Diane Mayr: How to Get to Carnegie Hall

  "Inside Carnegie Hall" by Troy Tolley

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Diane Mayr is in the building! 

Following up on her last post in the Ask a Librarian series, today Diane encourages us to maintain a poetry practice routine with some useful resources to loosen the imagination.

How to Get to Carnegie Hall

The joke has been around for an eternity: A man is walking the streets of NYC, looking a little lost. He stops a stranger to ask,

"Hey, Mister, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?"

Jodi Marr

The stranger answers, 

  "Practice, practice, practice!"

Fortunately, the answer to many questions can be answered with, "practice, practice, practice." How do you walk the length of the Appalachian Trail? You start with practice trips carrying a backpack. How do you publish a book of poetry? You start by reading and writing poems. Lots of poems. Perhaps write one a day or several a week. You must practice, practice, practice writing poetry!

So here's the rub: what do you write about? Where do you get your ideas? I addressed this question in my February post at Today's Little Ditty, “Be Curious.” In it I recommended several online newsletters packed with writing ideas to pursue. But, if you're going to write several poems each week for practice, you don't need to dive headfirst into a topic.

What you need is a prompt. Michelle provides monthly prompts here at TLD; this month it is to write an abecedarian. Laura Salas provides a photo for a 15 Words or Less poetry challenge each Thursday. Laura Shovan, during the month of February over several years, used postcards, colors, sound files, and more to provide readers with prompts. Other bloggers provide additional starters.

If you set yourself a goal of a poem with your morning cup of coffee, or a poem before going to bed each night, you'll need something easily available to give you a nudge. And, you're going to need variety to keep your writing fresh. Let me suggest the following:


The Athenaeum. 
Here you'll find the artworks of thousands of artists across the ages. Pick a random work of art, or pick an art movement.

There are many ways to classify the history of art by time period, stylistic features, or geography. Currently The Athenaeum calls all such groupings "art movements."

I have no idea of what the "Veduta" movement is, so I might click on that, then on an artist, then on a work. Here's the point, don't think about whether or not you like the work you land on, just use it. Let it set your imagination loose. Imagine what the artist was thinking when she created it. What would the subject of that work think about you looking at him? Can you come up with a story to fit the picture? Can you do it in 15 words, or three stanzas, or in rhyme? What about the colors? What do their use reveal? How does it make YOU feel?

A painting from the Veduta movement:

"The Distribution of Milk at Saint Lazare Prison" by Hubert Robert.

The Length of an Arm

The length of an arm—
two arms—
spanning a gap.

The length of a glance—
two glances—
bridging a difference.

The lengths to which
we must go merely
to survive.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

The Museum of Bad Art. 
This site is loosely art related. It makes me laugh, which, as far as I'm concerned, is a major plus! Again, pick a picture and go!

flickr.
For a long time I've used flickr. In the drop-down menu titled "Any license" I click on "No known copyright restrictions." Then, I put in a random term such as "weathervane" or "goat" or "permanent." You never know what is going to come up—art, photos, vintage ads.

(Word of warning: some of it may be distasteful since anyone can post photos free for use, but it's generally a small portion of what is revealed. Another note: flickr is owned by Yahoo which recently entered into a deal with Verizon. Within the past few weeks I've had problems accessing the site--it started asking for Yahoo passwords. As of 9/16, everything seemed to working right again, but be aware.)

If you prefer a word-based prompt, try one of these:

The Journal.

J. Robert Lennon Random Poem Idea Generator.

Random Line Generator.

Robert Lee Brewer's Wednesday Poetry Prompts.


There are plenty more places to go for writing nudges. Perhaps you can share your favorite in the comments section? There is no excuse for not writing a poem a day when the prompts are so abundant. Start today and you'll be on the road to Carnegie Hall!

Rian Castillo

Brava, Diane! 

Thank you for sharing these fantastic resources with us!

Be sure to check out Diane's other posts in the Ask a Librarian series:

• Ekphrastic Poetry and  
• Be Curious.

Diane Mayr (a.k.a. Kurious Kitty) is a long-time public librarian and a freelance writer.  She is the author of a storyhour favorite picture book, Run, Turkey, Run! (Walker & Co., 2007).  Since 2007, she has concentrated on haiku and other short form poems, and works to improve her graphic skills by illustrating them. Find out more about Diane at her website.

I'm delighted with the turnout for Carole Boston Weatherford's abecedarian challenge. (This is not an easy poetry form!) This week's featured daily ditties included poems by Suzy Levinson, Juanita Havill, Rosi Hollinbeck, and my own, written for yesterday's International Day of Peace. Although abecedarian poems will be accepted through the end of September, next Friday will be our wrap-up celebration. To be included, post your contribution on our September 2017 padlet.

This week's Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm.

Diane Mayr: Be Curious

"Curiouser and curiouser"

 Photo by Stanley Howe

Wondering what this band of bovines are curious about? 

I bet Diane Mayr knows... or if not, I bet she can find out. 

That's what librarians do best!

In today's post, the second in her "Ask a Librarian" series, Diane explores some terrific resources for finding inspiration. Her first post in the series, about ekphrastic poetry, can be found HERE.

Thank you, Diane, for feeding our muses and our brains! 

(Would you mind feeding the cows while you're at it?)

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Be Curious

I'm a librarian, but I'm also a writer who has done school visits. I have never visited a school where this question wasn't asked:

 "Where do you get your ideas?" 

The answer, for me at least, is everywhere! The key is to be curious--about everything! (Well, maybe not toenail fungus...)

Being a curious person, I subscribe to a number of general interest newsletters that deliver content to my inbox. Most times I don't read one completely, but I think it's fair to say that almost every link I click on is a path to an article or a story or a poem waiting to be written.

The other day, I ended up at a site on tactile paving as the result of a newsletter. [Tactile paving is a system of "textured ground surface indicators" found on sidewalks, train station platforms, and other areas that assist pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired.] It was fascinating. After reading, I couldn't help thinking about writing a mystery where a tactile paving surface became a clue.

Here are a few of my favorite newsletters:

Atlas Obscura.

Atlas Obscura is a collaborative project. We depend on our far-flung community of explorers (like you!) to help us discover amazing, hidden spots, and share them with the world.

In their newsletter I found an article on America as a nation of immigrants. It certainly is good to have a little background on issues being discussed today.

In the same newsletter is an article on the continuing search for the Holy Grail. Maybe it will inspire someone to write a novel of adventure and intrigue. Move over Dan Brown.

Subscribe on the home page.

Austin Kleon.

At the top of the 2/10/17 newsletter:

This week: productivity vs. creativity, amusing ourselves to death, and more...

Austin Kleon is a writer and illustrator. You may have seen his Newspaper Blackout book of found poems. He also wrote Steal Like An Artist and Show Your Work!, both of which I have read and highly recommend! His newsletter is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Click here to see the 2/10/17 edition.

Subscribe here.

Omeleto.

Like an omelet, we believe in pulling together various ingredients to make something extraordinary. We share genuinely inspiring content to spark action and change. ....That's our mission: to inspire you to live a more purposeful life.

Many of the newsletter items are things I have seen on social media, but there's always something completely new to me. In one edition of the daily email there was a link to a video about a musician. His instrument of choice? Ice. Another link led to a video about someone who has collected snow data for decades. There is generally something that's going to make you grab box of tissues (I'm a firm believer in the value of a good cry), and sometimes there's poetry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGGIAQl0tNM

Subscribe here.

If you are a history fan, you're in luck! History newsletters abound!

Awesome Stories.

Whether in the classroom or the courtroom, people learn from examining evidence (primary sources) and hearing differing viewpoints, as all those items are pulled-together in a story format. When the stories are also interactive, as they are at AwesomeStories, learners are involved in the process.

Written for and by teachers, the articles are meant for classroom use, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read them! A February Black History Month newsletter had links to topics such as Frederick Douglass (whose name has been in the news recently).

Subscribe on the home page.

New England Historical Society. 
(Become a member it's completely free, and I have yet to receive a solicitation for money.) There is no mission statement listed, tsk, tsk, but the articles cover the six New England states.

"There’s an old expression in New England that if nothing seems to go right for you, you have the luck of Hiram Smith." I learned that Hiram Smith died in many different ways. Say what? Find out here.

Subscribe here.

Most state and regional historical societies will have a newsletter. Sign up and learn about your own neck of the woods.

Here's a curious-history-buff bonus:

If you want to give your eyes a break, there is an ongoing series of history podcasts from Stuff You Missed in History Class that are lively and fun to listen to. Glance through the archives here.

Not a history buff? Then perhaps there is another topic that interests you? There are newsletters for practically every subject under the sun—and the sun, moon, and stars, too!

Stay curious, my friend.

Diane Mayr is a long-time public librarian and a freelance writer.  She is the author of a storyhour favorite picture book, Run, Turkey, Run! (Walker & Co., 2007).  Since 2007, she has concentrated on haiku and other short form poems, and works to improve her graphic skills by illustrating them. Find out more about Diane at her website.

Jeannine Atkin's DMC challenge to write a poem using personified feeling is going gangbusters! Featured poems this week included ones by David McMullin, Bridget Magee, Kathleen Mazurowski, and Keri Collins Lewis. Post yours on our February 2017 padlet, then come back next Friday for our end-of-month wrap-up.

Jone Rush MacCulloch has our Poetry Friday roundup this week at Check it Out. Thanks, Jone!

Diane Mayr: Ekphrastic Poetry

Photo: Kevin Barber

We're inside the main reading room of the Library of Congress' Jefferson Building in Washington DC to introduce you to a TLD VIP— the one and only "sprinkler hose of poetry". . .

DIANE MAYR

How lucky we are to have Diane Mayr as our newest TLD contributor! Her extensive knowledge of library and online resources has proven invaluable to me time and time again. Her prowess as a researcher and artful competence as a poet makes me certain that she is the perfect person to sit at Today's Little Ditty's virtual information desk.

Diane is no stranger to Poetry Friday. Many of you will recognize her name associated with two terrific blogs: Random Noodling (her poetry blog) and Kurious Kitty's Kurio Kabinet (her library blog). What you may not know is that Diane is the author of five fiction and nonfiction books for children, and serves her community as the Adult Services Librarian/Assistant Director at the Nesmith Library in Windham, NH. She is also the only person I know who possesses an honest-to-goodness Poetic License. No kidding—see for yourself!

As part of her "Ask a Librarian" series on Today's Little Ditty, Diane has agreed to address readers' questions and offer tips, tools, and insights on a variety of topics for readers and writers of poetry. If you have a question for Diane or would like to suggest a topic for a future post, please email her at TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com.

In the meantime, let's give a warm welcome to the eclectic, ekphrastic, and extra-fantastic Diane Mayr!

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Thank you, Michelle for inviting me to post today! The fact that I've been a public librarian 30 years this August gives me an air of authority, I guess. Rather than as an authority, think of a public librarian as a partner in unleashing your curiosity and creativity.

With that in mind, I'm going to tell you about one of my favorite types of poetry--ekphrastic poetry. Poems about art. Poems inspired by a work of art. Poems about a creator of art.

Ekphrasis, simply stated, is art about art. (See note below.)

The term is being used a little more often than it used to be, although you still won't find it in some dictionaries. Here's what you get if you look up ekphrasis at Dictionary.com:

Poets have been writing about art probably as long as poetry and art have existed. We can go back to the Greeks for early examples (the term ekphrasis is from the Greek and is translated as "description"). Here's part of Homer's description of Achilles shield from The Iliad:

Then first he form’d the immense and solid shield;
Rich various artifice emblazed the field;
Its utmost verge a threefold circle bound;
A silver chain suspends the massy round;
Five ample plates the broad expanse compose,
And godlike labours on the surface rose.
Read more here.

I daresay everyone's had to read "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats for a class somewhere along the line.

Poets of the recent past, and poets writing today, use art as inspiration. From Amy Lowell to Lawrence Ferlinghetti to Edward Hirsch.

Ekphrastic poetry takes all forms from long, as Homer wrote, to short, shorter, and shortest (think haiku). Amy Lowell wrote haiku-like poems such as this one on a print by Hokusai. I've included a work by Hokusai, but I'm not sure which of his prints Lowell had in mind when she wrote the poem:

One of the "Hundred Views of Fuji," by Hokusai
From "Lacquer Prints" in Pictures of the Floating World (1919)

Being thirsty,
I filled a cup with water,
And, behold!--Fuji-yama lay upon the water,
Like a dropped leaf!

Interested in short poems? Peruse this collection of contemporary five-line Ekphrastic Tanka.

If you take a look at the Ekphrastic Tanka page, the editor wrote, "Links were valid at the time the Special Feature was edited. We have attempted to find stable links for the art, but alas, the links are decaying faster than we can update." That's one of the reasons why I often incorporate my ekphrastic poems into the work of art. You, too, might consider this option using a free online photo editor like PicMonkey https://www.picmonkey.com/ or Canva https://www.canva.com/. As a public librarian, though, I must ask that you only use works within the public domain. Public domain is usually work created prior to 1923, however, if the artist lived well into the twentieth century, the work may still be under copyright. I can hear you asking, "how would I know?" Use art work that you can find on Wikimedia Commons (the urn, and the Hokusai print are both from Wikimedia Commons) or The Athenaeum, where rights are clearly stated. Or, you can ask your local public librarian for assistance!

(Note: art is a broad term, so the art could be 2-dimensional, sculpture, fountains, poetry, dancers, etc.)


Diane Mayr is a long-time public librarian and a freelance writer.  She is the author of a storyhour favorite picture book, Run, Turkey, Run! (Walker & Co., 2007).  Since 2007, she has concentrated on haiku and other short form poems, and works to improve her graphic skills by illustrating them. Find out more about Diane at her website.

In case you missed last week's interview with Diana Murray, her DMC challenge for August is to write a poem about an unlikely hero. Thanks to Rosi Hollinbeck and Jessica Bigi for getting things started! Post your poem HERE.

This week's Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by birthday girl Julieanne at To Read To Write To Be.