Pushing the Envelope – New Challenge to Remove Writer’s Block

Sometimes we see poets complaining via social media that they want to write but they feel wrung dry.  This is what we refer to as writer’s block.  We feel an irrepressible need to write, and when our muses are silent, we get aggravated.

Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, would be proud of this blog.  Chuck Yeager pushed the envelope of supersonic flight and “pushing the envelope” steadily grew into popular phraseology.  Pushing the envelope does not have anything to do with the postal service, rather, it means pushing a mathematical envelope of normal possibilities.

One way that writers tackle writer’s block is through poetry writing prompts.  Personally, many writers will agree that the best poetry writing prompts are the ones that push the envelope of the traditional iambic pentameter.

Using an alchemy of mathematical structures and writing, you can create a fun poetic masterpiece. Remember back in school when you were given a writing assignment with forced structure?  (Yeah, most of us hated that.)  The type of structure we suggest here is akin to cryptology.  Could you write a poem where the first word of each line rhymes?  Could you write a poem of homonyms?

Check out this fun ABC poem, shared with the permission of poet, Eric Musse:

Crazed Word Smithery

Another banished boy
Courageously creatively
Displaying every facetious facet
Gregariously hilariously
Interpreting indiscriminate implemented juxtaposed jurisdictions

Killing lusty lascivious laminated Mesopotamian mentalities
Neutralizing obvious overt possibilities
Quarantining ridiculous responding superficial Sumerian scleras
Seeking torturous time travel tendencies
Underlying viciously vacuous violent wizard-line youthful Zohar zealots.
-          Eric Musse (c) 2013

Thank you, Eric Musse and Chuck Yeager, for reminding us to continue pushing the envelope.

Keep writing and keep sharing!
Cronin Detzz