{"id":137989053,"date":"2023-10-15T21:43:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T21:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/refrigerator-magnet-poetry\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T13:50:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T18:50:46","slug":"refrigerator-magnet-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/refrigerator-magnet-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Refrigerator Magnet Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let's throw some words at the fridge and see what sticks... <\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

The \u201cAssignment\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As VP and Program Chair of Poets Northwest<\/a>, in Houston, Texas<\/a>, it\u2019s my job to come up with interesting activities for the group once a month. Last month, we enjoyed a reading and workshop presented by Courtney O\u2019Banion Smith<\/a>, who won the Catherine Case Lubbe Manuscript Contest with her book, In Fidelity<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, I tossed the group what I hope was a fun little challenge, meant to get the creative juices flowing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The topic for this month's program is \"Refrigerator Magnet Poetry.\" Please go to Random Word Generator - WordCounter.net<\/a> (https:\/\/wordcounter.net\/random-word-generator<\/a>) and generate 25 random words. Write a poem on any topic, and any form, using as many of the randomly-generated words from this list as possible. (Bring the list with you to the meeting.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As discussed in our August meeting, prepare a brief (and unapologetic!) introduction for your poem. Consider including: Of your 25 random words, how many did you manage to work into your poem? Did you find inspiration in the randomness? Was it especially challenging? Were there any surprises? What form did you choose? Was it fun to write? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try to keep the introduction under 2 minutes.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ From Meetings - Poets Northwest (poetsnw.com)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You should know, by now, that I would never issue a challenge I wasn\u2019t game to try, myself. In fact, a friendly challenge is a great way for me to pull myself out of a writing slump. These were my random words:<\/strong> lumber, library, impose, coherent, languid, furtive, learn, descriptive, harmony, abstracted, pencil, contract, change, match, bear, kiss, measly, level, sulky, occur, aboard, rewind, curb, obedient, wrench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Result<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Did I have a moment, looking through the list, where I wondered, \u201cWhat the hell have I done?\u201d Yes. Yes, I did. I\u2019ll admit that I was tempted, like the gamer I used to be, to \u201cre-roll\u201d until I got a list I liked<\/em>. A list that made more sense on its surface. Instead, I pulled on my big-girl panties and I used all 25 words, in 25 lines of iambic pentameter just to add to the fun. It may have helped that I\u2019ve been limbering up with the New York Times game, Connections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure if I found inspiration<\/em> in the words, themselves, but as I cobbled them together, they suggested images. The images began to take shape, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I think I found inspiration in the challenge of making them fit together in a coherent whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coherent!<\/em> That was one of my 25 words! I only had 22 lines, to start. There was nothing in the challenge about line count. But the idea of 25x25 got stuck in my mind, and this seemed \u201ctoo close but not quite\u201d for my tastes. So, this morning, I began to edit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday Morning Married Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sleep lumbers<\/strong>, languid<\/strong>, like a bear<\/strong>. I wake,
But barely there, at 4:00 AM. Cast off
Warm downy blankets of repose. Impose
<\/strong>Harsh winter's chill: descriptive<\/strong>, like a kiss
<\/strong>Of ice to slap the hungry belly-growl,
To wrench<\/strong> the hoar-frost breath from sulky<\/strong> lungs.

The starving hunter roars his ravenous rage
And wakes, at last - a yawn, a furtive<\/strong> scratch -
To ask if I want coffee, strong and black.
I nod assent; coherent<\/strong> speech must wait.
This is the contract<\/strong>, secret to our match<\/strong>:
Love's language is a library<\/strong> of grunts,
Half-smiles, nods, and gentle touch. We've learn<\/strong>ed
To read each other's thoughts as they occur
<\/strong>Ignoring measly<\/strong>, petty quarrels there.
To climb aboard<\/strong> the week in harmony
Obedient<\/strong> to the rhythm of the rails that run
Our parallel and level<\/strong> days, routine.

Abstracted<\/strong> from our hibernating den
My teddy-bear requests I pencil<\/strong> in
A moment's time to change<\/strong>, rewind<\/strong> \u2013 to dine
Together <\/strong>in the evening\u2019s hush \u2013 and I
In eagerness to curb<\/strong> this waste of life
Pursuing other people\u2019s goals say, \u201cYes,\u201d
And raise a glass to married Monday mornings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This turned out better than I thought it would. I shouldn\u2019t be surprised. About a dozen years ago, I found Writing Prompts - Creative Copy Challenge (wordpress.com)<\/a>. There, the challenge involved only 10 words and participants were encouraged to post, as comments, anything from a sentence to a story to a poem. It was a good way to jump-start the brain; occasionally, I got the bones of a good story from it. Even before that, I had a college instructor who would provide a list of \u201cfifty dollar words,\u201d the kind of vocabulary-builder words that no one uses in everyday conversation, and the assignment was to try to use five of them together in \u201cone grammatically correct, non-run-on sentence, demonstrating understanding of the meaning of each word.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think \u201crun-on sentence<\/a>\u201d means \u201cway too long,\u201d go brush up on the definition. My challenge to you all is to see who can leave the longest grammatically correct, properly punctuated, non-run-on sentence in the comments. And don\u2019t use weak words like \u201cvery.\u201d Don\u2019t pad it with excessive <\/em>conjunctions. Aim for interesting - see if you can hold the reader\u2019s interest. The record-holder for my challenge managed to write, if I recall correctly, a sentence having 157 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poet\u2019s job is to \u201cwrite tight\u201d and we do it better than most, when we do it at all. Our job is to make each word carry the heavy freight of meaning and emotion, sometimes stacked like containers on a cargo ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope this newsletter inspires you to pick up a notebook and a pen, or open Word, and write something. Remember: It doesn\u2019t have to be \u201cgood.\u201d But it will be - to someone. I once entered a \u201cbad poetry contest\u201d that was only open to people whose deliberately awful poems were accepted for publication by poetry.com, only to lose because my poem wasn\u2019t bad enough. I tried hard, too!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go forth and have fun!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re in the Houston area and are interested in poetry, please visit Poets Northwest<\/a> - you\u2019re welcome to come as a guest and to join our club, a chapter of the Poetry Society of Texas<\/a> and are also affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.<\/a>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s throw some words at the fridge and see what sticks… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1013659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_has_post_settings":[],"wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-137989053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 11:47:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137989053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137989053"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137989053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137990535,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137989053\/revisions\/137990535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137989053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137989053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137989053"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=137989053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}