1
Getting into poetry without thinking too much.
Choose an abstract ‘feeling’ word: LOVE, ANGER, SADNESS, THOUGHTFULNESS, GUILT, DISAPPOINTMENT, JOY… etc. If you cannot choose put a bundle of words into a ‘hat’ and pull one out.
3
The beauty of abstract words is that they mean something different to everybody. The following questions are a way of teasing out a unique and individual response to that word, (whilst avoiding clichés) and encouraging strong and original descriptions.
4
However sometimes unexpected similarities appear. One particularly moving occasion was in my role as a Creative Practitioner working with a consultant in a hospital and a long-term terminally ill patient. Their responses to this workshop produced surprisingly similar ways of expressing pain which allowed them to bond in a way that went beyond their doctor/patient interactions and cemented a deeper connection.
5
Respond to the following questions once you have made your abstract word choice:
Where does your word live (this may be a specific place or an impression)
What does it feel like if you touched it?
What does it smell like?
What does it look like? Size….
What does it sound like?
How does it move?
What colour is it?
What does it taste like?
Where does it go if anywhere?
Does it have any friends?
If it was a season what would it be and why?
If it was an animal what would it be and why?
What does it dislike and why?
What is its greatest desire?
What would make it cry?
What is its perfect moment?
If your word could say something what would that be?
Explore your answers, edit, play, change…. then create haiku, one or different versions, or a sequence… As always use 3 lines, 5/7/5 syllables if that helps but remember this is only a guide, anything below 17 syllables overall is good. Japanese haiku are often 3/5/3.
Then try exploring another emotion that contrasts with your first choice.
5 Comments on “Conversation 20: Getting in Touch With your Feelings – Writing Workshop”
Covid
Covid on your street
Bipeds walking support it
Perambulating
Sniffing out your fear
Desirous of your contact
A red ball with black hooks
Loves nasal passages
Changing the pace of your breath
Mucus multiplying
Trachea transports
By windpipe inhalation
To the bronchial
phlegm, malign green friend
already resident there
welcomes the jackal
who knocks in winter
more so even than summer
adores the harsh frost
eats the flesh remains
of obese diabetics
this spectre at feast
disdaining mocking
conspiracy theorists
libertarians
lost politicians
who deny its existence
or its goodbye bell
tolling silently
delighting in blood curdling
nibbles on organs
laughing at doctors
medicines, inhalors, nurses
doing its worse
listens for ceasing
of the beating of your heart
Ecstatic. Dead. Done.
Wonderful haiku sequence Richard. Thank you for sharing.
Palpable and visceral. Captures how relentless and unforgiving this virus can be. As a visual thinker and asthmatic I dont wish to meet it again once was enough Richard. Well done
Forgiveness
who is forgiveness
for – victim perpetrator;
why do we forgive?
as a victim I
forgive for myself; to feel
better, not for him.
I don’t need to tell
him I forgive him, I write
it down and burn it.
fire transforms, makes it
feel better, clean, fresh, the end;
life can now move on.
victim no longer
like my spirit rising from
ashes – survivor.
Carolyn Crossley
©🦊VixenOfVerse, 2021
Chaos
Is never visible
It can’t be felt unless
You write it down