Karen Skolfield lead by far the best workshop of Warrior Writers spring series in Cambridge. We met around the picnic tables outside of Longfellow’s House for the following two prompts using work printed in the fourth Warrior Writers anthology.
1) Epistolary (Letter) Poem
“Grievance Letter to Discarded Uniform” by Alexander Fenno
page 276 of Warrior Writers Fourth Anthology
Write a letter poem. The letter could be:
- to yourself (a past, current, or future self)
- to an object
- to another person, real or imagined
- to an ideal (freedom, courage, cowardice, etc.)
2) “How-To” Poem
“How To Make a Combat Paper Book” by Nathan Lewis
Pages 278-279 of Warrior Writers Fourth Anthology
It does not necessarily have to be a real instruction set. It could be Starting each instruction with a command verb will help get rid of wordiness at the beginning of each new line.
Warrior Writers 4th Anthology, A collection of writing and artwork by veterans edited by Lovella Calica and Kevin Basl, is out of print. For a copy email: info@warriorwriters.org.
If you participated in this workshop, please share what you wrote. Post it up publicly on Reddit.com/r/warriorwriters for comments, or send it to boston@warriorwriters.org for direct revision comments and suggestions. You could also bring it to one of the revision workshops later this fall.
Also, check out Skolfield’s new poetry collection: Battle Dress
