NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #30

At long, long last, and with only a small drop of regret, the Dickinsonian-Oracle's-Oracular-Writing-Exercise celebration draws to a close.

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

The Dickinsonian oracle, in a last-minute flurry, oraculates:

The Soul selects her own Society -
Then - shuts the Door -
To her diving Majority -
Present no more -

Unmoved - she notes the Chariots - pausing -
At her low Gate -
Unmoved - an Emperor kneeling
Opon her mat -

I've known her - from an ample nation -
Choose One -
Then -close the Valves of her attention -
Like Stone -
(E. Dickinson, 409)

And the very final writing commandment:

Write a poem addressed to the member(s) of your soul's select society. What must such members do to insure that you won't turn to stone in (because of) their presence?

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #28 and #29

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

The Dickinsonian oracle wishes you well:

To do a magnanimous thing
And take one's self by surprise
If one's self is not in the habit of him
Is precisely the finest of Joys -

Not to do a magnanimous thing
Notwithstanding it never be known
Notwithstanding it cost us existence once
Is Rapture herself spurn -
(E. Dickinson, 1729)

The writing commandment:

Write a poem describing the one magnanimous thing you'd risk your life doing.

And the other writing commandment:

Write a poem with the working title "Rapture Spurned." Make it rococo; make it baroque; include insects under glass. If this is too cozy, write a poem entitled "Rupture Spurt."

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #27

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

The Dickinsonian oracle hammers away:

To fill a Gap
Insert the Thing that caused it -
Block it up
With Other - and 'twill yawn the more -
You cannot solder an Abyss
With Air -
(E. Dickinson, 647)

And the writing commandment commands:

Write an instruction poem with the working title "Insert the thing that caused it," neither mentioning what the thing is nor what "it" is...

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #25 and #26

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

The Dickinsonian oracle ruminates:

Power is a familiar growth -
Not foreign - not to be -
Beside us like a bland Abyss
In every company -
Escape it - there is but a chance -
When consciousness and clay
Lean forward for a final glance
Disprove that, and you may -
(E. Dickinson, 1287)

And writing commandment #25:

What would it take to "disprove" the last look of "consciousness and clay"? That is, how would you rally power over Death? Write a spooky incantatory poem, before Death sharpens her sickle.

And writing commandment #26:

Anyone you know who you'd classify as a bland Abyss? Write a recipe poem listing the ingredients your boring acquaintance needs to have in order to be, well, "crispay."

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #24

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

The Dickinsonian oracle pulls out the stops:

Best Things dwell out of Sight
The Pearl - the Just - Our Thought -

Most shun the Public Air
Legitimate, and Rare -

The Capsule of the Wind
The Capsule of the Mind

Exhibit here, as doth a Burr -
Germ's Germ be where?
(E. Dickinson, 1012)

You gotta love the oracle. And the writing commandment:

Write a poem in short couplets, telling where your best things dwell. Title your poem, "Capsule."

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #22 and #23

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

The Dickinsonian oracle was tight-lipped yesterday. Today it murmurs:

I send Two Sunsets -
Day and I - in competition ran -
I finished Two - and several Stars -
While He - was making One -

His own was ampler - but as I -
Was saying to a friend -
Mine - is the more convenient
To Carry in the Hand -
(E. Dickinson, 557)

And the writing commandments:

#22
Write a love poem to the person to whom you'd like to give a sunset, but instead of a sunset, offer her or him whatever is indicated by the eleventh noun that follows "sunset" in your handy, dandy dictionary. Looks like I'll be offering a superblock (which, it seems, is an urban area of several acres, usually closed to traffic, having interrelated residences and industries along with commercial, social and recreational facilities) to my beloved. That'll knock her socks off.

#23
Take the poem you've just written, edit out every other line, and flip it. Offer it to your beloved.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #21

Just nine more writing exercises left to go, then back to, well, whatever mess was here before April.

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle offers this lemon drop:

Delight's Despair at setting
Is that Delight is less
Than the sufficing Longing
That so impoverish.

Enchantment's Perihelion
Mistaken oft has been
For the Authentic orbit
Of it's Anterior Sun.
(E. Dickinson, 1375).

And the writing commandment:

Write a square poem, with one of these four words grounding each corner: delight, longing, enchantment, disillusion.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #20

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle sings:

Beauty - be not caused - It Is -
Chase it, and it ceases -
Chase it not, and it abides -

Overtake the Creases

In the Meadow - when the Wind
Runs his fingers thro' it -
Deity will see to it
That You never do it -

And the writing commandment:

Write a poem about that which the Deity makes sure you never accomplish. That'll do.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #19

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle announces:

When we stand on the tops of Things -
And like the Trees, look down,
The smoked all cleared away from it -
And mirrors on the scene -

Just laying light - no soul will wink
Except it have the flaw -
The Sound ones, like the Hills - shall stand -
No lightning, scares away -
(E. Dickinson, 343)

And the writing commandment:

Imagine a familiar setting. What does "having mirrors on the scene" do to that familiar setting, and to you "looking down" on that scene? Write an eerie little poem, won't you?

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #18

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle (just for fun. Maybe you'll get a decipherable answer).
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle oraculates thusly and fully:

How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand,
Until a sudden sky
Reveals the fact that One is rapt
Forever from the eye -

Members of the Invisible,
Existing, while we stare,
In Leagueless Opportunity,
O'retakeless, as the Air -

Why did'nt we detain Them?
The Heavans with a smile,
Sweep by our disappointed Heads,
Without a syllable
(E. Dickinson, 342)

And the writing commandment:
What if you were among the Members of the Invisible? What would you want to get away with, O Gyges, if you couldn't (or as Miss Dickinson might say, could'nt) be seen? Write a poetic confession, sticky fingers.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #17

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle takes it on with this:

Trusty as the stars
Who quit their shining working
Prompt as when I lit them
In Genesis' new house,
Durable as dawn
Whose antiquated blossom
Makes a world's suspense
Perish and rejoice.
(E. Dickinson, 1415)

The writing commandment commands:

How "trusty" is something that quits? Write a poem of suspicion, of the detection of untrustworthiness. Then send it to the stars in your universe. That'll show 'em.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #16

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle's rooster crow:

This dirty - little - Heart
Is freely mine -
I won it with a Bun -
A Freckled shrine -

But eligibly fair
To him who sees
The Visage of the Soul
And not the knees.
(E. Dickinson, 1378)

And the writing commandment:

Write a rule-breaking, twisted ode (though to break the ode rules you need to know something about the ode rules) about your own dirty little heart. How would that dirty little heart of yours answer the question you posed to the oracle?

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #15

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle sputters:

Drab Habitation of Whom?
Tabernacle or Tomb -
Or Dome of Worm -
Or Porch of Gnome -
Or some Elf's Catacombe?
(E. Dickinson, 916)

And the writing commandment commands:

Choose some architectural element of a building, and write a poem that brings this element into nature (either fatasized or more literally depicted). Be a spy in a tree; describe what you see.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #14

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle thus pronounces:

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind -
As if my Brain had split -
I tried to match it - Seam by Seam -
But could not make them fit -

The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before -
But Squence ravelled out of Sound -
Like Balls - opon a Floor -
(E. Dickinson, 867)

And the writing commandment.

Write a poem that identifies the thought (or sound or sight, etc.) that causes your mind to cleave. What domestic activity (e.g., dishwashing, lawn mowing, child soothing, pet petting) mends the cleft?

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #13

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle announces:

My best Acquaintances are those
With Whom I spoke no Word -
The Star that stated come to Town
Esteemed Me never rude
Although to their Celestial Call
I failed to make reply -
My constant - reverential Face
Sufficient Courtesy -
(E. Dickinson, 1062)

The writing commandment:

Image that a star is your best friend, giving you advice about the question you asked the oracle. Write. That. Star-spoken. Poem.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #12

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle stutters (though with confidence):

A word is dead, when it is said
Some say -
I say it just begins to live
That day
(E. Dickinson, 278)

Take this bright opportunity to write an ars poetica as a life-affirming gesture to the written word! Begin the poem with whatever noun appears in your question to the oracle.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #11

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle utters:

Beware of the man with purple knee-bands

Just kidding.

Here's the oracle:

Oh give it motion - deck it sweet
With Artery and Vein -
Upon it's fastened Lips lay words -
Affiance it again
To that Pink stranger we call Dust -
Acquainted more with that
Than with this horizontal one
That will not lift it's Hat -
(E. Dickinson, 1550)

And the writing commandment:

Who or what is your Pink stranger? How would your Pink stranger answer the question you've posed to the oracle? Now write a smashing poem. Go on; I dare you.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #10

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle declares on this 75 degree, Minneapolitan spring day:

The Show is not the Show
But they that go -
Menagerie to me
My Neighbor be -
Fair Play -
Both went to see -
(E. Dickinson, 1270)

And the writing commandment:

In what way can you make the claim "The Show is not the Show" intelligibly answer your question to the oracle? Write a short poem that does just this. Try mimicing the form Dickinson uses here. Can you pull it off?

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #9

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry

The Dickinsonian oracle announces:

A Night - there lay the Days between -
That Day that was Before -
And Day that was Behind - were One -
And now - 'twas Night - was here -

Slow - Night - that must be watched away -
As Grains opon a shore -
Too imperceptible to note -
Till it be Night - no more -
(E. Dickinson, 609)

And the writing commandment:

Use as the first line in a poem "Slow Y that must be X'ed away," substituting for Y a noun either rhyming with "night" or one having to do with darkness. For X, use a verb that was in the question you posed to the oracle. If, by some strange happenstance, you came up with a question that didn't contain a verb, used either (a) winced (b) welled or (c) walked. Write out a copy of your poem, and leave it in a public space!

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #8

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

This sunny day's Dickinsonian oracle:

Love - is that later Thing than Death -
More previous - than Life -
Confirms it at it's entrance - And
Usurps it - of itself -
(E. Dickinson, from 540)

The writing commandment:

Write a peom addressing the metaphysical "bookends" of life, that which comes before, and that which comes after. Give each end a name, say Pinky, or Buckle, and let the two ends of life meet one another for the first time. Forget the question you intially asked the oracle; it wasn't one with a clear answer, anyway.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #7

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

Today's Dickinsonian oracle mutters:

Sweet - safe - Houses -
Glad - gay - Houses -
Sealed so stately tight -
Lids of Steel - on Lids of Marble -
Locking our Barefeet out -
(E. Dickinson, from 684)

And the writing commandment:

Write a poem in which you describe (or imaginge) what goes on in your neighbor's house. What kind of lid keeps their crap in and your peeping eyes out? Use as the title of the poem the first four words of the question you posed to the oracle.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #6

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

Today's Dickinsonian oracle pronounces:

The Soul that hath a Guest,
doth seldom go abroad -
Diviner Crowd - at Home -
Obliterates the need -
(E. Dickinson, from 592)

And the writing commandment:

Write a persona poem in which your soul invites a talk show celebrity (say, Oprah, Merv Griffin, Dinah Shore, or Ellen) to dinner, a guest who subsequently shoots the question you intially asked the oracle right back at your soul. How does your soul respond?

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #5

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question to the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

Installment #5

The Dickinsonian oracle pronounces:

To my quick ears the Leaves - conferred -
The Bushes - they were Bells -
I could not find a Privacy
From Nature's sentinels -

In Cave if I presumed to hide
The Walls - begun to tell -
Creation seemed a mighty Crack -
To make me invisible.
(E. Dickinson, 912)

The writing commandment:
What makes you invisible? Use the answer to *this* question as a title to a poem, a poem that then incorporates the question you initially posed to the oracle. Write it. Recite it.

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #4

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question for the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

Installment #4

The Dickinsonian oracle pronounces:

Love's stricken "why"
Is all that love can speak -
Built of but just a syllable,
The hugest hearts that break.
(E. Dickinson, 1392)

The writing commandment:

Think of a huge breakable thing. Write a syllabic poem (the number of syllables determined by the number of words in your question). Have fun, gosh darn it, and don't ask why!

NaPoMo Dickinsonian Oracle and Writing Exercise #3

In honor of National Poetry Month, and for those interested in its NaPoWriMo incarnation, Brightly is proud to bring to you the Dickinsonian Oracle's Oracular Writing Exercise.

Here is the NaPoWriMo DiOrOrWriEx procedure:
(1) Pose a question for the oracle.
(2) Read the oracle's pronouncement and writing commandment.
(3) Write a bit of poetry.

Installment #3.

The Dickinsonian oracle's pronouncement:

Not at Home to Callers
Says the Naked Tree -
Jacket due in April -
Wishing you Good Day -
(E. Dickinson, 1604)


Writing commandment:

Write a poem entitled "Naked Tree" using the first few (if there are a few) nouns (or verbs) appearing in your question.