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Monday, April 29, 2019

Poems in April - Asking Questions




Today we are very close to the end of the April challenge of writing poems, and I wanted to bring up the subject of questions in poetry, and the preference is for short poetry.


Let me start with three examples for having this prompt


My first example comes from the Douglas Adams’, “Hitchhiker’s guide to the Universe”, where the answer is given as 42, but what question is it that gives the answer, to some extent that is one of the basic ideas from which to spin the novels.


The second example comes from politics, where we expect the politicians giving us answers when they should rather be asking us questions to form our future, i think only by asking the right questions can we get to the right answers.


The third example is from Poetry and Pablo Neruda’s “Book of questions” where he provokes us by asking questions, sometimes leading us to the answer, sometimes being totally open ended.


Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?




I think especially open questions leads us to think, where answers leads blocks our thinking often in a dividing manner.


So the challenge today is quite simply, write a poem consisting only of questions.


If you want to take it to the next level, why not write your own answer to the question(s) in the form of a response to your own questions.


Let’s have fun and share our thoughts with questions, remember to read and visit other poet’s writing.

11 comments:

  1. Good morning all! I'm afraid I have to post and run this morning as I have a train to catch. I'll be off the radar until Wednesday morning. I hope to do some reading and commenting if I have wifi on the train; if not, I#ll try when I get there.

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  2. Very productive, thank you. Mine welled straight up from the Unconscious.

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  3. Thank you all for joining... I will be back later in the evening for commenting.

    In the meantime, is the prompt clear or do you have any questions?

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  4. I have written a lovely ode to my sainted mother.

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  5. It's a bit scathing and contains swears. People don't seem to get my sense of humor, but it was written in a humorous vein.
    Answering Questions with Eyes Rolled Back

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  6. I've written 26 poems in April, thanks to Toads, 14 at Word Garden and 12 at Black Mamba. So, perhaps I need to write 4 American sentences tomorrow? Or (gasp, shudder) 4 haiku???? ;-)

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    1. Yeppers. You wrote a haiku before and did a damned swell job at it, grasshopper, er, tadpole

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  7. Hello All- Joining in today with more questions on Day 29! Thanks for the prompt Bjorn.

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  8. I asked some tough questions. I felt I needed to address a potential law in the state of Texas I find abhorrent.

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  9. Forgot to swoon for this today. Great prompt, I didn't do it justice but it is fine with me. ..

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