When I read this comment here by louderwords, I said very loudly: "Go outside."
Have some unmediated experience (or at least mediated only by a notebook).
Here's today's writing prompt:
Start walking.
Write down some of your sense perceptions: noise, smell, feel of the air, visuals, colours.
Add an emotion or two.
Add a memory.
Pick up something and throw it.
Whatever.
Write it down. Put the first 17 syllables into a haiku.
Put the rest into something else.
I'm going out now. I'll be back in a few hours with something.
Bye
Just did this during my lunch break. Here are my notes in the order they appear in my notebook, which isn't the same as they appeared in my head: Metallic bubbling of a truck Smooth tire revolutions Emergency sirens Tense, periodically nauseous Incense, charcoal, smoke Feeling tall and proper Defensive Baseball concession stands during brother's tourneys Swishing of a water fountain A complaining baby The struggle to open flimsy plastic wrapping Feel like I look more official than I am Eyes are sore from squinting Everything is too bright when I try to open them Feel stiff and stitched up Somewhat confident Urge to go to the top floor of a really tall building
I'm so glad you got out and wrote this. I don't know how you feel though. Is there some way you can get your eyes checked? It might have to be a priority. re the poem: it works for me, with the sudden memory of the concession stands. and we've all struggled with impossible plastic wrappings. I would add one thing. What do you think? Edit: Hi again, louderwords In a discussion of your poem, a reader said to me:
(otherwise it might sound like you want to jump off...
"and throw something" might be yourself, but ... oh I don't know.) Urge to go to the top floor of a really tall building
and throw something
Urge to go to the top floor of a really tall building
And throw up my arms to the sky.
lacing up outside
a seed floats by my racket
make it to the earth
Some of my observations from a walk in the park. Go Outside 1
2 On the road
a bright apple
too perfect to throw
a hungry person’s feast
3 "Le fond de l'air est frais,"
you say, quoting your French husband's
observation of fall weather.
"Under the warm air is coolness" - He means
Winter is coming.
4 Beneath the chestnut tree
street rubbed brown
chestnut leaves fall first
5 Niqab-wearing women push strollers
Behind their eyes, a Mogadishu of pain
6 Lying in the park
Stratus clouds above
Trees wavering.
You say,
“When the sky moves
It’s hard to tell what’s standing still.”
7 Two owls
A raccoon
A squirrel
Each with stuffed-animal eyes
Carved into a tree trunk.
8. Two runners
dog walkers
men with babies
Indian moms in rainbow saris
A man with a camera and his dreams
9 A Chinese couple pause,
Put down their groceries
And pull out badminton rackets, birdies.
Laughing as they hit
Volley after volley
Before heading home.
10 High, very high
Gulls swoop.
“Poetry is a bird,” you say.
“Prose is a dog
Snuffling along the path.”
Talking about our daughters
I say, “Your parents were careless –
They had no idea.
Not unlike ourselves.”
Beautiful. We all know this sensation, it's one of life's greatest imo."Le fond de l'air est frais,"
you say, quoting your French husband's
observation of fall weather.
"Under the warm air is coolness" - He means
Winter is coming.
A new can fresh and cutting only a slight buzz, I'm told to stop but I won't. A rythmic grinding over the album on repeat i should fix it but I won't, it's too quiet behind distractions to bother. The wind chills the stale air and amplifies the stale thoughts, call and ask, or don't because I won't. --Sorry I don't write often and it's not a haiku but it's all I've got right now.
Thank you. I was going for a feeling of distraction with the whole thing. Even the "grinding" was just a minor problem that I am trying to blow up to help drown the bigger and more pressing issues. Quiet isn't something I want right now. Great prompt that really got me thinking! (And thanks for pointing out the typo, it's now fixed)