It is a real pleasure to see the buzz form around the publication of Next Line, Please: Prompts to Inspire Poets and Writers. So much talent and so many good poems are to be found there, along with prompts as far as the eye can read! Today we look at a poem written by one of the contributors, a sort of ode to the series as a whole.
From Paul Michelsen, who won NLP’s MVP award two years ago, comes this cento, made up of lines from other contributors, in our honor. Its title, “Next Line.”
Midnight champagne,
And we are drinking Gallo Burgundy
The sickle begins to dream,
Drunk on the sacrament—Roll the words to start a drumbeat in your brain.
We scrabble for an icy antidote,
A busy spray of flaw and folly
That tastes like candy,
Strewn across a barren no-man’s-land,
Marriage on the rocks
Rehearsing its surrender
As things sour beyond hope.You make promises.
Now it’s too late.
Flamingo-pink tinctures mixed from
catastrophe—
Made to look like something we can stand in.What coda might make the whole emerge?
For this week’s prompt, we look to hard-to-solve riddles, metaphysical jests, and memorable sentences lifted out of context. Some possible opening lines include:
— A good liar needs a first-rate memory.
— This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.
— Neither fugues nor feathers enchant the fool.
— “No one will read what I write here; therefore,”
— The desire to make love in a pagoda
See what at you can do with one or more of these lines in a poem 12 lines long (or shorter).
Visit the American Scholar's page to enter your candidate!