The Portable Poem: Maxine Kumin Inspires Us to Look at Our Writing Differently

Quote:

“A poem is marvelously portable. You can carry a problem around with you from the kitchen sink to the automobile to wherever.”

Maxine Kumin

Questions:

In what ways do you carry your problems in your writing?

Where specifically do you take your problems, like Maxine Kumin suggests the kitchen sink and the automobile. Where do yours go with you?

What genre of writing do you use to work through your problems?

Bonus Challenge: Attempt to take one of your problems and work through it in a specific poetry form such as a haiku or sonnet. With the right attitude, this may be really fun. What's the harm in trying it?

Lists:

Make a list of 3 - 10 challenges you will approach using your writing so that you may see them in new ways.

Make a list of 3 - 1o challenges you have worked through in the past specifically using poetry or prose. You might not have realized it until just this moment. What will you do to celebrate this?

Conventional Writing Prompt

If I carried my problems into my writing, I might discover...

To make my writing more portable, I will....

Why be inspired by literary grannies? Read the introductory post here -

This series (now a part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge) is also serving as a bridge to my new blog which will be unveiled in the middle of the month. In past blog challenges I have offered prompts under the "Let Your Words Flow" name. The Inspiration from Literary Grannies serve as a subset of that series.

I welcome your comments, your questions and your quote contributions. Please share the prompts with your writing buddies and friends!

In fact, as you read books written by women in 2015, take note of inspiring quotes. I would love to add them to my collection and may even write a prompt from them.

This is post #13 of 31 for the Ultimate Blog Challenge

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming Winter 2015 and beyond.

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