Allyson Whipple

Tag: march

  • The Best of It: Rabbit, Rabbit Edition

    Just a reminder
    1. I’m scheduled to get my first COVID vaccine tomorrow!
    2. Leftover lasagna for breakfast.
    3. Living in a place where I can pay my rent online.
    4. The egg and chorizo torta at the Mexican food trailer up the street
    5. Homemade kimchi in my fridge

  • A Year in Readings

    Being bawdy at Austin Writers Roulette in February 2015
    Being bawdy at Austin Writers Roulette in February 2015

    At last year’s Poetry at Round Top festival, which was also the weekend of my 30th birthday, I gave myself a challenge: to do at least one reading a month before I turned 31. I was going to read in public at least once a month, either at an open mic or as a feature. It didn’t matter if it was one poem or several. I was just going to get up and get out there. That meant 12 performances of one kind or another in my 30th year.

    At the Georgetown Poetry Festival
    At the Georgetown Poetry Festival

    As it turns out, doing one reading every single month was quite challenging, and some months I didn’t read at all… But I not only met my goal, I surpassed it! In November, for example, I was too busy training for my black belt test to schedule anything. And while there are poetry readings and open mics just about every week in Austin, some months, I couldn’t get anything that meshed with my work schedule. But there were other months full of abundance. December was particularly active; I read four times!

    I ended up reading 16 times. 13 of those times were in Austin, one was in Georgetown, one was in Fort Worth, and one in Waco. This year my schedule was just too heavy for me to get to San Antonio or Houston again. I can’t believe I haven’t read in either of those cities in over a year!

    Now that this challenge has been met, I plan to keep it up. Reading 12 times in a year was tough at times, but overall doable. Now I’m just trying to figure out what the literary challenge will be for Year 31!

  • Weekly Writing Prompt: The Nagging Villanelle

    Think of a phrase you hate to hear. Maybe it’s something your parents said over and over to you about doing your homework or cleaning your room or not going out dressed a certain way. Maybe it’s something a spouse or significant other says (or used to say). Maybe it’s something your toddler is constantly repeating and you just don’t know why.

    Make this phrase one of the refrains of a villanelle. (It can be either the first or the second.) Try to find some catharsis from this poem. Or maybe you can shed some humor on the situation. Either way, enjoy!

    For more information about writing a villanelle, check out the description from the Academy of American Poets.

  • Weekly Writing Prompt: Alive!

    Image credit: Allie Brosch, Hyperbole and a Half
    Image credit: Allie Brosch, Hyperbole and a Half

    On this date five years ago, I was riding my Linhai scooter down a major Austin street, and was hit head-on by someone making an illegal left turn. I had a major concussion, needed stitches in my lip, and had to have my front two teeth replaced. Had I not been wearing a helmet, I would be dead. I always commemorate March 15th as a turning point in my life, and take this day to be grateful that I am still here writing poetry. 

    Today, write about a near-death experience. Even if you haven’t had one, make one up. Stretch the truth, warp the details. Maybe a paper cut developed gangrene. The subject doesn’t have to be you, either. It could be a loved one or a fictional character.

    After you write your experience, go further, writing about the sense of gratitude that you or your character has. Even if you’ve had to struggle since then, what are you happy about? What insight has this experience yielded for you or your subject.

    Bonus challenge: write this as a Petrarchan sonnet, with the octave being the near-death experience and the sestet the place where you cultivate gratitude.

    (PS – There’s one day left to register for Poetry March Madness! In celebration of being alive, anyone who signs up today will get in for 50% off. It’s just $10 if you register today!)

  • Weekly Writing Prompt: Visual Round

    2014-12-12 11.16.24

    I took a photo of this at the Hope Outdoor Garden in Austin, Texas, December 2014.

  • Weekly Writing Prompt: Have Some Lines

    I have a file on my computer where I put lines I loved from poems that otherwise didn’t work and got discarded. I like to peruse this list of lines sometimes, to see if they generate fresh ideas. This week, I thought I’d take a stanza from a poem I got rid of, and offer it up to you. Steal it, modify it, do whatever you want. It’s yours!

    I’m not sure if there are
    really this many stars out
    here, or if it’s just
    the double vision from the beer.