Welcome to Meatball Poetry!
Weekly poems for people who watch too much television
Hello and welcome to Meatball Poetry!
What is Meatball Poetry?
Meatball Poetry is poetry for people who watch too much television, plus behind-the-scenes resources for poets who can quote old movies front-to-back.
What we’re going to be doing here is simple:
Weekly poems written entirely using lines from episodes of television, movies, etc.
Honestly, I hope that sounds as fun to you as it does to me.
This idea of writing poems using lines from other things isn’t new. In fact there’s a format term for it: a cento. Although centos are traditionally new poems using bits and lines from old poems, we’re going to be doing the same thing, except with movies and television.
So why am I calling this Meatball Poetry?
That’s based on the most poetic television show of all time, which is, of course, M*A*S*H*. The doctors in that show cobble together whatever it takes to keep their patients alive and call what they do meatball surgery. That’s pretty much what we’re doing here.
Here’s the lineup—
Free subscribers get:
Weekly meatball poem: poems using everything from M*A*S*H to The Office to Pixar to 90s Rom Coms to a lot, lot, more.
Spotlight poem: A brilliant poem from classic and acclaimed poets, but ones that are comprehensible to my television rotted brain. Maybe poems that are even funny.
Paid subscribers get all that plus:
Behind-the-scenes: Trivia, interviews, and tidbits from the making of whatever show we’ve been meatballing that week.
Poetry submissions and events: Places to submit your own work, and places to meet other people doing the same.
Poetry prompts: These here are the wildest prompts in the poetry wilderness.
If that sounds like a yummy treat for your inbox, subscribe for weekly treat delivery!
Who am I?
My name is Sarah Allen, and I’m an award-winning author of several novels, as well as a poet published in magazines around the country and several anthologies. I got an MFA in creative writing from BYU, and completed half of a second MFA in poetry at USF. I’ve loved poetry since discovering Shel Silverstein, and loved TV and movies since Rugrats and Animal Planet. Some of my all-time favorite poets are Mary Oliver, Mary Karr, Billy Collins, Lewis Caroll, Bob Hicock, and Russell Edson. Some of my all-time favorite actors are Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sam Rockwell, David Hyde Pierce, Anjelica Huston (I have a cat named Morticia), and David Ogden Stiers (I have a cat named Timicin).
Join me?
Mmmmmm….