Wednesday, June 28, 2017

poetry CHALLENGE #60


HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CAUGHT WITHOUT SHELTER IN A REALLY BAD RAINSTORM? WRITE A POEM TO DESCRIBE WHAT THOUGHTS RAN THROUGH YOUR MIND.







Thursday, June 22, 2017

poetry CHALLENGE #59

LYCANTHROPHY IS A MENTAL DISORDER IN WHICH A PERSON THINKS HE/SHE IS A WOLF. A FRIEND  OF YOURS HAS THIS DISORDER.

WRITE A POEM IN WHICH YOU TRY TO TALK THEM OUT OF THEIR DELUSION.


Wednesday, June 14, 2017

poetry CHALLENGE #58



YOU ARE HIKING IN A SWAMPY FOREST AREA. SUDDENLY YOU SEE SOMETHING RISING UP FROM THE SWAMP.

WRITE A POEM DESCRIBING WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

poetry CHALLENGE #57



YOU ARE CLIMBING A HILL. YOU MUST GET TO THE TOP! THERE IS "SOMETHING" YOU MUST DO THERE.

WRITE A POEM EXPLAINING WHAT THAT "SOMETHING" IS.




Tuesday, June 6, 2017

POET PROFILE



ANNE SPENCER BANNISTER (1882-1975) poet, teacher, civil rights activist, and gardener, was born Annie Bethel Bannister on February 6, 1882, the only child of Joel Cephus Bannister and Sarah Louise Scales, in Henry County,Virginia.

Her development as a poet began in early childhood where she enjoyed a great amount of freedom and solitude to explore the natural world. During this time she did not attend school because her mother felt that the local schools were unsuitable for her daughter. She read catalogs like Sears and Roebuck and wrote independently in her many moments alone.

 Anne was eventually enrolled in the Virginia Theological Seminary, in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1893 at the age of 11, where, despite having a mostly illiterate  childhood, she graduated as valedictorian of her class in 1899. After graduation she became a teacher and taught school throughout Virginia until 1901.

Her literary life began at the seminary where she wrote her first poem. She continued to write poetry to record her thoughts and feelings.

In 1919, while working to establish a branch of the NAACP in Lynchburg, Anne met and worked with the poet and activist James Weldon Johnson, who discovered her poetry. Using Johnson's editor, she published her first poem in 1920 in the "Crisis" magazine.

The themes of her poetry were religion, race (though rarely explicit), and the natural world. Although she did not write "protest" poetry, she was obviously well aware of White oppression. Many of her poems convey a romantic concern with the human search for beauty and meaning in a disgusting world. According to "The Vintage Book of African American Poetry"..."Her most rigorous poems engage the reader through piercing images and chiseled, precise language..."

Anne did not publish any volumes of poetry during her lifetime, but she was published extensively during the 20's in the most prestigious periodicals,collections, literary journals, and anthologies. She won national attention for her poetry, and as a result,  friendship of some of the most prominent Black writers of that era. Anne resided exclusively in Virginia,  where she worked for almost two decades as the librarian of Dunbar High School, but she maintained close friendships with many writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois included among them.


Anne was poetically active until her death in 1975. She will be remembered as one of the most significant poets of all time.









           

Thursday, June 1, 2017

THURSDAY POETRY PROMPT

WRITE A "RECONNECT" POEM



HELENA'S POEM



You are
Every sweet dream
I've known since time
Began crossing the shores
Of the Mesopotamia river
Valley where once it ceased
But the current reversed it's
Flow and now sends
Your essence roaring back
Through the tributaries of
My soul