Animate is a poetry prompt that focuses on speaking as if we are a particular object. This time, we’re speaking as a flying machine.
Prompt Guidelines and Options
1. Speak in the first person.
2. Be specific. Think nouns instead of adjectives.
3. Consider where you—a flying machine—are located, or where you came from, or where you are going. Or, speak as if you have a special desire or concern: maybe you are hungry, missing something, afraid of a sight or sound, in love with another flying machine that is like you or not like you (maybe a MiG-35 fighter jet, or even a UFO!). Be creative. Any type of situation is fair game.
4. Consider doing a little research about the object you will speak as: its history, associated words, music, art, sculpture, architecture, fashion, science, and so on. Look for unusual details, so you can speak convincingly and intriguingly about yourself.
That’s it! We look forward to hearing you speak poetically, from the viewpoint of an object— a flying machine.
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Featured Poem
Inspired by the drawings of DaVinci and every day flight, here is a recent poem from Megan:
Airplane
we board the flying machine, the birds
behind us back home the codex
won’t fit in our four
sanctioned suitcases sketches behind us
we make mechanical wings
power our own ornithopter
Photo by Bill Abbott. Creative Commons via Flickr.
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How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.
“How to Write a Poem is a classroom must-have.”
—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland
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Megan Willome says
Thank you, Heather!
I’m gonna have to give this prompt some thought, but I like it.
Rick Maxson says
Megan, what an amazing poem to use codex and ornithopter so naturally. I love it!
Rick Maxson says
Heather, you keep coming up with these challenging and fun prompts. I want to try this one. I dream about flying all the time, but not as a machine, which would be so much easier on my arms.
Heather Eure says
Thanks, Rick. Keep on dreaming. I’ll be cheering you on.
Rick Maxson says
Only
in dreams the earth
falls below me
I am invisible in blue
made of sensation
constructs of air
motion moist aloft
like rain rising on wings
on the warmth of starlight
and for hours feral and free
from the one who sleeps
Heather Eure says
“feral and free”
That sums up the reason behind the pursuit of flight perfectly.
Loved it.
JoyAnne O'Donnell says
Airplane
Flying is a joy
reaching to the clouds
seeing our Lord in them
protecting our happiness
the airplane awaits destiny
a place we see and want to be.
by, JoyAnne O’Donnell
Heather Eure says
Thank you so much for sharing your poem, JoyAnne. A desire to be closer to the Creator is a perfectly good reason to fly.
Monica Sharman says
Thoughts from an 1890s Glider
If Lilienthal had wings like a dove
he would have flown up.
But with cotton twill stretched
over my skeleton—split willow branches
spread like spider-web fingers—
Otto had to build a hill and soar
down. We turned when I felt him shift
side to side, fore and aft. I cradled
his hips in my harness, his legs
swinging, shifting his center.
Gliding, we inspired
Wright flight.
Heather Eure says
This is great, Monica. The perspective of one of those wonky predecessors. So clever!
JoyAnne O'Donnell says
Flying
You can soar
with your thoughts
in a cartoon
with friends
on an adventure
inside every child’s imagination
even a birds migration.
by, JoyAnne O’Donnell
Heather Eure says
You’re right, JoyAnne. A child’s imagination is wrapped in possibility.
Christina Hubbard says
I love the image of soaring in a cartoon. When I was a kid, I wanted to live in cartoons. They seemed like an alternate reality where anything could happen. Your poem really taps into the childlike sense of adventure.
Christina Hubbard says
Here’s my attempt: http://creativeandfree.com/animate/