Tweetspeak Poetry Jam, Part 2: Skywoman Braids Sweetgrass

Tweetspeak Poetry’s jam on Twitter on Jan. 15 used prompts from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants by botanist and Native American Robin Wall Kimmerer. As might be expected, the prompts contained numerous references to nature – to trees, plants, flowers, and fruits.

The lines on Twitter don’t flow chronologically, because people see a prompt, consider a response, and then tweet the line or lines they’ve created. Some people tweet quickly; others take their time. The result is a series of tweets like overlapping arcs. When you look at the entire list, it appears formidable: how do you fashion poems from what looks like a disjointed incoherence?

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Tweetspeak Poetry Jam: Skywoman Braids Sweetgrass

Tweetspeak Poetry was born on Twitter. Even before a web site existed, poetry jams were being hosted, participated in, and then edited into a kind of official record of the jams. The prompts to spark the jam came from a wide variety of sources – poetry collections, Greek myths, non-fiction works, memoirs, and other works. About the only thing each jam had in common was the length – always kept to one hour.

On Tuesday, January 15, Tweetspeak hosted another poetry jam on Twitter. This time, the prompts were taken from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants by botanist and Native American Robin Wall Kimmerer. The book fuses Kimmerer’s scientific training as well as the stories told by flowers, fruit, vegetables, grasses, and other plants. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.