Last week, David Lehman promised us a new prompt that was sure to be clever, artful, interesting, and smart. After a few thoughts on John Ashbery, who often used clichés in his work, but complicated or enriched them by turning them on their heads, Mr. Lehman proposed the following:
For next week, write a poem which plays with one of two clichés: the notorious "long story short," shortened from the original "to make a long story short"; or, the very cheeky, "I could be wrong, but..."
For the first, you might consider using it as a title, or as a repeated phrase, or, you might choose to break it up and write a poem that includes the words “long,” “story,” and “short” throughout.
For the second, you might consider writing a stanza of six lines ending with the line "but I could be wrong," and submitting it forth as a part of a collaborate effort.
Ah, what a wonderful day to have thought of John Ashbery, whose poem, "A Train Rising Out of the Sea" appeared to me on the uptown A train this afternoon in the New York City's "Poetry in Motion" collection. It was, of course, excerpted (a long story short), but all the more perfect for a partly cloudy day in June.
Visit the American Scholar's page for more inspiration and to enter your candidate!
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