Poetry Exercise no.1 - Time

  • Melpomene
    8 years ago

    Most people will agree that one of the best ways to improve poetry is to write regularly. A few years ago a lecturer of mine suggested that if I allowed myself to write quickly and without much thought, I would be able to explore my poetry on a different level.

    As this forum is all about improving poetry I thought it might be fun for us to complete a variety of different poetry writing exercises that explore these two ideas. So without further ado, here is your first exercise:

    -- Write a poem in under 5 minutes. Time yourself and post it in this thread. Feel free to share as many 5 minute poems as you like don't worry if you feel like they're unfinished.

  • GB
    8 years ago

    I think I agree with many thoughts here, a regular writing is a good way to improve our poetry.

    Here is an instant poem and I hope the others find the way to this thread, very exciting, thank you for posting this.

    Back and forth,
    Insomnia
    of his own creation,
    haunting her dreams,

    sometimes evoking
    many times provoking.

    He is the man
    of absence,
    of closeness,
    of desertion,

    a suicidal moon
    inflaming for hours
    but
    never lasting.

  • Everlasting
    8 years ago

    Nice thread!

    The Shame, the shame!
    Why is always the same?
    It comes then goes
    Like a boomerang of blues
    It hits one right in the head
    As the moon surveils the night
    And trees tremble with our tears
    Then one sobs, one cries,
    But steps echo in our hearts
    As curled up in a ball
    We hear ourselves crying
    The shame, the shame out
    But we still remain prisoners
    Visited by this shame sometimes.

    July 21, 2015

    ----------

    July 22, 2015 - 8:26 am - 8:31 am,

    come to me like a star at night,
    illuminate my skies.

    There's a hill ahead of time,
    that many climb to see life,
    but as they climb their way up,
    many tumble down and fall,
    and some do rise
    just like the sun does.

    I wish to be the dew in the grass,
    atop the mountain,
    waiting as it dawns on me
    our nature that we can't see
    from the lower ground

  • Poet on the Piano
    8 years ago

    That's a poignant point the lecturer made, Mel. I've heard of similar exercises. Letting the mind, soul, be free. Relaxed. If that can help one's writing and expression.

    12:04 AM- 12:08 AM

    Will I ever know why I dream strictly of you?
    Is that God's intentions, to confuse the parts of me
    that keep a distance from you, from your tendencies
    to play the organ loudly and may I say obnoxiously
    when bodies fill our Church but nobody listens.

    I want you not to fill my lonely spaces, but to sing
    with me, learn with me as we travel the loose roads
    the Apostles preached on. We're merely travelers
    in this life, under care, but not for each other.
    I know that, but I'm still writing this aren't I?
    We make too much sense together, too many similar
    desires of the soul and maybe that's where we don't
    belong, why we shouldn't be unified. Because the
    truth still stands in ink. In fresh ink. Much more
    permanent than the faded half and whole notes in
    our hymnals. If I love, I want you to want to choose it
    everyday. Not for it to be riddled with. Or misspoken of.

    I want the love of you and by you to be real. Even if it means that it won't grace me in this universe.

  • Everlasting
    8 years ago

    6:19 am - 6 -34 am

    your nightmare became the sheets
    that no longer warmed your nights
    And soon, the bed in which you slept
    became the dream of your days.
    But sadly, your eyes remained open
    to the reality that insomnia was real.

  • Larry Chamberlin
    8 years ago

    Animal Nightmares

    I used to watch my golden
    run in his sleep, growling
    and whining in turn
    as the path of his dreams
    took him from the chase
    to the fight.

    I never expected to see
    the same behavior
    in my pet snake
    but it writhes in pain
    eyes closed
    then they pop open.

    What scares a snake?
    Perhaps a dog chasing.

    EDIT: Jessica has informed me snakes don't have eyelids. [I checked it out. She's right. Damn]

  • Everlasting
    8 years ago

    4:04 pm - 4-10

    The frog then jumped and croaked
    As birds then flew across the sky
    I watched behind a post
    I watched how grasses shook madly
    I watched across the yard
    I watched the mower eat the grass

  • GB
    8 years ago

    A ballerina
    swirling around the wind

    dreaming.

  • Larry Chamberlin
    8 years ago

    Sadly I must leave and dare
    my duties take me elsewhere;
    other people more maligned
    claim my time and my mind;
    however much I wish to stay
    this day has come to go away.

  • GB
    8 years ago

    Sorrow,
    on the edge of life

    watches me.

  • Everlasting
    8 years ago

    Open your mind
    As if your mind was a never ending book,
    And see how
    From page to page, and day by day,
    Your mind streams ideas
    From different perspectives.

  • Melpomene
    8 years ago

    It has been really great reading all of your responses to last weeks poetry prompt. It's definitely interesting to see how each individuals poem lengths varied. I've been struggling to write and all I could come up with were a couple of lines at a time. I'll post these when I get home and on my desktop.

    For those of you who participated in this exercise, did you find it difficult to write with only five minutes? Were you feeling stuck or were you able to let go completely and let your mind take you where ever it wanted to?

  • Alex
    8 years ago

    4.38pm
    silence.

    All throughout the day,
    thoughts are jumping in,
    jumping out.
    I seem to never be free,
    fully free of,
    my thoughts.

    So then why,
    when I want to talk,
    nothing comes out?
    My mind is blank,
    but its been racing all day?

    Sometimes i cant hear
    myself THINK.
    yet now,
    I sit in silence.

    Silence silence.

    But I know,
    for a fact,
    in 30 seconds or less.
    My mind will have erupted
    just like,
    a volcano.

    4.43pm...

  • GB
    8 years ago

    Did you find it difficult to write with only five minutes?

    No.

    Were you feeling stuck or were you able to let go completely and let your mind take you where ever it wanted to?

    It was spontaneous writing, without much consideration.

  • bequi
    8 years ago

    I was trying to come up with a poem
    but im not home
    i blink, i crink and blink again
    and then i ask my self, wtf is going on

    i cant come up with a good poem
    so let me postpone
    this writing i dont get
    let me forget and move on

    July 28 2015
    8:17 - 8:23

  • Larry Chamberlin
    8 years ago

    I found it easy, actually, I just took the first line of thought that went anywhere interesting

  • Stephanie Stoneman replied to Melpomene
    6 years ago

    Here in the icy cold wind,
    A breeze unfathomable to him
    He's tucked up warm and cosy:
    Belittling his mind with technology and greed
    Speed and monstrosity.
    I however: sit here in the gale, feeling the stressful touch of iced chills, chilblains and what depression I have energy to remain.

  • Milly Hayward
    6 years ago, updated 6 years ago

    My grandma is as fruity as a cake
    leaves disaster in her wake
    dresses in a way thats wierd
    in the market she is feared

    Her temper is like a rage
    you really dont want to engage
    smokes roll ups containing sage
    affordable on her minimum wage

    She wobbles on her pink high heels
    and goes to the shops to do some deals
    takes strange men for stranger meals
    just so she can ride in his hot wheels

    Not like anyone who's her peer
    she never shows any sign of fear
    If she changed we'd shed a tear
    we love our outrageous Granny dear.

  • Milly Hayward
    6 years ago

    That was actually a bit stressful trying to churn something out in only five minutes and it make some sort of sense. Milly x

  • mossgirl19 replied to Milly Hayward
    6 years ago

    This is sweet and fun, Milly. Your grandma rocks.

  • Darren
    5 years ago

    I actually write most of my poems this way.

    sometimes I will re-read and edit but this is rare.

    This is the best way to write as it is pure instinct

    unless it's a form of course.