Something Fun

I thought I'd occasionally share some writing games here.  ("Games" sounds a lot more fun than "exercises," don't you think?) Sometimes these games lead to poems or essays or stories, but a lot of the time they spark the imagination and wake up the ear to some new music.

Here's one that's good if you can write one interesting sentence, or one boring sentence with some interesting words or pictures in it.  Basically you write a sentence, and in the next line you repeat at least one word from that sentence, and then in each line after that you repeat the same word and/or another word from the first sentence, so that every line contains at least one word from the first sentence.  I find that I often discover hidden meanings and potentials in the repeated words, and sometimes I learn something about life, the universe, and everything.  

I'll give you a few sentences to start with, though of course you can write your own.  1. My mother begins to weep. 2. I used to dream about water.  3. A spider never stops weaving. 4. We didn't understand yesterday.  You can see there is nothing special about those sentences, except they have at least one concrete noun in them.  That helps I think.  If you use this game and end up with some kind of something, send it to me.  I'd love to read it, and with your permission, share it here.

Here's something I wrote using this method.  I don't know if I'd call it a poem, but I learned something about doorways.

 Just Now

You are standing in a doorway.

Where you are standing

is a doorway. You are standing

because you are not moving

in or out or through.  But standing

is a kind of moving if everything

else is moving, and everything

is moving which is why

what you are doing is standing, just

for a moment and where you are doing it

is a doorway – a doorway

neither here nor there - a doorway

neither in nor out - a doorway

that opens to more doorways,

that open  to more doorways

and doorway doorway doorway

which is why you are standing in a doorway.