We the people write: word joy!

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WORD JOY

Here are some writing prompts to help you celebrate our joyful interdependence and/or resist tyranny as We The People, followed by some ways to bring those words to life in physical form for parade day -- Wear Your Words, Make a Tiny Zine, Fly a Word Kite!

WE WILL BE GATHERING ON JUNE 25TH, FROM 4-8 P.M. (LOCATION TBA) TO DO SOME WRITING (OR OTHER MAKING PEOPLE WANT TO DO FOR THE PARADE) TOGETHER. PLEASE JOIN US! 

We would like to gather Baltimore writers on parade day, so please be sure to fill out this form letting us know you will participate!

WRITING PROMPTS:

We (The People?)

The U.S. Constitution begins with a Preamble to declare what it’s trying to form, establish, ensure, provide, promote, and secure! It begins, “We the people…” but doesn’t actually talk about who gets to be included as “the people,” for example. So you might write your own version.

Prompt: Write a new Preamble! 

Begin with the phrase “We the people…” - or even just “We…” - and see where it takes you. What’s your vision for a New America? Who are “We” and what do we want to do together?

HAIKU

Originating in 17th century Japan, haiku has become popular all over the world. It is an unrhymed form that often reflects on our connection to nature, and to our experience in the moment - both of which are radical acts in these complicated times!  

Prompt: Write some Haiku! 

Traditionally, they consist of 3 unrhymed lines, with a 5-7-5 syllable structure, like this:

The day is rainy                      (5)

Far from the capital is          (7)

My peach blossom home    (5)

-- Buson

Modern haiku often forego the exact number of syllables, so don't feel restricted by them. You might try including a nod to nature/the season ("peach blossom home"). And try inviting the reader in, and then wakes us up, with the surprising juxtaposition of two images. This essay from The Haiku Foundation has many wonderful examples of how to create this little crack that lets us in:https://thehaikufoundation.org/new-to-haiku-kire-and-punctuation/

ACROSTIC

Acrostics have been written to serve as memory aids, love poems, and secret political messages for many hundreds of years - including when the entire President’s Committee on the Arts and Sciences resigned en masse in 2017, and their resignation letter contained an acrostic that spelled out “RESIST.” 

Prompt: Write an Acrostic!

In an acrostic, the first letter of each line spells out a word or phrase, when read vertically. Each letter could begin a line that consists of just one word, a partial phrase, or a whole sentence or paragraph. Here's a one-word acrostic example, using the word NOBODY as the vertical axis:

N o 

O ne 

B eing

O vercomes

D isintegrating 

Y outh.

And an example of expanding that same acrostic with phrases, playing with punctuation and line breaks:

N o more. Or maybe

O ne more for the road stretching out behind. Things

B eing as they are, ennui

O vercomes effort, 

D isintegrating 

Y outh, taken by the swell of histories large and small.

And a link to an essay about playing with acrostics:

https://www.juanitarockwell.com/2023/09/29/the-acrostic-as-oblique-mirror/

SHADORMA

This last prompt is based on a form that seems to be a contemporary invention of mysterious origin. I include it here because it has six lines, so it would fit beautifully in the 6-page Pocket Poetry Zine I describe in the HANDMADE WORDS section, below. 

Prompt: Write a Shadorma

Like haiku, the form is unrhymed and classically defined by the number of syllables per line, but without any other suggestions of subject matter or structural elements. Instead of the 5/7/5 syllable structure of a haiku, the shadorma has six lines with a syllable breakdown of 3/5/3/3/7/5. Here’s an example to get you started:

We are all 

Here on the planet

Together

Celebrate

Our interdependence now

Before it’s too late

Or, use your own favorite form to express your thoughts on this historic day!

WAYS TO SHARE YOUR WORDS:

The following are suggestions of some ways to bring your words into the physical plane - and, we hope, into your community or even right into The Baltimore Interdependence Parade!

Wear Your Words

Reclaim the words that this administration has scrubbed from government websites, like those on this list, and wear them proudly by painting them on shirts or coveralls. Or, make your poem wearable!

Create a Pocket Poetry Zine

Create a tiny zine that you can fold and cut from one sheet of paper that becomes 6 pages with a front and back cover (click here for instructions). These six little pages are the perfect size for writing your six-line shadorma. You could also use each page as a line of your acrostic (RESIST and PEOPLE each have six  letters, for example!). It could even hold a few haiku or be your own mini Thomas Paine style handout of your new Preamble! 

Here's a link to a doc with directions, videos and a template for creating your 6-page zine:

https://826national.org/our-work/news/poem-in-your-pocket-day-2023/

Fly a Word Kite

and finally, a link with decent instructions for several different kinds of kites:

https://www.my-best-kite.com/how-to-build-kites.html

Or, come up with your own way to share, show, distribute your writing on July 4th!