Getting Inspired

Hope you enjoyed a pleasant Thanksgiving Holiday.  It’s been only a handful of days, really, since the last of the leftovers was eaten and the office email back under control.  And during this relatively short period of time, meanwhile, we’ve endured Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and GivingTuesday!  If you’re worn out already, you’re not alone!  

Having trouble finding poetic inspiration from a good sale?  Look no further than your favorite electronic device.  Whether it’s an iPhone, an Android, an iPad, a laptop or a desktop, there are plenty of websites and apps out there to help nudge your creative juices flowing again during this somewhat stressful time of year!

For instance, Poets & Writers, a not-for-profit organization, offers a variety of online tools and services for writers including their excellent source of inspiration,  The Time is Now E-Newsletter.  Delivered straight to your online mailbox, the e-newsletter offers weekly Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction prompts intended to kick-start your imagination.  

HaikuJAM is a relatively new app whose approach is a little different – rather than working by yourself to come up with a complete haiku, HaikuJAM offers you an interesting opportunity to collaborate with other writers to help you create – and finish – a unique piece of poetry.

There are hundreds of poetry blogs out there, too.  Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century, mentioned on these pages before, offers interesting reading and thematic challenges including, an Ekphrastic Challenge – Art Inspiring Poetry. Similar to our annual Syracuse Poster Project Challenge, Rattle issues a monthly challenge using paintings or photographs to inspire poetry.  Results are fascinating!

You are likely to find inspiration right here at Syracuse Poster Project, too. Thanks to the creative work of our own database development intern, Yingxue Xiao, we recently introduced Haiku Of The Day on our Facebook and Twitter pages.  Reading these daily selections is a wonderful opportunity to read, reflect and become inspired.

Happy Writing!

Posted by Rosalyn M. Carroll for the Syracuse Poster Project.

Rattle #47 – Japanese Forms Issue

Back in the Spring of 2014, we announced on our Poetry Blog, the call for submissions of Japanese forms of poetry (including our favorite: Haiku) from Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century.  The results have been published in Rattle #47.  You can find this colorful edition at http://www.rattle.com/poetry/print/40s/i47/.   Some selections may surprise you!

Enjoy!

Haiku Call: Rattle Spring 2015 Japanese Forms

The wonderful independent literary journal Rattle will publish a special section in their Spring 2015 issue devoted to Japanese forms of poetry. Submissions are open until October 15, 2014. From their website:

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Our Spring 2015 issue will be dedicated to Japanese forms. The poems may be written by any poet, in any subject or length, but must use a traditional or adapted Japanese form: haiku, renga, tanka, haibun, etc. Translations welcome, as well. Though it’s not necessary to include this with your submission, contributor notes will be a short explanation of why you like to use these forms in your poetry – so feel free to include your thoughts with the submission if you’d like.

We’d also love to read any longer narrative essays about what draws you to write in Japanese forms, and/or how that affects your poetry. Essays can be any length.

For further information, and to submit your own works, visit Rattle’s submissions page.