pitre, Sequim, WA
This BLOG is NOT about COFFEE......
It is about writing.
3671 Posts to date....8/18/2022
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1970125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-83521501421597035682024-01-22T14:06:00.000-08:002024-01-22T14:16:04.890-08:00Writing prompts . Short fiction and poetry.<b>Response has been good to visiting site in the last couple <b><b></b></b>
of days following post on Nextdoor.
</b>
<pre>
Write about a moment that changed your perspective
on life.
Describe a place that holds special significance
for you and why.
Create a short story that begins with the line:
"The door creaked open, revealing a world
I never knew existed."
Explore the concept of "home" and what it means
to different people.
Write a dialogue between two characters who have
opposing
views on a controversial topic.
Imagine a day in the life of a character with a
unique superpower.
Describe a vivid childhood memory and its
impact on your present self.
Craft a letter from a character to their
future self, reflecting
on their current aspirations.
Explore the theme of resilience through a
character who overcomes a significant challenge.
Write a poem inspired by a piece of artwork
that resonates with you.
Create a scene set in a dystopian future and explore the
challenges faced by its inhabitants.
Develop a character who discovers a hidden talent or passion
later in life.
Explore the relationship between technology and human
connection in a futuristic setting.
Write a piece that captures the essence of a specific season
and its impact on emotions.
Craft a suspenseful story that revolves around a mysterious
object or artifact.
<b>Poetry prompts:</b>
Social Issues:
Address a social or political issue through
the lens of poetry,
expressing thoughts
and perspectives.
Fantasy and Imagination:
Let your imagination run wild and
create a poem inspired by
fantasy or surreal elements.
Art and Creativity:
Explore the connection between art, creativity,
and the human
experience in poetic form.
Reflections on Time:
Write a poem that reflects on the passage
of time, aging,
or the concept of time itself.
Cultural Heritage:
Delve into your cultural heritage or
explore a cultural
theme that resonates with you.
Music and Rhythm:
Capture the essence of music and rhythm
through words,
creating a poem that dances on the page.
Seasonal Changes:
Write a poem inspired by the changing seasons and the
impact they have on the world.
</pre>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-3760332950571561412024-01-20T10:17:00.000-08:002024-01-20T10:17:02.315-08:00Test Post....Test for Blog HITS after posting on Nextdoor<b></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-31353980054981904502023-05-03T09:03:00.001-07:002023-05-03T09:03:46.343-07:0015 Obscure Words for Everyday Feelings and Emotions<a href="https://getpocket.com/explore/item/15-obscure-words-for-everyday-feelings-and-emotions?utm_medium=email&utm_source=pocket_hits&utm_campaign=POCKET_HITS-EN-DAILY-SPONSORED&HUNGRYROOT-2023_05_03=&sponsored=0&position=10&scheduled_corpus_item_id=b37d33b0-bf48-46a4-a77d-3c21fd6e8636">15 Obscure Words for Everyday Feelings and Emotions</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-48651507378636194472023-04-27T13:00:00.001-07:002023-04-27T13:00:20.948-07:00Read Poems by Thomas Pitre online. Read poems online at PoetrySoup.<pre>
<b>A Poem published on PoetrySoup, 2011</b>
A Sign
The madman chalked red X’s
on the sidewalks of the houses
if he suspected
or had evidence
that people there
were unkind to each other,
or their dogs.
When he was a young man,
he studied hobo signs
chalked on railroad cars, mailboxes, fences,
buildings in barn yards,
in towns he probed.
Signs that said “doubtful”, “mean dog”,
“be ready to defend yourself”,
“dirty jail”, or “nothing doing here”
sent him away
or might draw him closer
to investigate.
He was a harvest hobo,
following the crops in the West.
Once beaten senseless, and left to die in a Fresno alley.
They laughed when they punched and kicked him,
stealing his knapsack and his kit.
The beating injured his brain.
He was never the same.
He lost all inhibitions and good judgment.
He couldn’t remember what rows to pick
when he picked grapes in Visalia
and oranges in Porterville.
He lost track of time, and had to write everything down.
He made little sketches so he could find his way
back to his box under the railroad bridge.
At night, he played his harmonica
until he dropped into dreams of his days as a boy
or his job with the city.
He dreamt of the beautiful woman that gave him
a whole pie when he begged for food at her door.
He dreamt of the old, black man that looked into his eyes for a long time before tears
came.
The old man saw himself in his eyes.
He saw a man with even less than himself,
and it was more than he could endure.
The hobo impressed the dirt path
in front of the man’s simple cottage
with a new mark – a mark never seen before.
It was an austere eye,
a large tear in both corners,
made with polished pebbles
and shells he carried in his pack.</pre>
<a href="https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/poems_by_poet_read.aspx?ID=9529">Read Poems by Thomas Pitre online. Read poems online at PoetrySoup.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-28343950642875628942023-04-04T08:17:00.001-07:002023-04-04T08:17:29.021-07:00Theme: Memory - Sequestrum<a href="https://www.sequestrum.org/theme-memory">Theme: Memory - Sequestrum</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-6270554188423713502023-04-01T10:20:00.000-07:002023-04-01T10:20:15.359-07:00Creative Juijitsu: Creativity and Problem Solving: Pitre, Mr. Thomas J.: 9781484153512: Amazon.com: Books<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Juijitsu-Creativity-Problem-Solving/dp/1484153510?ref_=ast_author_mpb">Creative Juijitsu: Creativity and Problem Solving: Pitre, Mr. Thomas J.: 9781484153512: Amazon.com: Books</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-28371620198079563962023-03-25T16:53:00.000-07:002023-03-25T16:53:06.356-07:00Maira Kalman: The illustrated woman | TED Talk<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/maira_kalman_the_illustrated_woman">Maira Kalman: The illustrated woman | TED Talk</a>: Author and illustrator Maira Kalman talks about her life and work, from her covers for The New Yorker to her books for children and grown-ups. She is as wonderful, as wise and as deliciously off-kilter in person as she is on paper.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-25062126533325214662023-03-25T16:12:00.001-07:002023-03-25T16:12:47.335-07:00Anne Lamott: 12 truths I learned from life and writing | TED Talk<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/anne_lamott_12_truths_i_learned_from_life_and_writing">Anne Lamott: 12 truths I learned from life and writing | TED Talk</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-20818356538900432472023-03-24T11:26:00.001-07:002023-03-24T11:26:56.287-07:00BookFinder/”Right Now” list/Opinionate.io – Cool Tools<a href="https://kk.org/cooltools/bookfinder-right-now-list-opinionate-io/">BookFinder/”Right Now” list/Opinionate.io – Cool Tools</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-23504583600811669582023-03-12T10:32:00.001-07:002023-03-12T10:32:23.515-07:00Join the next Inlet Write-Along<a href="https://mailchi.mp/aec72b450aab/writers-inlet-newsletter-17535048?e=52174c7840">Join the next Inlet Write-Along</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-52585108503883841982023-02-23T09:56:00.001-08:002023-02-23T09:56:51.152-08:008 Great Sites to Do a Book Search by Plot or Subject<a href="https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-sites-to-do-a-book-search-by-plot-or-subject/">8 Great Sites to Do a Book Search by Plot or Subject</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-70767122947598028392023-02-12T07:26:00.002-08:002023-02-12T07:29:02.504-08:00The Instruction of Destruction – Writers’ Inlet - I studied with this wonderful woman.<a href="https://www.angelarydell.com/the-instruction-of-destruction/">The Instruction of Destruction – Writers’ Inlet</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-5947113518068635582023-02-03T08:26:00.000-08:002023-02-03T08:26:42.014-08:00What elements make up a good poem?The 6 elements that make up a good poem
1. Source - poems usually start with a fit of inspiration, but they shouldn't end there. Actually some of the strongest poems are something simple, like a red wheelbarrow, that's explained with a focus that makes it clear it's not really just about the red wheelbarrow. Experienced poets know how to sculpt their inspiring idea into a story that "shows" emotions through metaphors. It's a process that is never perfected & everyone can improve on.
2. Imagery. #1 by a long shot - when people read your specific concrete words, it creates a scene in their mind that anchors them to the experience. The more specifics you include, the more anchored they are, and the more power your poem has. Uncertainty breaks this anchor, like if you write "They went east or west" - pick one. Abstractions like "leads my mind astray" don't anchor to anything. "Show don't tell" is a rule in poetry that you should use a visible scene to show something instead of abstractly telling someone.
3. Story. It's hard to see all the details and pick out the ones that are most ionic and concrete, as well as figure out a clever twist or "ah ha" moment. A lot of times I'll take apart a poem and write down the series of things that happens - it's often not very many - then play with adding or removing some, or changing the order, or which parts are most iconic to focus on a bit more. Sometimes the result is an edit of the original poem, sometimes it is a new poem entirely. Read your work out loud to make sure it makes sense.
4. Flow & pacing. Lines in poetry shouldn't usually wrap by themselves, you should include a newline to give a natural pause. Know when to use commas, but if it could go either way, usually you don't want one. It's best to use stanzas of 3-10 lines to give the eye a break from the "wall of text." Many new poets write in microsoft word which automatically capitalizes each line, even if it's a sentence continued from the prior line - don't do that. Condense - if a word doesn't add to your poem, remove it.
5. Proper grammar, spelling, etc. English grammar gets surprisingly complicated. Read your poems out loud to see where they sound awkward. Never leave out articles like "a" or "the." Keep the past vs. present tense consistent. Don't use future tense since you can't anchor to something uncertain. Capitalize I's. Avoid the word "its", since 99% of people get the apostrophe wrong. Learn their vs. they're, site vs sight. Pretty often as a poet you'll find yourself unsure which of two ways is right - and the answer is to rephrase to avoid the question entirely - because if you don't know, your reader will probably get confused by it as well. Don't repeat things unless they're important, repetition is very strong. Don't include blank lines in your poem, repeat the title on the first line, or use all-capital words - which are read like screaming, and most readers find unpleasant. Avoid cliche, which is hard when you're new to reading poems, but includes anything like "soul" or "tears" or phrases that look familiar or overly-dramatic.
6. Imagination. Be unexpected. If a reader can tell where a poem is going all the time, it not going to hold their interest. I like thinking of unusual adjectives to use, or to take a metaphor from earlier in a poem and try to repeat it in a strange way later in the poem.
Of course, one of the most important parts of writing poetry is having fun - so don't worry too much about the rules. It's good to know them, it's sometimes good to break them, but in general, focusing on the 5 things above is a great way to improve your poetry in your future writing. And of course some people don't care to improve or how "strong" their poems are for readers - that's you, feel free to keep doing whatever you're doing.
Rhyming is a common question - we feel that mastering rhyming at the same time as learning how to write a good poem is a pretty tall order. The best way to avoid the many pitfalls of "forced" rhyme is to focus first on how to write a good poem, then try limiting the words you can choose to fit a rhyming scheme and see if you can still do it. It's really hard to do well. Be careful if insisting on rhyming before doing the above things is holding back your poetic growth.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-63605321719739228102022-11-15T12:35:00.001-08:002022-11-15T12:35:25.629-08:0045 free online classes you can take (and finish) by the end of this year | Mashable<a href="https://mashable.com/archive/free-online-classes#qq1uTfAREuqN">45 free online classes you can take (and finish) by the end of this year | Mashable</a>: 45 free online classes you can take (and finish) by the end of this yearUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-23996939969949876132022-11-05T18:53:00.001-07:002022-11-05T18:53:10.323-07:00(2) Watch | Facebook = MISPRONOUNCING COMMON WORDS AT GROCERY STORE<a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=791656262136884&ref=sharing">(2) Watch | Facebook</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-64700240500527249272022-10-26T12:18:00.001-07:002022-10-26T12:24:25.473-07:00"Entombed" - A poem by Karen O'Leary of Fargo, North Dakota. Karen O’Leary is a writer and editor from West Fargo, ND. She has published
poetry, short stories, and articles in a variety of venues including: <i>Frogpond,Setu, Fine Lines, Atlas Poetica</i> and <i>NeverEnding Story</i>. Karen edited an international online journal called <i>Whispers</i>
<a href="http://whispersinthewind333.blogspot.com">http://whispersinthewind333.blogspot.com</a> for 5½ years.
She enjoys sharing the gift of words.
<pre>
<b> Entombed
</b>
Emma slipped out the pantry
door into the luxurious
Mansfield Garden, abloom
in a wide array of colors.
It allowed her a moment
to scrape the prejudices
of her father off her skin.
He yanked her out of Northanger
Boarding School two weeks
after her mother’s death,
declaring her friends
were beneath her station.
No amount of persuasion
could change his mind.
Emma suspected his mother
had fed the senseless fallacy
as she moved in as mistress
of the manor and controlled
almost every aspect of life.
Emma stole moments of peace
in the garden her Mom loved.
###
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-67875875698203946622022-08-18T11:12:00.001-07:002022-08-18T11:12:02.832-07:005th Coffee - A WRITER'S BLOG 3671 Posts to date....8/18/2022Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-90275518475055125632022-08-08T09:59:00.002-07:002022-08-08T09:59:53.451-07:00New & Used Books | Buy Cheap Books Online at ThriftBooks - Great company to deal with. Recommended.<a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/">New & Used Books | Buy Cheap Books Online at ThriftBooks</a>: Over 13 million titles available from the largest seller of used books. Cheap prices on high quality gently used books. Free shipping over $15.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-10994005205031433932022-07-25T14:15:00.000-07:002022-07-25T14:15:06.410-07:00Slash Symbols in Writing: When to Use a Backslash vs. a Forward Slash<a href="https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/grammar/style-and-usage/when-to-use-a-slash-in-writing.html">Slash Symbols in Writing: When to Use a Backslash vs. a Forward Slash</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-34933611888320547932022-07-21T09:24:00.001-07:002022-07-21T09:24:26.548-07:00Best free writing tools<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90770145/best-free-writing-tools-2?partner=feedburner&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feedburner+fastcompany&utm_content=feedburner&utm=newsletters">Best free writing tools</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-23308296888939511302022-07-21T09:18:00.001-07:002022-07-21T09:18:22.301-07:00To Learn it Write it Mind Map<a href="http://www.mindmapinspiration.com/to-learn-it-write-it/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">To Learn it Write it Mind Map</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-76276417557732394292022-06-30T06:50:00.000-07:002022-06-30T06:50:00.136-07:0012 Old Words That Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms<a href="https://getpocket.com/explore/item/12-old-words-that-survived-by-getting-fossilized-in-idioms?utm_source=pocket-newtab">12 Old Words That Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-50958035279930605112022-06-29T13:35:00.003-07:002022-06-29T13:35:47.409-07:00This Is the Most Bizarre Grammar Rule You Probably Never Heard Of-Using Adjectives...........<a href="https://getpocket.com/explore/item/this-is-the-most-bizarre-grammar-rule-you-probably-never-heard-of?utm_source=pocket-newtab">This Is the Most Bizarre Grammar Rule You Probably Never Heard Of</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-83120527967564261742022-06-25T10:23:00.001-07:002022-06-25T10:23:19.570-07:00Why People Hate or Love the Sound of Certain Words<a href="https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-people-hate-or-love-the-sound-of-certain-words?utm_source=pocket-newtab">Why People Hate or Love the Sound of Certain Words</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8262544512461603251.post-84295717463552290772022-06-18T11:14:00.001-07:002022-06-18T11:14:54.698-07:00A Selection of Virginia Woolf’s Most Savage Insults<a href="https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-selection-of-virginia-woolf-s-most-savage-insults?utm_source=pocket-newtab">A Selection of Virginia Woolf’s Most Savage Insults</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0