Monday, August 22, 2005
Fun exercise
Here's a little poem exercise I'm trying in order to shake up the way I write:
Take two lines that you think are strong lines but that you don't have connected to a whole poem (or even a whole poem idea) yet. (If you're like me, you have quite a few of these lines floating around.) The two lines should have no immediate connection to each other: no repeated words, no similar thematic associations, etc.
Now make one of those lines your first line and one your last, and write the poem that connects the two seemingly unrelated lines. If you have to change the lines up a little as you write, that's fine, but no matter what, they shouldn't ever have an obvious similarity.
The two lines I've chosen are "Remember we weren't always as old as we're going to be" and "When you open the refrigerator, what will attack?" The first is salvaged from an old draft that didn't work out. The second is a line I think I came up with while I was half asleep.
I'll be working on this poem this week (and maybe next given how many things I have going on right now). Once I have a draft done, I'll post it.
Take two lines that you think are strong lines but that you don't have connected to a whole poem (or even a whole poem idea) yet. (If you're like me, you have quite a few of these lines floating around.) The two lines should have no immediate connection to each other: no repeated words, no similar thematic associations, etc.
Now make one of those lines your first line and one your last, and write the poem that connects the two seemingly unrelated lines. If you have to change the lines up a little as you write, that's fine, but no matter what, they shouldn't ever have an obvious similarity.
The two lines I've chosen are "Remember we weren't always as old as we're going to be" and "When you open the refrigerator, what will attack?" The first is salvaged from an old draft that didn't work out. The second is a line I think I came up with while I was half asleep.
I'll be working on this poem this week (and maybe next given how many things I have going on right now). Once I have a draft done, I'll post it.
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Interesting idea. I'll probably try it at some point -- must have a couple of odd lines in some notebook around here somewhere.
Years ago a writer friend and I started talking ambitiously about collaborating on an experimental novel, actually it would be a mix of prose fiction, journal entries, poetry, scenes from plays, whatever else came to mind. (I've written mostly poetry, she's written all of the above at one time or another.)
Nothing ever came of it but some outlandish fun talk. We did, however, decide what the first and last lines would be. The first line was going to be "Shakespeare sleeps in my sink." The last line was going to be "Did you hear your sister got a rabbit?"
Years ago a writer friend and I started talking ambitiously about collaborating on an experimental novel, actually it would be a mix of prose fiction, journal entries, poetry, scenes from plays, whatever else came to mind. (I've written mostly poetry, she's written all of the above at one time or another.)
Nothing ever came of it but some outlandish fun talk. We did, however, decide what the first and last lines would be. The first line was going to be "Shakespeare sleeps in my sink." The last line was going to be "Did you hear your sister got a rabbit?"
The two lines I posted here have already changed in the poem draft: the first one because I slightly misquoted it in the post and the real version was better, the second because once I figured out the connection, it had to change a bit.
Peter, I hope it's working. Lyle, those are both good lines too.
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Peter, I hope it's working. Lyle, those are both good lines too.
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