11.23.14

For a weekend-words type post, I'll tell you about a little challenge I've been participating in. A few friends wanted to do a "Sketch-a-day" for November, with a list of prompts for inspiration. I can't draw to save my life, but suggested I could do a literary companion to the art.

Writing to a prompt is always interesting, especially if it doesn't grab your interest, but having the structure of a prompt can be helpful if material is being elusive. I actually found myself turning to more structured forms if I wasn't sure how to treat the topic. Another interesting element of it was the prompts instructed me to "draw", so that got swept up in the interpretation sometimes.

A few of the sillier topics and responses:

"Draw your favorite character as a zombie"

From far away, they are little herds of numbers.

Downbeats, matchsticks, little elevens

until you see their drunken shamble

and crooked posture

and known them for the imitations they are;

imitations of life.

Not just anathema to life,

but there for it’s consumption--

pursuit, to the point of madness,

then a sickening rending of flesh from bone,

their own hanging in ribbons.

Clothed in the mire of their loss,

able only to stagger through,

thronging hordes of numbers.

Everyone lets out the breath they’ve been holding.


"Draw a treehouse"

T o decide to

R ise above

E veryday complications and

E ncourage man to say, To

H ell with the surly bonds

O f earth. Oh envy

U s, fallen children, for you

S ee before you the

E pitome of freedom.

"Draw any word written in graffiti"

The serifs jag and shafts kink out

in elbows and blades

around the neighborhood.

Each letter in its own code

is a tag on a bus stop or in an alleyway

transforming familiar into unknown.

And if it is code, who then can speak it?

It presents the great two-faced urban makeup

of those who live in it

and those who live and breathe it.

Is it something about gangs?

Is it something about drugs?

if we can’t understand it

what would that say about us?

It's been interesting so far, but I am enjoying it. In addition to putting yourself into good habits by writing every day, some of the topics are a bit of a challenge to address. Since its an art group, I don't actually get any feedback (I'm not sure they know what to do with the text), but I think I might seek out a similar facebook-type group for sharing and feedback. Do you write with a group, or using prompts/exercises ever?