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Clothing often inspires poetry, including “The Bar Suit” in Fabulosa. The Academy of American Poets feature Poems for the Clothesline remarks that “Clothing in poetry often appears in transformation, taking on more than its nature.” Write about an article of clothing to explore its history, methods of construction, culture, uses, or related topics.
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“Watching Morse on Endeavour” and “Watching Freddie Lyon in The Hour“ both use television dramas as points of departure. Write a poem inspired by a favorite show. Connect its characters, images, or themes with your own experiences. Thread details that are specific to the series with personal embellishments. Where do you draw, blur, or erase the line between appealing to a fandom, and inviting other readers?
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“Chrysanthemums,” “Lady with Glove,” “Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap,” and other poems in Fabulosa are based on art. Explore the poems in Ekphrasis: Poetry Confronting Art. Which artists fascinate you? How can you transport your reader beyond descriptions of the visible? Draft a poem using a painting, sculpture, engraving, photograph, woodblock print, or similar source.
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Much of Fabulosa is an ars poetica. Consider the poems “Why My Poems Jump Speed Rope,” “Why My Poems Turn Forensic,” and “Why My Poems Arrive Wearing Black Gloves.” Write a poem that excavates a facet of your own poetic impulses or style, builds a manifesto, or turns poetry into the speaker.
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“Girl I Can’t Bring Back” revisits past selves through the prism of repeated apology. Write a poem listing versions of yourself across time. What would you say? Which images define certain periods? Read about anaphora for further exploration.
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“Lemons in August” and “The Roses” both tie the botanical to news (of a bombing, and the aftermath of a mass shooting, respectively). Write a poem using trees, flora, or other natural objects as a point of entry for exploring a real event. How does the indirect approach constrain or free you?
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In Fabulosa, the poem “Not the Ghost of a Rose” arrives at a memory of “the country I loved / in a country without love” by way of a bird of paradise. Use a representative natural item, talisman, or other memento to compare and contrast a place you’ve left behind with a current locale. Explore the Academy of American Poets feature Poems About Migration for further and varied approaches.
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In his poem “The Cities Inside Us” the poet Alberto Ríos begins, “We live in secret cities / And we travel unmapped roads.” Memory and place are bound: we carry landscapes and other lives wherever we go. In Fabulosa, the poem “Walking Down Millionaire’s Row” evokes longing through Pittsburgh’s historic East End. Write a poem about one of your own secret cities, in which its landmarks, streets, or features drive the poem’s movement. Where does it lead you? Who inhabits the space?