So, here’s my two ideas for prompts for We Write Poems.

#1) Add a visual to a poem that does not illustrate the poem, but rather, captures the mood. You visual does not have to be video, and you don’t have to record your voice like I did. It could just be a picture you post at the top of your poem. However, if you want to make a videopoem (and they’re hella fun to make) check out the Prelinger Archives, which is where I have gotten the visuals for my videopoems so far.

#2) It’s Halloween month, so why not try a creepy or scary poem? This one, “Prison Hounds,” is old, but I’ve been working with giving old poems new life through visuals and audio, and when I came across this old (so-called) scary movie called “Daughter of Horror” at the archives, I thought it might be a match. So pull out an old creepy poem or write a new one in honor of falling leaves, autumn colors, pumpkins, ghouls, witches – whatever floats your October boat.

If you can’t view it here, check it out on YouTube.

Prison Hounds

The prison runs the dogs
at dusk, and they sound like rust
on a chain-link gate, like sparks
from a blacksmith’s hammer.

When they are done the night
is heavy with disquiet, and we
are left to our own offenses,
to excavate our own sour bones.

Notes: The footage is from an excruciatingly bad ‘scary’ film I found in the Prelinger Archives written by John Parker called “Daughter of Horror.” The howling hounds I downloaded from iTunes and ran through the iPhone VoiceChanger app, because on its own the howling sounded too low and kinda dopey. Honestly, there is a prison right behind my neighborhood, and when they run the dogs there’s a much higher, keening sort of sound that I couldn’t get VoiceChanger to duplicate, so I went with an effect called “Haunting.” Then I recorded my voice with VoiceChanger as well, using an echo effect mostly to try and disguise the pops I made on “prison” and “quiet” (didn’t really work, but I timed everything else about the reading out so well I chose not to re-record. I’m far from a perfectionist.)