Tuesday, January 31, 2017
ACTIVITY: Write about Dining
dining
and more about place
where to go
which time of day
how the table settings should be arranged
what to wear
who to eat with if not alone
and often we are
unaccompanied
in a cafeteria
or a kitchen
complementing the various
courses of a meal
scratching the tableware
with our flatware
in the musicless silence
Unfinished poem about dining
In
the beginning there was soup
And
it turned into a poem
This
is how it goes
First
things first
We
quench our daily thirst
With
whatever makes us merry:
Ice
cubes, bubbles and a juniper berry
Then
we talk but not quite yet
The
table is already set
And words
may finally start flowing
He is
talking to her
And,
yes, she is glowing
But other
guests not so much
Too
far, too scared to touch
Each
other’s minds or souls or hearts
So
small talk only, the weather and prices
And
now dinner is served and starts
With
soup and salt and maybe some spices
Bread
and butter(fly) goes around it like flies
And
everyone smiles and tries to be nice.
Unfinished
due to poetic confusion and exhaustion
The Jolly Roger
by Malcolm
We were young
and they were old
around the table.
There was no spoon
in the mashed potatoes;
bratty cousin scooped them
in his hand.
The maid was in tears.
I wanted to splash
in the finger bowls.
Someone brought the roasted bird
to the table
and Granddad said:
“He’s your Jolly Roger!”
thinking we’d cheer
at the mean rooster
now plucked dead before us all.
Just Saturday he chased us
around the yard
and we ran, dazzled by silly rooster fear.
We sat silent;
none of us ate any of him.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
ACTIVITY: Imitation
This week, write a poem using "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens as your model. Write about thirteen ways of looking at something else...
13 Ways Looking at Death!
1
Among the dark sky
The only moving thing
Was the flow of the grey clouds.
2
A cold shiver
Felt within the graves.
3
A new path
In a ghostly world
Unknown by human beings.
4
Is it a dream?
Covered by the black light
Feeling hopeless.
5
Waking up
Finding yourself in eternity
A path you created.
6
Being in a tug of war
Angel vs Evil
Where will you go?
7
Fading away
In the depth of the Earth.
8
In pace requiescat
Is it really peaceful?
9
The unidentified creation
Full of fears
Full of fears
No one will help
You are all alone
10
The next life
Full of happiness
Living in paradise
That's if you were good
11
The burning flames
Full of horror
Misery in hell
Don't break the laws.
12
An adventure
Curiosity fills your mind
But back off
It's deadly.
13
Your heart beating
then suddenly
Black.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Poem
I
All I can see
Sentences changing
To poems
II
I was shocked
Like a breathless fish
The poems are there
III
The poems are everywhere
They flow in the books
IV
A word is a poem
A poem is a word
Both of them are the same
V
I do not know the difference
The function of the words
Poems are dancing and flying
VI
They are mysterious
They have shapes
You can see the difference
They are pure
They are poems
VII
Why do you read books?
Isn't it true you see poems.
can't you imagine the words talking
expressing feelings of a person
VIII
I read the books
I see the sentences
All I observe are the poems
That keep coming into my mind
IX
The poems talk
They have feelings
They tell stories
X
Flying in darkness
Crying of pain
Express your feeling
Let it out into a poem
XI
Is it easy to write a poem?
Yes, just take a pen and a paper
Flow your feelings in
Let people feel you
Let the world know about you
XII
The poems know you
You know the poems
XIII
It was evening all afternoon
It was sunny all afternoon
I was writing poems
Making everyone listen to me
Poems listened to me
I listened to poems
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Table
Thirteen Ways of
Looking at a Table
I.
Underneath hills of
potatoes
And rivers of green
pea soup
Ran the blade of the
table.
II.
She was unsure if the
plain white cloth that covered it
Suited the feast on
the table
And matched the horror
and the glory of the occasion.
III.
The table grew between
them
Stretching into an
all-night wordless gluttony
IV.
They sat in fragrant
silence
A man and a woman
Waiting to be one
At the table laden
with unspoken words
V.
She did not know what
to offer him next
A sublime conversation
about Platonic shadows
Or the raillery of
juicy innuendoes
The table groaning
Under yet another
platter.
VI.
Rain knocked on the
window
Ever so gently
The table didn’t let
it in
But turned on them
instead
They suddenly felt
softer and lighter
As if they had never
eaten.
VII.
O fat people of the
city,
Why do you dream of
golden plates and silver spoons?
Why can you not see
that the table
Is all
You need?
VIII.
I know the delicate
flow of gourmet hors d'oeuvres
On clinquant trays
But I know, too,
That the table is
involved
In what I know.
IX.
When the food was
cleared away
The table stood in its
rectangular beauty
Without expectations.
X.
Wine stains and
breadcrumbs on the white tablecloth
Were the only memories
Of the first supper.
She dropped a knife.
XI.
They were still full
after dessert,
But getting hungry
again.
Since they ate their
words on an empty stomach,
Impatience and fear of
the unknown spilled like coffee
All over the table.
XII.
The table was no
longer between them
They wiped it dry from
tears.
XIII.
It was evening all
night
It never rained
The rising sun made
dust dance on the table
They ate and ate
All the words unheard,
unsaid, untasted.
13 Ways of Looking at a Map
I
What is one mountain
Or another
On a map?
II
I was lost
Like someone who does not
Know how to read a map.
III
The map was forgotten in the glove compartment of the car.
No one wanted a paper map anymore.
IV
A driver and a backseat driver
Are one.
A driver and a backseat driver and a map
Are fighting.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of longitude
Or the beauty of latitude,
The map unfolded
Or just before.
VI
The floor of the car was littered
With trash and candy wrappers.
Coffee stained the torn map
An ugly brown blur.
The name of the town
No longer legible.
VII
O corpulent men of GPS,
Why do you look for a golden app?
Do you not see how the map
Shows the way
To the women in the compass rose?
VIII
I know the legends
And the distances between two points;
But I know, too,
That the map is a record
Of all I know.
IX
After locating myself on the map,
A crease in the landscape
Obscured my destination in another state.
X
At the sight of a map,
Spread on a table beneath a yellow bulb,
Even the geeks of cyberspace
Gape in blind silence.
XI
She walked across a stony beach
Slipping this way and that on the uneven surface.
Once, a fear pierced her,
In that she mistook
The pattern on a wet stone
For a map.
XII
The ocean is roaring.
The map must be orienting.
XII
It was all beginning and ending.
It was hidden
And it was going to hide.
The map folded
On the floor of the car.
What is one mountain
Or another
On a map?
II
I was lost
Like someone who does not
Know how to read a map.
III
The map was forgotten in the glove compartment of the car.
No one wanted a paper map anymore.
IV
A driver and a backseat driver
Are one.
A driver and a backseat driver and a map
Are fighting.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of longitude
Or the beauty of latitude,
The map unfolded
Or just before.
VI
The floor of the car was littered
With trash and candy wrappers.
Coffee stained the torn map
An ugly brown blur.
The name of the town
No longer legible.
VII
O corpulent men of GPS,
Why do you look for a golden app?
Do you not see how the map
Shows the way
To the women in the compass rose?
VIII
I know the legends
And the distances between two points;
But I know, too,
That the map is a record
Of all I know.
IX
After locating myself on the map,
A crease in the landscape
Obscured my destination in another state.
X
At the sight of a map,
Spread on a table beneath a yellow bulb,
Even the geeks of cyberspace
Gape in blind silence.
XI
She walked across a stony beach
Slipping this way and that on the uneven surface.
Once, a fear pierced her,
In that she mistook
The pattern on a wet stone
For a map.
XII
The ocean is roaring.
The map must be orienting.
XII
It was all beginning and ending.
It was hidden
And it was going to hide.
The map folded
On the floor of the car.
Friday, January 20, 2017
FAILURE
Someone who feels that she will neverbe successful in her life.
Someone who is always negative and
does not trusts herself nor someone else.
Is she the way that she's thinking?
Even though she feels like she's in a good stage of her life!?
Is it because of the people that she trusts then they leave her?
Or
Because of her, judging people and not giving them a chance to prove themselves?
She's feeling lonely,
She's nothing compare to others,
That's what she thinks,
She's ME!
I am a Failure.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Wonderful World
Passing through horrible time
Struggling beautifully...
Fighting in the pouring rain
Waiting for a ray of sunlight to come out between the dark grey clouds
Waiting for the sun to rise
Just so another dark night befalls
Yet why do we love to struggle?
Is it because we're masochist?
No...
It's because we recall all those warm memories...
And we don't wanna lose them
This's a truly wonderful world filled with suffering
Struggling beautifully...
Fighting in the pouring rain
Waiting for a ray of sunlight to come out between the dark grey clouds
Waiting for the sun to rise
Just so another dark night befalls
Yet why do we love to struggle?
Is it because we're masochist?
No...
It's because we recall all those warm memories...
And we don't wanna lose them
This's a truly wonderful world filled with suffering
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
ACTIVITY: Create a Star Field
This week's creative writing club activity was taken from an exercise developed by Christian Bök called Impromptu #16, which was hosted by The Found Poetry Review during a National Poetry Month activity last year, and which instructed us about how to create a field of stars based on a found text.
While Bök's exercise suggested using source material from an antiquarian astronomy text, in the interest of time (club members only meet for one hour each week), we used material from Astronomy Books Online. Follow the link above if you want to read more about how the star fields were made or just look at the amazing creations that follow! Don't you wish you were part of it?
The Universe in a Helium Droplet
 |
| Source material taken from The Universe in a Helium Droplet by Grigory E. Volovik. |
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
ACTIVITY: Write about the New Year
ABP creative writers gathered this week to write about the new year. Did you make a resolution? How long could you keep it?
new year resolutions
i promise to promise more and break
my promises
and put myself back together
when i'm broken
and eat well when i can
with people i like
and i like people and i want
to like more of them and then
we can be friends
or this that and the other
a brother or sister
my promises
and put myself back together
when i'm broken
and eat well when i can
with people i like
and i like people and i want
to like more of them and then
we can be friends
or this that and the other
a brother or sister
i won't!
slow down
really slow down
let everything sink
into the calm
of paint
as it spreads and blends
on a silk scarf
that i won't tie around my neck.
i could tie it
on the handle of my purse
but them again,
i won't.
i'll fold it
carefully
place it in the trunk
of colorful resolutions.
really slow down
let everything sink
into the calm
of paint
as it spreads and blends
on a silk scarf
that i won't tie around my neck.
i could tie it
on the handle of my purse
but them again,
i won't.
i'll fold it
carefully
place it in the trunk
of colorful resolutions.