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30 days of prompts: day 29
despyboutris.substack.com

30 days of prompts: day 29

& round-up

Despy Boutris
May 31
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30 days of prompts: day 29
despyboutris.substack.com

Happy Monday!

I have many things for you today so, if you’re looking at your email, you’ll want to open this newsletter up in a new tab to get to the end.


Day 29: Prompt

Write a how-to poem.

Here are some examples:

  • How to Apologize, Ellen Bass

  • How to Start Over, Stuart Kestenbaum

  • How to Write a Poem in a Time of War, Joy Harjo

  • How to Lift Him, Ed Madden

  • How to Dismantle a Heart, Rodney Gomez

  • How to Make a Crab Cake, January Gill O'Neil

  • How to Triumph Like a Girl, Ada Limón

  • How to Prepare the Mind for Lightning, Brynn Saito

  • How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual, Pamela Spiro Wagner

  • How to See Deer, Philip Booth

& one of mine:

  • How To


Quotations:

(Also known as lines that made me “!!!!!!”)

At the center of the world, / our hands in a blizzard of touch.

-Andres Cerpa


What a spectacle, how blood replicates us.

-Saddiq Dzukogi


We tatters

of lace and crafters of skyscrapers

are the only animals who can make a fist.

How much simpler if our bodies’ weapons

were separate, obvious as antlers.

-Jessica Jacobs


Tonight I am water I am rain I am a clear brook

[…]

I am two hands dissolving death

-Lis Sanchez


What do you feel? Come for a moment from the silence of your leaving.

-Peter Streckfus


To watch the world, always, is to distort it,

to cast hollow light onto a cave wall.

-Kirk Schlueter


You were a body,

breathless & cold

& violeted throat to temple,

the white of your eyes, violet,

violets everywhere like you had become

a summer field overnight, blooming.

-Nikki Zielinski


Tweets:

Twitter avatar for @SketchesbyBozeOwl! at the Library 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze
instructor: and what does the green light represent? me: the decadence and futility of the American dream instructor: this is a driver's exam

December 1st 2021

4,274 Retweets31,490 Likes
Twitter avatar for @elyzawithawhyRep. Elyza Halpern (CA District 54) @elyzawithawhy
Man, I am NOT cut out for LA. This girl at a party said “I’m a sub” and I said “oh that’s cool did you always wanna work with kids?” and she looked at me HORRIFIED. I THOUGHT SHE MEANT TEACHER. LIKE A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER. THAT’S NOT WHAT SHE MEANT.

March 30th 2022

21,517 Retweets375,035 Likes
Twitter avatar for @earlgreyteafanlizzy @earlgreyteafan
i was once seeing this guy and he kind of sucked so i was venting and texting my friend about it. i then accidentally sent HIM “peter kind of sucks tbh” instead of texting my friend, so i made a whole blown out meme to defend myself so it looked like a trend
Image

February 13th 2022

13,119 Retweets173,553 Likes
Twitter avatar for @mrjohndarbyjohn @mrjohndarby
me: how can I impress your dad? gf: he's really into cars me: ok [later] her dad: nice to meet you me: let's talk about pixar's finest movie

December 11th 2021

40,247 Retweets400,245 Likes
Twitter avatar for @CaseyBalshamCasey Balsham @CaseyBalsham
Just got excited at a crossword clue that was “cheese lovers” and was like oooooo there’s a name for people like me and the answer was mice

February 11th 2022

11,380 Retweets154,869 Likes
Twitter avatar for @hO__Obi5head @hO__Obi
"paper straws r biodegradable tho" yeah i know they r biodegrading in my drink

January 20th 2022

37,806 Retweets308,250 Likes
Twitter avatar for @mmiicckkkeeyyyMickey 🔑 @mmiicckkkeeyyy
Yeah 😭
Image

February 3rd 2022

45,541 Retweets485,697 Likes
Twitter avatar for @annadrezenAnna Drezen @annadrezen
All this stuff says "ask your doctor" like I keep a sexy little doctor in a penthouse apartment wrapped in furs waiting for my call

December 28th 2021

4,172 Retweets83,496 Likes
Twitter avatar for @JacobDCharlesJake Charles @JacobDCharles
This is such a jaw-dropping line.
scientificamerican.com/article/the-sc…
Image

May 29th 2022

41,299 Retweets170,492 Likes
Twitter avatar for @rachsymerachel syme @rachsyme
the best thing I’ve done in a while is buying a good ice cream scoop and sugar cones to keep at home and I can make myself a lil’ ice cream for an afternoon walk like I’m a ten year old with five dollars to spend at the Main Street Scoop Shoppe

May 29th 2022

113 Retweets8,202 Likes
Twitter avatar for @DoctorPissPantsbitsy von muffling @DoctorPissPants
If anyone wants to send me free stuff this pride month I'd be happy to post stuff like "I never felt comfortable in my body until I put on this cool hat" or whatever

May 30th 2022

42 Retweets444 Likes
Twitter avatar for @JoshuaPotashRead Wobblies and Zapatistas @JoshuaPotash
You deserve this good news today
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have lost $115 billion in five months

Ryan Hogg May 29, 2022, 9:33 AM

May 29th 2022

5,529 Retweets60,263 Likes
Twitter avatar for @DannyPellegrinoDanny Pellegrino @DannyPellegrino
My Yellowstone
Image

May 30th 2022

1,190 Retweets18,595 Likes
Twitter avatar for @SJKSalisburySteven (with a ph) @SJKSalisbury
Having a little nap on the sofa before taking myself up to bed for my main sleep; I call that a snors d'oeuvre.

May 29th 2022

248 Retweets2,834 Likes
Twitter avatar for @bethdangerSudden Beth @bethdanger
🇬🇧 it's jubilee week! Let's have a thread of our favourite things the Queen has done! I'll start: she negotiated clauses in the equality and diversity act so she wouldn't have to hire "coloured or foreign" workers in the Palace. These clauses remain in place to this day! 🇬🇧

May 30th 2022

11,892 Retweets53,914 Likes
Twitter avatar for @DrakeGatsbyjon drake @DrakeGatsby
[The year 2048] Whoever normalized $700 hoodies needs to be jumped also my house is underwater

May 30th 2022

5 Retweets141 Likes
Twitter avatar for @itsjacksonbbzFatinum Jubilee @itsjacksonbbz
We need to make these manipulative tenderqueers scared again. A lot of these girls are terrorising people with no consequences!

May 30th 2022

2 Retweets129 Likes
Twitter avatar for @AustinTRossAustin Ross @AustinTRoss
when I write another little story about the exact same themes I always write about
Image

May 30th 2022

85 Retweets753 Likes
Twitter avatar for @rlycalmDiana @rlycalm
That whole “under socialism we won’t have fun” genre of posts is obvious cop behavior. Real socialists say stuff like “my 29 hot girlfriends and i are gonna turn the citibank building into a commune where we grow weed and throw topless raves every night,” and buddy they mean it

May 29th 2022

949 Retweets7,561 Likes
Twitter avatar for @descripticonDan B. @descripticon
Image

May 28th 2022

7,265 Retweets55,202 Likes
Twitter avatar for @JoshuaPotashRead Wobblies and Zapatistas @JoshuaPotash
Can’t stop thinking about this. Maybe the most horrifying statement about our society I’ve ever seen
More Children Have Been Shot Dead in 2022 Than Police in the Line of Duty

BY GERRARD KAONGA ON 5/27/22 AT 3:55 AM EDT

May 29th 2022

18,749 Retweets104,943 Likes
Twitter avatar for @BetteMidlerbettemidler @BetteMidler
Image

May 29th 2022

30,350 Retweets109,021 Likes
Twitter avatar for @Y2Komradestalin nicole smith ( memorial day era ) @Y2Komrade
this was the entire buttiegieg campaign
Image

May 28th 2022

6,226 Retweets86,750 Likes
Twitter avatar for @jivebotJ-san Ives @jivebot
Therapist: can we unpack that together? Me: no? I spent several decades packing it up nice and neat

May 28th 2022

5,409 Retweets48,982 Likes
Twitter avatar for @Ryan_Ken_ActsRyan Ken (they/them) @Ryan_Ken_Acts
“That weapon is for killing people abroad and not for American civilians” is such a wild thing to say on the World Wide Web

May 28th 2022

5,438 Retweets53,200 Likes
Twitter avatar for @AtriosAtrios @Atrios
Cops as useless buffoons (not necessarily evil but not good!) was a standard movie/tv trope before the post-9/11 first responder worship bloomed

May 28th 2022

1,508 Retweets20,001 Likes
Twitter avatar for @meakoopaAnthony Oliveira @meakoopa
i feel like you’re on the threshold of revelation here
Image

May 28th 2022

18,717 Retweets346,635 Likes
Twitter avatar for @vrijomslachtigelyssa 💄 @vrijomslachtig
i don't think people realize how common incel talking points are among the general population of cis dudes

May 29th 2022

8,065 Retweets82,105 Likes

That’s all I have for you today!

& as always, I hope you’ll consider buying some books or art or zines or giving me attention on Instagram. No pressure, though.

See you tomorrow—

-Despy Boutris

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30 days of prompts: day 29
despyboutris.substack.com
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