There\u2019s a saying that \u201cNecessity is\nthe mother of invention.\u201d Before ballpoint pens, people used fountain pens\u2014pens\nthat needed to be dipped or refilled with ink and whose sharp points worked\nonly on paper. If you wanted to write on any other surface (wood, coarse\nwrapping paper, leather) you were out of luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first patent for the ballpoint\npen was issued in 1888 to John J. Loud, a leather tanner who often needed to\nwrite on the leather. This pen had a metal ball for the point (where it got its\nname!) that couldn\u2019t fall out or in but rolled on the surface. It worked well\non leather but was pretty messy on paper. Many years passed before the Biro brothers\nfound a solution for a new sharper point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In honor of Ballpoint Pen Day and inventions, write a poem about your favorite pen. What does it feel like? What does it look like? What color does it write? What\u2019s the best thing it has ever written? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelly Bennett <\/a>and I began\n this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 1400 days ago. We now take turns \ncreating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the \n7-Minute Poetry Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or \n if you want, the whole poem in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" National Ballpoint Pen Day There\u2019s a saying that \u201cNecessity is the mother of invention.\u201d Before ballpoint pens, people used fountain pens\u2014pens that needed to be dipped or refilled with ink and whose sharp points worked only on paper. If you wanted to write on any other surface (wood, coarse wrapping paper, leather) you were out … Continue reading “Poetry Prompt #143”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1351,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions\/1351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}