Writing Inspiration
Voices: A Third
Yesterday I shared a poem of two voices, inspired my my friend Terry Elliott’s posted poem. After sharing my response on Twitter, more joined in.
As I suggested yesterday, collaborating with others, or remixing other’s invited sharing can create a variety of perspectives on the same content, though contexts of the new versions add new currents to the eddies and tributaries of the main stream shared.
Terry’s original introduced a stream, and I added the bouquet of thoughts, seeds for my own version. Then Kevin tweeted a third voice, where guitar cords and lyrics swirl in a whirlpool of his own song:
Each voice brings a new perspective within the context of each author’s life. Poetry connects us, one to another, whether we read it, write it, or remix it– as long as we share.
Sometimes, the response is simply a new poem, as Bart tweeted his [scroll down to For Tellio].
Voices of Process
Each day of my Slice of Life for March, I share a bit my process for writing, and also in my Twitter feed yesterday, others shared their processes– a screenshot:
Terry shared two processes: gathering his ideas through a daily write in his own Google form and a free-write he calls “10 minute muse” based on one of the daily stories in his Google story gathering; read his process here: How A Poem Almost Makes Itself-Not.
Greg McVerry shared his dive into science, connecting the science to his life. From jottings in his journal based on his notes and reflections, he finds a metaphor from which a poem flows. Read about his process here: Writing Red Shift.
A bit different process is found through art, with Simon Ensor tweeting a visual journal of his changing art on Instagram after a visit to a quarry: View it here: Quarry.
Voices: Reflection
Finally, the collaboration from Terry’s initial call and response poem resulted in that request for how he writes his poetry, and that post has been added to a public, annotatable Hypothesis document, so we can reflect on his process, inspirations, and our responses, along with several others of our small web of friends around the world who’ve been netted into the conversation through a common inclination to learn and share together.
As you can see– poetry is not just one author’s writing, but rather is a possible opening for perspective, inspiration, and collaboration in order to learn together.
Though we find our connections on Twitter, you could share in blogs, in shared folders on cloud platforms, and even through snail mail. I hope you find some “poet” friends to learn and grow with, and to wander through the world’s joys and sorrows together. We strive to keep the internet a friendly and safe place.
Voices: Today’s Poem
And so, this little episode brought me to my own writing inspiration today. I find the good of the internet brings me solace and connectedness, a knowledge that in many corners of the world, people are writing, sharing, and working through the world in similar ways– and brought together in the web of an inter-net that catches those who appreciate one another’s talents.
Writing Process
I thought of that word “internet.” I considered it as both a web spreading out and also a net gathering in. I thought about the ideas cast out as shared thoughts that get swirled around and caught by others through the patterns and hashtags and friendships that grow in responding to one another. It’s a way where responders are friends in spots.
With the idea of a woven net of knots, cast out words, and incidental discoveries in the patterns that show up on Twitter, I wrote the poem and placed it on my own photo of a messy, Twitter-like spider web.
Poetry
Inter-Net
Inter-Net
Woven strings
Cast knotsInter-Net
Tossed words
Caught thoughtsInter-Net
Scooped incidentals
Connected jotsInter-Net
Sheri Edwards
Interlaced patterns
Friendships in spots.
032022 079.365.22
Poetry/Photography
Your Turn
Think of your own sharing and responses on your own social media or other ways to connect with others, or even your family texting. How does it help you sort out the world? Connect you to others? What does it remind you of? Highways? Paths? Rivers? Currents? How do you help to make the internet a better and safer place? Or the world a better place? Can you connect the ideas and write your own “internet” or “connectedness” or “belonging” poem?
As a final note, be sure to check out the website NewsLit.org for how to be media literate and improve our internet.
Thank you to my #clmooc and #etmooc friends who regularly connect through social media platforms, inspiring a better tomorrow.