April 15, 2008...5:30 am
A poem game for lost artists
The more I work my way through The Artist’s Way, the more I am reminded how writing used to be fun before there were rules and judgments and an internal editor screaming “NO! You’ll never win a Nobel Prize for this silly story! And only Nobel stories are worth your effort!” So, I am especially grateful to The Rational Psychic for posting this fun poetry exercise on his blog. There are rules and points to be had. I think I got the maximum of 20 with this gem. Feel free to play along:
Near the city, snow is a vanilla blemish on our day.
Above your head, I fling a pill of white from my hand,
Which lands next to a cinnamon wooden post,
Sitting squat on the shore of ice.
From this gesture, inside this moment, I pray you will
Know that under my bravado, the wheel of my tame heart
Is spinning around her axis like a gypsy called Althea
Dancing to a wild accordion.
Bill, I cannot quash the pounding.
I aim four times more, and slip my mitten in your hand,
And pray for more snow.
3 Comments
April 15, 2008 at 9:38 am
I like the poem.
The Artist’s Way is good, though I felt it got slightly redundant after a few chapters. You might also like, “Art and Fear.” It’s short — you can pretty much read it in a sitting — and a really good motivational read.
I’m no good at poetry, so I’m not going to touch the exercise, but next time there’s a prose game, I’m in.
April 17, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Thanks for the plug. I will have to total up those points at the end of the month. Some folks still need a chance to write a poem. However, even without producing an official number, I know that your score is high: you used “quash” in there for a triple word score. Cheers!
June 26, 2008 at 12:44 am
I came here looking for another poetry exercise! I’m going to have to figure out another thing to post in the poetry line.
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