Round One= Therese Broderick

Therese Broderick is retired writer with an MFA degree.  Broderick has much experience as a writer; "...as an open mic participant, workshop leader, volunteer for the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, and/or critique group member. My poems, etc., have appeared in assorted journals, webzines, anthologies, radio broadcasts, chapbooks, podcasts, and art galleries." (http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com/about/).  Broderick has a very interesting and apparent tone of voice through out the poems of hers that I read and are almost all based upon or inspired by personal accounts that she has had.  One poem, entitled On the Wall of Children's Drawings, is actually meant to show her tone of voice as she says in the note; "I intend for this poem to be, primarily, a system of sound: the sound of my speaking voice when it's first loyalty is to the sounds of words."(http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/month-520-on-the-wall-of-childrens-drawings/)  The poem was inspired by her trip to China where she encountered a wall of children's drawings.  Another of her poems, Come November, was inspired by a car trip that she took and explains how, as she ages she is becoming less concerned with her absolute need to know the exact details of everything.  A line in the poem states; "Once I kept careful decimal counts; gram, acre, league, nautical mile. But now it's enough for my squinting eye to guess..."(http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/month-526-come-november/)  Of the poems by Broderick that I read, there was one that tripped me up a little.  It is called, We Keep to the Trail and the poem itself is a tad confusing considering it jumps from one topic to a seemingly completely unrelated other topic; "...and six ducklings who shift phase instantly: straight tight pairs behind her gliding helmet of feathers tense go the treads of all our wheels and basins buses yellow with children ride the highway above."(http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/month-517-we-keep-to-the-trail/)  In the note afterward, Broderick tells that the poem is actually a revision of a poem she had written earlier called The Followers(http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com/page/2/?s=5%3A13).  After also reading that poem, which is basically a different, yet similar way of looking at the ducklings in We Keep to the Trail the beginning of the poem makes some sense, yet how ducklings following their mother and children on a yellow school bus somehow make a connection I have no idea.

1. In the poem, We Keep to the Trail, how did you relate the ducklings to the children on the bus?
2. Do you often use prompts to get started like you did in your poem about the tin doll house, or do you only use them before attending a conference/ workshop/ semenar?