The Tragic

13 March 2021 Saturday Poetry Prompt: a little different

Hope all congealed into a single point which then refused to manifest itself

gods and mortals getting in on the action placed bets on the lack of outcome without involvement

sandals click against straw rubble turned inside the foot for an instant taking rides on the smiles that are meant for others passing by

the world confines itself to its props the background of your head rising to keep the tragic in focus the trees that bear flayed victims the knives put behind every word

and instead of heroism you look to the exit for this is someone else’s problem but the scenes your head stick around loosing the tragic the scene the distance

J.D. Harms 2021

Prompt:

Ha! Sometimes I feel like I tackle the prompts like a Creative Writing teacher: “Challenge yourselves, guys. Challenge yo…” Anyway, today’s prompt, something a little different. Change something about the process to create a piece that challenges you to think a little differently about how/what you write. That could mean changing the voice, the spatial characteristics, word choices, subject, anything that you do regularly, try to alter. Here, while myth is something that figures fairly prominently in my corpus, I don’t believe I’ve referenced the flaying of Marsyas before, or if I have, it’s been rare. Then I tried ripping a page out of the talented Aaron Quist’s book for the way I structured the space of the poem (also something I’ve done before, but not as frequently as other things). Tag me in it (J.D. Harms), and rock on, write on!!

Lennie Varvarides Joe Luca Tree Langdon Dennett Dermott Hayes janny’s heart Ann Marie Steele 2021 Ana-Maria Schweitzer Joseph Lieungh Nathan 8 Nathaniel Laydon ReaperScripts Viraji Ogodapola Jessica Lee McMillan Zay Pareltheon Eli Snow Jasmine Abbi. Ema Dumitru Sydney Duke Richey Sydney J. Shipp Alex Guenther Akhtar Mehmood Saugat Menon Jeff Langley MDSHall Alan Asnen Mimi Bordeaux Margaret's Reflections Gurpreet Dhariwal Era Garg Ora Patrick M. Ohana Matt Getty Aspen Blue Matthew Leo Bradon Matthews Matt Gleason Samantha Lazar Paroma Sen Jesse M. Gonzalez Kira Dawn Lori Lamothe Dr. Jackie Greenwood Daniel A. Teo Kevin E. Pittack Jr. Barry Dawson IV ◦•●Christina M. Ward ●•◦ rowen maeve Gaston King BRiYA Amy Jasek Amy L. Bernstein Andrew Okri Andrea Juillerat-Olvera allie wisniewski Suzanne V. Tanner Janaka Stagnaro Mohan Boone Maziar Ghaderi Vic Spandrio Mike Scarpiello Karen L. Jones Connie Song Alina Sileanu Joanna Vang Gabriela Marie Milton Jesse M. Gonzalez Mauricio Mireles Ian Cunnold Angelina Der Arakelian Vixen Lea Josie Elbiry Jenine Bsharah Baines Cindy Byrne Josh Lonsdale Jonah Lightwhale Taylor Haught Justin Haag Rebecca Ruth Gould Renee Podunovich Georgia Lewitt Lindsay Soberano-Wilson Vera Hadzic Iva Hotko Denee Francese-Smith Charlene Marron Rhonda Marrone Wilfreda Edward Aaron Quist Laura Misener Amanda Dalmas