Out of Standard: Cliffs Notes

Greetings Garden Dwellers:

Izy here, back for my final April prompt.  Many of you have been writing at a break neck volume, and I applaud you all.  Today I have something by way of a treat for you, so limber up those writing muscles and warm up the ink in your pens (or, er um, hover lovingly close to your keyboards).  My muddy buddies, I proudly present

Out of Standard--The Cliffs Notes Edition

With each out of standard challenge, I set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme.  I call upon you to write out of the standard and find new places in the everyday, and today we are going to retool your favorite story.

And let me be clear here:  by favorite story, I mean that book you return to time and again.  Or that TV show you watch back to back episodes of on a rainy Sunday, or that song, that video game, that painting.  Stories are embedded everywhere, and we all have one we hold above the others.

The Challenge: 

Take your favorite story and condense it into a poem no longer than ten lines, a "Cliffs Notes" version.

Your "Cliffs Notes" should be a reflection of what you feel is most important about the story you chose. For instance...if I were to write a Cliffs Notes poem for Charlotte's Web, I may not even get to mentioning a spider.  On the other hand, if I were to write a Cliffs Notes poem for The Big Lebowski, you'd probably get six lines about bowling and sweet sweet German marmets.  The choice is yours.  

Go now my toadlings and bring me back something shiny and new from the stories you know and love so much!  Also, like every challenge, your poem must be newly written for this challenge and not one which you have previously written which conveniently fits the theme.

Chew through your own chains...Out of Standard (Again)

Greetings Garden Dwellers!

Welcome to the next installment of Out of Standard, where I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme.  I will call upon you to write out of the standard and find new places in the everyday, but there is a twist: in order to complete each challenge, you will also be asked to share something about yourself with the IGWRT community.  Let’s move onward to March’s challenge...

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

We have all had that job.  And you know what I mean by that job.  That job we hated.  That job which crawled into our skulls, our hearts, our marrow and made us wretch and shudder with the thought of another day “at the factory/ restaurant/ office/ typing pool.”  Today, my muddy buddies, I want you to take back all those miserable hours and glean brilliance from your agony.

Another long day at the doomsday factory.
Image courtesy of Wiki Commons.

The challenge:

Create a list of three words or phrases specific to the worst job you ever had and craft a poem having nothing to do with work.  

Example:  if the worst job I ever had was as a Subway sandwich artist, I may pick words like veggie rotation, footlong, and proofer and write a poem which has nothing to do with sandwiches.  

List the words, write the poem, and take back the power!  Make sure to include your list of words or phrases in your post, so that we can see how well you obscured them with your poetic prowess.   

This will be a two day challenge, as I will not be posting an interview tomorrow, so take your time to read the other entries as well!

Also, like every challenge, your poem must by newly written for this challenge and not one which you have previously written which conveniently fits the theme.   

Go now, my toads, and bring back something startling, shiny, and new.

Viva la

Out of Standard

Bishop Snowman and the Spice Posse.  Copyrighted, Isadora Gruye Photography.

Greetings Garden Dwellers!

American toads and followers, consider me your Thanksgiving benefactor, here for the Wednesday Out of Standard, and you better believe I will back tomorrow to launch a new interview series.   Non-Americans, consider me your special hostess for a mid-week near the end of November.

Let’s get a move on to Out of Standard.

One Wednesday each month, Kerry allows me to take the reigns and steer us off course.  I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme.  You will be called upon to find new places in the everyday, but there is a twist: in order to complete each challenge, you will also be asked to share something about yourself with the IGWRT community.  

Today’s challenge falls the Wednesday before Thanksgiving: a holiday Americans spend giving thanks for the bountiful harvest and friendly stewardship which will sustain them through the cold winter months ahead.  Since most food is made in laboratories, and most Americans communicate via text message or social networking sites, the day is really more about eating heaps of food.  Here on the north plain, we double up on starches, stuff turkeys with sausage, and menu items with any nutritional value are drenched in cream of mushroom soup and fried onion strings.  The hearty midland Thanksgiving feast was my inspiration for this month’s out of standard.  Let’s focus on a feast of a different sort:

THE GUILTY PLEASURE

We all have one.  but wait.....

Actually, I firmly believe we all have two guilty pleasures:  the one we confess to in public (“All right,” you’ll announce loudly at work, “You caught me!  I read the Hunger Games, and it was really good) and then there is that deep, deep deeply dark guilty indulgence we cover up by admitting to our lesser pleasures (you are comfortable telling your colleagues you liked the Hunger Games, but you do not mention that you write Katniss/Buffy cross over fan-fiction and make your own Katniss dolls with scraps of your own hair--while that is totally natural, you just can’t admit to it, because it’s a little embarrassing).  

And guess, my toads,which one I want you to draw from...bring on the deep dark.

Here are the rules of this month’s challenge:  

1. Admit to your deeply dark guilty pleasure.
2. Write a poem gluttonously inspired by it.  NOTICE: I said gluttonously inspired, which means no light hinting or a slight name drop.  

Take a moment to revel in your secret affinity (much like I will be reveling in green bean casserole and lots of red wine) and bring us back something beyond the standard!   As always, I ask that you write something new for this prompt and not post something you have previously written which conveniently fits the challenge.  

Go now toads, rub your bellies in the muck and bleat delightfully at its deliciousness.

Out of Standard: Whirly-gig the Bounty

Corn and Chemtrails.   Copyrighted, Isadora Gruye Photography.

Welcome Garden Dwellers one and all to the October edition of Out of Standard.  Once a month I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme and find new places in the everyday.

I will begin this month’s prompt by way of a tale, a true and slightly ominous story from my recent work travels.   

It was nearly six by the time I had left Des Moines, my rental car heading north on the interstate.  Four hours of nondescript landscape was wedged between me and my home.   I had playlists decked up on the ipod.  I had soda, and apples, and pretzels, and hummus (a far superior meal to any of the fast food I would find at the state-sponsored Freeway pavilions along the way).  

Night set on quickly and soon the road and fields around me were pitch black, except for an orb of light on the eastern horizon...a swatch of brightness so big, it would normally indicate a large city or runway.  But by this time in my drive, the largest city was 300 miles away.  I was flummoxed (and harboring a fear of alien abduction, a little rattled).  As I drove onward, the light grew brighter and more patches appeared to the east and west.  Soon, the lights were upon me, and I realized the source:  giant harvesting machines in the dozens, mowing their way across the land.  I turned down my radio, and the hum of their droning filled the car.  The rest of the drive through the country was filled with a similar sight:  300 miles of crops being swallowed in the flood lit October evening.  

And that, my toads, is what inspired this challenge:  the mechanical harvest.

  

Those of us in the northern hemisphere are well into autumn.  A season I have long associated with fat pumpkins and squashes plucked tenderly from the vine, golden ears of corn placed lovingly in piles which resemble pyramids, deep rosy apples carried in aprons from the tree limb to the table where they are sprinkled with cinnamon or baked in between flaky folds of pie crust.   I had never considered the machine:  the rusty hands, the whirling metal gears, the flood lights glaring through the night.  The harvest bringers who run on petro and who will never tire.  

Ain't no Disco.  Copyrighted Isadora Gruye photography.

What I am asking: whirly-gig the bounty....write a poem about the mechanical nature of the modern harvest. The angle and tone is of your choosing but explore!  And bring us back something unexpected.   I have supplied a few photos to break up the wall of text and to inspire, but they do not have to be used to write your poem.  Like every challenge, your poem must by newly written for this challenge and not one previously written which conveniently fits the theme.   

Out of Standard with Izy

Lady Godiva's Operation.  Copyrighted Isadora Gruye Photography.

Greetings Garden Dwellers!

Welcome to the fourth edition of Out of Standard.  Once a month I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme.  You will be called upon to find new places in the everyday, but there is a twist: in order to complete each challenge, you will also be asked to share something about yourself with the IGWRT community.   Special thanks to Hedgewitch who handled this theme so well in my personal challenge to her, that I wanted to give you all a chance to respond to the prompt (so Hedgey, you can either take a week off or give this one a second go).    So with thanks given, I proudly present....

September’s Challenge:  the rebel girl.

I want you to write a poem based on one of the antics of your favorite rebellious female icon, a woman who stands out to you because of her refusal to defend mediocrity.  She may be real or fictional or mythological.

So go now , my toads, and bring us back something shiny and unexpected!!!

Out of Standard with Izy

Greetings Garden Dwellers!

Welcome to the third edition of Out of Standard.  Once a month I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme.  You will be called upon to find new places in the everyday, but there is a twist: in order to complete each challenge, you will also be asked to share something about yourself with the IGWRT community.   Special thanks to Sherry Blue Sky who suggested this theme would make a great general prompt.    So with thanks given, I proudly present....

August’s Challenge:  Embrace your doomsday.

As long as civilization has been in existence, there have been those Doomsayers   who foretell of an impending end.  Some declarations are steeped in mythology, such as the Norse Ragnarök.  Others are based on scientific calculations, see Heat Death of the Universe.  Neither seem like very much fun. 

Some hold to their own personal theories and lie in wait for their homegrown prophecies to bubble to the surface.  The National Geographic Channel has aired two seasons of their show Doomsday Preppers about people who are preparing for way beyond realistic doomsday scenarios. They spend most of their waking hours canning food, building bunkers out of metal shipping containers (surprising cheap and cozy), and practicing their marksmanship.  Again, no fun.  No one is installing their own doomsday disco or stockpiling giant bouncy castles for end time picnics.   

While doomsday is inevitable (everything that begins must end), it’s rather a downer of a topic.  

Challenge Rules:  

Toads, I call upon you to cast aside the doom and the gloom.  I ask that you imagine yourself a doomsday and revel in the end times.  Come to peace with the chaotic, inevitable nature of our solar system and write a doomsday poem which has a happy ending.  Like every challenge, your poem must by newly written for this challenge and not one previously written which conveniently fits the theme.   

Go now, my lovelies, and bring back something unexpected, something out of the Doomsday Standard.

Out of Standard with Izy

Greetings Garden Dwellers.  Allow me to welcome you to Out of Standard, a new feature which will be appearing at IGWRT.   On the first Wednesday of each month I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme.  I will call upon you to write out of the standard and find new places in the everyday, but there is a twist: in order to complete each challenge, you will also be asked to share something about yourself with the IGWRT community.  Let’s move onward to ...

JUNE'S CHALLENGE:  THE BREAK-UP SONG

That’s right, we have all been spurned by love at one point; be it a bitter end to a long term relationship, a deflating rejection by the object of our affection, a nasty fight, a crushing divorce, or even that crush who will never return our feelings for them.  We have all been there, and we all have that one song we turn to for comfort.  The one that has you belting out to every word as if it were written exactly for you.  

The Rules:

Share with us your go to break-up song (by posting an audio file, etc.), then take the lyric that you relate to the most from that song to use in a new poem which is in no way about a break-up or relationship gone sour.  Reinvent your personal anthem.  Bring us the unexpected. 

KEEP IN MIND

This is not about picking a great break-up song.  It’s about sharing the one you go to for comfort.  My own is an embarrassing little tune I first heard on a mixed tape when I was 21.  To this day, I still go to that song after a good heart breaking and sing along with it late at night, hand held over my heart.  

Also, like every challenge, your poem must be newly written and not a previous piece which conveniently fits the theme.   

Go now, my toads, and bring me back something startling, shiny, and new.

Viva la