For the Love of Poetry: A Gathering for ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø Staff
What this is: a monthly gathering intended to build community and give staff the chance to meet other people who love poetry and live locally. What this isn't: a poetry workshop.
Do you write poetry? Have you ever wanted to try? Whether you write for a living or have never shown your poems to anyone, we invite you to join us for a gathering of ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø's hidden(ish) poets, co-hosted by ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø's Literary Arts Bridge and ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø Libraries.
Everyone is encouraged (but not required!) to bring an original poem responding to the prompt below, and we'll read our poems out loud. We won't be critiquing one another's work, as we instead seek to build a nonjudgmental and supportive space for all. If you don't feel inspired, try exploring the Baker-Berry stacks to create your own or visit and prompt the large language model of your choice to generate a poem based on this prompt and your own criteria for format, voice, etc.
Please to receive reminder emails. We hope to see you there!
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August Poetry Prompt: Song of the Summer
What’s your "Song of the Summer?" Maybe it's a chart-topping anthem from 2025, or maybe it's a crackly cassette memory from the backseat of a car on a childhood road trip. Maybe it’s not even a song, but a soundscape, like the whir of a fan, or cicadas in the trees, or laughter from a porch across the street.
For this prompt, write a poem inspired by your personal "Song of the Summer," from this summer or summers past. Let the music (literal or metaphorical) act as a portal into a moment in time. Consider how a song can resurrect a mood, a place, a person, or a previous version of yourself.
Bonus challenge: weave in lyrics, ambient noise, or the texture of a particular genre to evoke the atmosphere of the memory.
