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Writing, Paper & Quills: Catalog Poems Prompt

By Callie Feyen 8 Comments


My friend Laura Brown recently asked me why I write longhand as opposed to typing on a computer. She asked me on Voxer, a resource that I am new to and, for several months, refused to use.

The reason, I think, has something to do with why I choose notebooks and pens over my iMac — I feel something too urgent when I face a computer or when I begin to speak. I believe I ought to know something and know it so solidly that it’s ready to be presented to the world. Whereas when I come to a blank piece of paper with my pen, I feel as though I am entering a story that I get to figure out. I do not need to know anything, and I have all the time in the world to play with words, thoughts, and ideas.

Writing with pen and paper has something to do with accepting myself as I am, offering whatever I have, and seeing what I can do with that offering.

I do not think I expressed this so well to Laura the day I drove home from work and talked about my reasons for writing the way I do.

The day was gray and soggy — a terrible excuse for winter — and I don’t really like to talk about writing. I prefer to write. I prefer to tell a story, and as I fumbled through a response for my friend, I looked out the car window and wondered about the mink Laura told me she saw on a walk with her father years ago. She had no plans to see the mink and, if I remember correctly, I think the walk wasn’t planned either.

But there was the mink, and there were they, and I think that’s what I mean about writing with paper and pen — I take a walk on the page, unsure of where I’m going, but hoping and anticipating for a flash of beauty along the way.

Try It

This week, write a catalog poem having to do with your writing process. A catalog poem is a list of sorts, but a word or words from the previous line are used again to create the next line. I decided to give this form a try because I like returning to an idea again and again, and finding something new to say about it. Directions and an examples can be found here. This is my attempt, which employs the catalog technique by repeating “The pen I hold,” “It is ready to,” and “a dent”:

The pen I hold is both patient and hopeful
The pen I hold is ready to make a mark, but ready to wait.
It is ready to cross out and
it is ready to doodle, write fast, write slow
The pen I hold rests nicely against the dent in my middle finger
a dent that is forever there
a dent that will never heal,
a finger that is forever marked from
the pen I hold.

Featured Poem

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s one from Amy Farley we enjoyed:

Prompted, I planned to write a poem
Organized my calendar, set apart time, gave it more than a moment’s thought
Readied to shed mom-ing, wife-ing, daughter-ing, friending if only for a time; my time
Time not shopping, grocery or otherwise
Not gaming, surfing, or tweeting
Not watching and listening to someone else’s script
Or singing along to someone else’s lyrics
Time out from obligation and laundry
I planned, it snowed.

Photo by Pedro Fernandes  Creative Commons via Flickr. Post by Callie Feyen, author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.

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Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.
Callie Feyen
Latest posts by Callie Feyen (see all)
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Filed Under: Blog, Catalog Poems, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources, writing prompt, writing prompts, Writing, Paper & Quills

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About Callie Feyen

Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.

Comments

  1. Megan Willome says

    February 25, 2019 at 5:19 pm

    Callie, you inspired me to catalog my morning writing routine.

    pencil, please
    please, paper

    but first

    sit, please
    please walk

    and then

    tea, please
    please, poetry

    finally

    pencil, paper
    please

    Reply
    • Laura Brown says

      February 25, 2019 at 7:16 pm

      Megan, I love the spareness of this, the focus on objects, and the repetition of “please,” which goes through all kinds of connotations by the end.

      Reply
  2. Rita Cromwell says

    February 25, 2019 at 8:04 pm

    Just joined, and already love your first post.
    327 days ago, my eyes fell upon a blog ‘if you can change just 1% of your day it will change your life’…amongst the other things it said, one that stood out was ‘write’ just sit and write…. anything…
    and that’s what I have been doing!
    And yet again I came across your website… and am inspired…. thank you I look forward with joy….

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      February 26, 2019 at 10:37 am

      What an interesting statistic, Rita. I’m going to be thinking on that. 🙂

      Welcome to Tweetspeak. We hope to keep inspiring you. 🙂 And, joy, yes. That’s what we reach for.

      Reply
  3. Linda Thorla says

    February 26, 2019 at 4:52 pm

    I walk to explore
    I explore by listening and looking
    to the world around me

    Nature all around me
    the sun and the sky
    so grand

    Nature all around me
    a new spring bud
    a puddle- see the drops
    so minute

    I walk home to put it on paper
    on paper with my favorite pen
    white paper-thin lines
    many, many sheets of white paper

    Once ready I sit at the computer
    on the computer final edits made
    then printed on white paper
    into my poetry notebook it goes

    Reply
  4. Katie says

    February 26, 2019 at 11:11 pm

    Here’s a catalog poem I wrote a couple of years back:

    Perusing the Spice Aisle/Hunting for Flavor

    It can take a while
    It can take quite a while

    When you’re a newbie
    When you’re a newbie cook

    To find the one
    To find the one you need

    Yes, they are in order
    Yes, they are in alphabetical order

    Yet, sometimes
    Yet, sometimes I don’t know

    Just, which one I need
    Just which one I need for. . .

    the soup
    the soup or the stew?

    the roast
    the roast or the brew?

    Literacy helps in culinary pursuits
    Literacy helps – and knowing your colors, too!

    Reply
  5. Katie says

    February 26, 2019 at 11:21 pm

    draft it
    draft it again and again, then
    yet again and again
    and then again
    revise

    Reply
  6. Richard Maxson says

    February 27, 2019 at 7:58 am

    To Write a Poem

    Some fresh and fruitful showers,
    something more near though deeper,
    within darkness—a widening, deepening,
    greenness through living roots awaken.

    Between my finger and my thumb
    The squat pen rests
    till love exhausts itself, longs
    for the sleep of words.
    Till love gives in and speaks
    in the whisper of art.
    Till love is all in the mind,
    where it daubs at the gray shape
    to enter its own house.

    ***
    CENTO sources: Sir Philip Sidney, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, Jane Kenyon

    Reply

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