contemplativeI am participating in National Poetry Writing Month, where the goal is to write one poem a day for 30 days. During the month of April, I will be using the writing prompts at ReadWritePoem.org and posting the results.
Day sixteen prompt (t-rex and a thesaurus)
Write a poem today about a word trail. Pick a single word and play with its synonyms or mess around with its antonyms. Follow one word to another and another and then another and go with whatever poem idea emerges. Consider this a brain-storming exercise meets research project, but don’t get in too deep. There’s not a lot of time! Just have fun and loosen up and let some new words crawl into the open spaces.
You can also write about what a word conjures up, even if it’s silly. If you prefer, you can follow a word’s perfect rhymes or pseudo-rhymes and see where they take you.
What Rhymes with Orange?
I peel it in a spiral, juicy segments
like spokes. Sun-blaze sweet
citrus of summertime. Opulent,
round Christmas stocking gift. Like pregnant
bellies. A baby with a pacifier blossoms
from white lace. This nectar, distilled
into its essence, will purify sin. So many
foolish decisions collect in litany.
I need atonement. Praise be this beatitude, this
answer to orisons. Nothing
but a citron benediction. Titian rind,
once removed, becomes amen.
I chose to start with the word "orange," because of its reputation as a nonstarter when it comes to poems (hence the title). I brainstormed into my Sony Digital Voice Recorder while walking my dog, then later posed a question via my Facebook status, asking people to tell me what they thought of when they thought of an orange. Then, taking my own words and their associations, I spent a little time harvesting words at Thesaurus.com. Finally, I worked these associations into a poem. Many years ago, I often used to sit down with a thesaurus before writing a poem, generating a list of words and then using them. Maybe I'll do that more often.
Moral:
Even an orange can spark a poem, as long as you don't want it to rhyme.
