1. "Poetry is language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree." - Ezra Pound.
What did Pound mean by using the word "charged"?
2.
List 10 things you think of when you hear the words "bedroom" or
"tombstone." Pick the most interesting one and write about it.
3. Write and include these words: oven, lines, oregano, florescent, light, and hum (or rum)
4. "Each corner of the world holds miracles." - Harriet Arnow
5. "Delicious to watch." - Harriet Arnow
6. "distance of opposites" - Charles Wright
7. "which fear is our consolation" - Charles Wright
8. "climb into light" - from Richard Hague's "Finished with the Poetry of Coal"
Thursday, March 13, 2014
1 Giant Leap and Capote
Most of these prompts are quotes from the film 1 Giant Leap. There are two quotes from a novel by Truman Capote I just finished reading, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Enjoy!
"This is what comes through to us." - from The Greek
"It's God making contact with itself." – Ram Dass (in reference to creation of art)
"While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die." – Leonardo da Vinci
"When you can't find the rhyme to fit the beat, You can't find the answer to feel complete." - ?
"There will be time to put on the face to meet the faces that you meet." – T.S. Eliot
"Every man and woman has their place. They have their entrances and they have their exits." - ?
"I have to learn not to waste everything my forefathers earned in tears." - Maxi Jazz
"Last night I went to sleep as a child
Only to wake up this morning finding I was a man.
In my hand I discovered the tools and the rage of my father.
In my heart I found the love and fears of my mother...........
We are not walking with the ghosts of the dead...
We are alive... In the spirit of our passion"
- Michael FRANTI, from 1 Giant Leap (film)
"...for anger seemed, if anything, more unsafe than love: only those who know their own security can afford either." - Truman Capote
"...he is no rose dependent upon thorn or root." - Truman Capote
"This is what comes through to us." - from The Greek
"It's God making contact with itself." – Ram Dass (in reference to creation of art)
"While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die." – Leonardo da Vinci
"When you can't find the rhyme to fit the beat, You can't find the answer to feel complete." - ?
"There will be time to put on the face to meet the faces that you meet." – T.S. Eliot
"Every man and woman has their place. They have their entrances and they have their exits." - ?
"I have to learn not to waste everything my forefathers earned in tears." - Maxi Jazz
"Last night I went to sleep as a child
Only to wake up this morning finding I was a man.
In my hand I discovered the tools and the rage of my father.
In my heart I found the love and fears of my mother...........
We are not walking with the ghosts of the dead...
We are alive... In the spirit of our passion"
- Michael FRANTI, from 1 Giant Leap (film)
"...for anger seemed, if anything, more unsafe than love: only those who know their own security can afford either." - Truman Capote
"...he is no rose dependent upon thorn or root." - Truman Capote
Naming and Loving
More writing prompts sent to me by a writer-friend early one December.
From Naming the World:
1. Write about a secret from the perspective of someone with the below statement:
* I never told anyone.
* I did tell one person. God help me.
* I never told anyone, but I’ll tell you.
2. Try writing about something you do every day and take for granted.
3. Starter: "She didn’t want to go, but..."
4. Choose an object that interests you enough to suggest it could be someone’s centering symbol. Why does it carry a metaphysical force?
5. You found a feather on the ground on the way over. Start talking to a person you know about this feather.
6. Pick a character that you hate and find something you love about them.
7. What is your character's obsession?
8. Destroy something you love.
Sentence and Phrase Prompts from Marge Piercy's Hard Loving:
1. "I was a rabbit with twigs for bones."
2. "Sometimes an old buffalo man... stares from your face."
3. "Succulent as a burst apricot"
4. "A phosphorescent smear"
5. "Peeling an orange"
From Naming the World:
1. Write about a secret from the perspective of someone with the below statement:
* I never told anyone.
* I did tell one person. God help me.
* I never told anyone, but I’ll tell you.
2. Try writing about something you do every day and take for granted.
3. Starter: "She didn’t want to go, but..."
4. Choose an object that interests you enough to suggest it could be someone’s centering symbol. Why does it carry a metaphysical force?
5. You found a feather on the ground on the way over. Start talking to a person you know about this feather.
6. Pick a character that you hate and find something you love about them.
7. What is your character's obsession?
8. Destroy something you love.
Sentence and Phrase Prompts from Marge Piercy's Hard Loving:
1. "I was a rabbit with twigs for bones."
2. "Sometimes an old buffalo man... stares from your face."
3. "Succulent as a burst apricot"
4. "A phosphorescent smear"
5. "Peeling an orange"
Advice
"Take your mind out every now and then and dance on it. It is getting all caked up." - Mark Twain
"Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." - David Lloyd George
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." - George Bernard Shaw
"To get where you want to go you can't only do what you like." - Peter Abrahams
"I hasten to laugh at everything for fear of being obliged to weep at it." - Pierre de Beaumarchais
"Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." - David Lloyd George
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." - George Bernard Shaw
"To get where you want to go you can't only do what you like." - Peter Abrahams
"I hasten to laugh at everything for fear of being obliged to weep at it." - Pierre de Beaumarchais
More quotes
"You must kill all your darlings."
- William Faulkner
"You must fly your 35 missions again."
- Richard Hugo, “In Your War Dream”
"She does not desire her children,
Or any more children."
- Ezra Pound, “Clara”
"I like doing it if one gets into it; it is something quite different." - W.H. Auden, New York Quarterly Craft Interview, Number 1
"Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader." - Vladimir Nabokov
"Is it possible that the whole history of the world has been misunderstood?" - Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
"To tell you the truth,
I’d believe in anything
If you’d just turn me loose."
- Langston Hughes, “Ku Klux” from The Panther and the Lash
"Oh no, no that’s only in America, Europe would never have such things." - W.H. Auden
"Love the art in yourselves, not yourselves in the art." - Stanislavsky, My Life in the Art
"There never was a war that was not inward…" - Marianne Moore, “In Distrust of Merits”
- William Faulkner
"You must fly your 35 missions again."
- Richard Hugo, “In Your War Dream”
"She does not desire her children,
Or any more children."
- Ezra Pound, “Clara”
"I like doing it if one gets into it; it is something quite different." - W.H. Auden, New York Quarterly Craft Interview, Number 1
"Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader." - Vladimir Nabokov
"Is it possible that the whole history of the world has been misunderstood?" - Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
"To tell you the truth,
I’d believe in anything
If you’d just turn me loose."
- Langston Hughes, “Ku Klux” from The Panther and the Lash
"Oh no, no that’s only in America, Europe would never have such things." - W.H. Auden
"Love the art in yourselves, not yourselves in the art." - Stanislavsky, My Life in the Art
"There never was a war that was not inward…" - Marianne Moore, “In Distrust of Merits”
Spring and other concerns
“The problem, if you love it, is as beautiful as the sunset.” - Krishnamurti
“Where would the gardener be if there were no weeds?” – Chuang Tzu
“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
“For aren't you and I gods? Let all of life be an unfettered howl. Release life's rapture. Everything is blooming. Everything is flying. Everything is screaming. Laughter. Running.” – Vladimir Nabokov
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” – Charles Dickens
“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then his it a third time – a tremendous whack.” – Winston Churchill
“Forget my sins upon the wind, My hobo soul will rise.” – Gillian Welch, “I’m Not Afraid to Die.”
The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is composed of stories, not of atoms. The physicist Werner Heisenberg declared that the universe is made of music, not of matter.
“Where would the gardener be if there were no weeds?” – Chuang Tzu
“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
“For aren't you and I gods? Let all of life be an unfettered howl. Release life's rapture. Everything is blooming. Everything is flying. Everything is screaming. Laughter. Running.” – Vladimir Nabokov
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” – Charles Dickens
“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then his it a third time – a tremendous whack.” – Winston Churchill
“Forget my sins upon the wind, My hobo soul will rise.” – Gillian Welch, “I’m Not Afraid to Die.”
The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is composed of stories, not of atoms. The physicist Werner Heisenberg declared that the universe is made of music, not of matter.
Primer prompts
Sentences from old primer and grammar books -- Use as prompts!
The river talked all night in the shoals.
My life is ghastly, she told the grass.
What kind of word?
Just a word.
Whatever. Hush.
Whisper it in my ear.
The cottonwoods went by like rows of bones.
There are no absolutes in human misery and things can always get worse.
Old whiskey bottles with their bleached labels lying on the wet tar of the rooftops.
I have been waiting for you for hours.
Does your brother dance well?
Why are you sitting here alone in the dark?
A little bit of common glass sometimes glitters like a diamond.
I see the man in the moon.
Mr. Jones bought a knife for his little boy.
Of all beasts he learned the language.
The two strangers were really Jupiter and Mercury.
A shaft of song, a winged prayer
Iris always wore a chain of raindrops for pearls, and a cloud for a robe.
The meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
I met a little cottage girl.
The river talked all night in the shoals.
My life is ghastly, she told the grass.
What kind of word?
Just a word.
Whatever. Hush.
Whisper it in my ear.
The cottonwoods went by like rows of bones.
There are no absolutes in human misery and things can always get worse.
Old whiskey bottles with their bleached labels lying on the wet tar of the rooftops.
I have been waiting for you for hours.
Does your brother dance well?
Why are you sitting here alone in the dark?
A little bit of common glass sometimes glitters like a diamond.
I see the man in the moon.
Mr. Jones bought a knife for his little boy.
Of all beasts he learned the language.
The two strangers were really Jupiter and Mercury.
A shaft of song, a winged prayer
Iris always wore a chain of raindrops for pearls, and a cloud for a robe.
The meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
I met a little cottage girl.
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