Begin by reading Charles Simic’s poem “The Melon.” It would be easy to call the poem dark, but as they say, if you didn’t have darkness, you wouldn’t know what light is. Or vice versa. The poem illuminates the juxtaposition between grief and joy, sorrow and reprieve. For today’s challenge, write a poem in which laughter comes at what might otherwise seem an inappropriate moment – or one that the poem invites the reader to think of as inappropriate.
It was a bright morning, Yellowish hue, morning dew, A symphony of birds was singing, People were busy commuting too,
Another work, another day to earn, Friendly colleagues, a modern place, Rush hours, brain to burn, Management meeting, a tight face,
The project was disrupted, the contract ended, Disbelief in everyone’s eyes, A moment of grief feeling defeated, Some chuckled, some smiled in disguises,
I laughed with some of them, It was a good day turned mayhem.
Today, let’s try writing triolets. A triolet is an eight-line poem. All the lines are in iambic tetramenter (for a total of eight syllables per line), and the first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines. This means that the poem begins and ends with the same couplet. Beyond this, there is a tight rhyme scheme (helped along by the repetition of lines) — ABaAabAB.
I met an angel yesterday, A glimpse of her felt so sinful, Live in hell is the price to pay, I met an angel yesterday, Her voice is the center of envy, To yearn for her heart is painful, I met an angel yesterday, A glimpse of her felt so sinful.
I am at a point where I feel too much, Every second in every corner, Of my body and soul, Every sensation attached, Mixed into a blender, Of this so-called mind, Unregulated,
Oh trust me I tried, Feeling frantic and manic, Restless and anxious, If only there is a kill switch, To kill it swiftly.
What is fog? A blueish mountain made of peacock feathers,
What is the river? A swirly long line of dried fish,
What is a miracle? The sweetest smile and the loveliest smile of troubles,
What is an oyster? A throbbing deep dark cave,
What is the thunder? A dancing heart and jumping monkeys.
What is longing? A meeting of two lips on the bed.
Part 2
A blueish mountain made of peacock feathers, A swirly long line of dried fish, A throbbing deep dark cave, A dancing heart and jumping monkeys, The sweetest smile and the loveliest smile of troubles, A meeting of two lips on the bed.
Today’s prompt asks you to begin by picking 5-10 words from the following list. Next, write out a question for each word that you’ve selected (e.g., what is seaweed?)
owl generator fog river clove miracle cyclops oyster mercurial seaweed gutter artillery salt elusive thunder ghost acorn cheese longing cowbird truffle quahog song
Now for each question, write a one-line answer. Try to make the answer an image, and don’t worry about strict logic. These are surrealist answers, after all!
And here’s our own prompt (optional, as always) for the first day of Na/GloPoWriMo. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but they never said you can’t try to write a poem based on a book cover — and that’s your challenge for today!
Crimson, blood, dripping, splatting, Staining a piece of white cloth, Like a scene of a murder, Without a weapon, Except a calling card, Of a rose, A red crimson rose, Freshly cut and overpowering, Probably a crime happened, Probably none, Until one read inside, Eleven minutes of pleasure, For a lifetime journey, To discover a murder, Without death.
Today I had my second session for Mind Gardening with Arts by A Lusher Mind. Yes, this is my second session in trying to find my lost inner creativity. In case you missed my experience on my first session, you can read it here.
Mind Gardening with Arts is a program through intentional artmaking to strengthen our minds while exploring our creativity. For the beta program, I will be on this journey for four weeks exploring intentional artmaking through different mediums. The medium is visual arts, music, and words.
If you are curious about A Lusher Mind and their initiatives, feel free to check their Instagram. Click Here!
Unlike my previous session, the medium for this week is music. So, I have nothing to show but I will try my best to tell the things that happened. What is the topic for this week? Fundamental.
To be honest, I’m not a singer, I don’t have a good voice, but still, I enjoy singing my heart out especially in my car. Karaoke is one of my favorite activities. Apart from that, I enjoy listening to music. My Spotify playlist is filled with random languages and genres. A moment I would be basking myself in the melodic harmony of classical arrangement and the next moment, I might be listening to a hard black metal symphonious music. I might start my day with some witty Egyptian Shaabi, the afternoon might be dancing to Bollywood songs, and sleeping to 90’s Mandarin songs.
While this is not a 90’s song, Teresa Teng holds a special seat in my love of music.
What does all this have to do with the session? Remember the topic for today is fundamental. Coming from someone like me, it’s hard to find one that I could call my own.
All and all, the exercises with A Lusher Mind were something new for me. From the basics of exploring my own voice to trying different vowel sounds. The feeling after all the exercise was dizziness. It was a fun way for me to experience throwing my own voice. Overall, I had fun.
The takeaway from today’s session is quite profound. I rarely talk to people on a daily basis. Only when I hang out with friends will I be chatty. Only when I sing in my car or go for karaoke will I be throwing my voice. I feel like someone has lost his voice. Today I somewhat feel the vibration of my voice bouncing in my lung and body. To feel comfortable with my own voice. Do you feel comfortable with your own voice?
Wishing everyone a fantastic day and a great weekend! If this week doesn’t work out too well for us, let’s hope next week will be ours for the taking.
Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that plays with the idea of a “fun fact.” Your fact could actually be fun – or the whole point could be that it’s not fun. Maybe you have a favorite wacky fact already, but if not, Mental Floss’s “Amazing Fact Generator” is here to help!
Look up the sky, You’ll see clouds, In different shapes, And different sizes, Floating and drifting, As it tries to run away, From your gazing view, And if only you know, When some clouds no longer float, The sky turns dark, And it starts to rain, Hundreds of elephants.
How far should I go? How long should I wait? For all of this ruse to end, Like running in a circle, On the palm of trickery, Laughing at me, Just to see me on my knees, Begging to end it, Only to be teased, With a glimpse of hope, To dance another round.
Currently, I joined their BETA program. If you are interested to join the full program, sign up for their waitlist. You can find the details on A Lusher Mind Instagram account. Check it out here.
Why I joined this program?
The truth is I feel like my creativity has dried up. Whenever I read my poems back, I kinda miss the creativity I had when I started this journey. More so, if I compared it to my younger self, it feels barren and lacking. Not to mention the different style, the witty play of words, and the sweetest imagination that I can no longer taste.
There are times I think that this is probably how one’s style changed as one matured. If that is the case, I’m slowly turning into someone who is bland, mediocre, and lacking. Or it is probably because of my situation and environment. Either way, I started to feel sick of writing depressing words. I did a post about it.
Again, the same question I would ask is, what is a poet if they are not true to their feelings?
If all I’ve been feeling is these dark voids and spots, I should do something about it. Yet, it is not all bad. It is all a process and journey. I do feel sick of writing it that way but I accept it. It is how I feel. My own feeling. At the same time, I do feel invigorated writing about self-growth. I do feel good writing about positivity. I am healing. I feel like I am transitioning. Shedding old skin.
After taking consideration of all those thoughts popping and arguing inside my head. Why don’t I try something? And I found Mind Gardening with Arts. I signed up for their BETA program. From my first session, I think it is totally worth it.
One thing that I hold close to is that I want to experience. Through experience, all the senses in my body will taste and feel the journey. All the good and bad. Go through it. Explore it. Grow out of it. Write it.
Write Ally! Write! 