Free Association Writing Prompts (#2)

Introduction

Free-association writing exercises allow your mind to "unleash," making the exercises  super valuable in writing practice.   “It gives me surprising new containers for my obsessions,” is why poet Kemi Alabi continues to employ them in their own practice.  Alabi's free association poem "Voice Clear As"  is featured below.

If you like free association exercises, see our first installment Random & Free Association Poetry Prompts (1)   In fact all of March 2021 writing challenges are eclectic, rigorous, and unique, tapping all the senses.  

Writing Warm-Up #1

1.  Conjure a list of abstract constructs like peace of mind, death, freedom, etc.  PoetryBones group came up with: eternity, rebellion, serenity, time, surrender, anger, regret, pleasure, mystery, silence, contentment, discomfort, space, individuality . . . to name a few.
2. Write a letter-poem to one of the abstract constructs you conjured.  For now start your poem “Dear _____,”  Write for 10 minutes.
3. Lastly, if it seems appropriate or needful, take two minutes to write "what I really want to say is . . ."

First Mentor Poem

Dear Death 
KATHLEEN MCGOOKEY
 
can't you see we're busy riding bikes in the sun? Later we'll cut out
paper hearts and sprinkle them with glitter. I have had enough of
you. I'd rather learn facts about penguins: what they eat, how much
they weigh, how they stay warm in the Antarctic. Some are called
Emperor. Some, Rockhopper. First-graders with gap-toothed smiles
hold out the class guinea pig for me to pet. Let's pretend you forget
all about us.
 
Source: Originally published in Heart in a Jar, Buffalo, NY: White Pine Press, 2017

Second Mentor Poem

Voice Clear As
KEMI ALABI                                                            
 
When my mom discovers heaven’s just a noise festival

the godchoir of all her loves breathing
unsnagged by asthma or Newport-dragged lung

the true song life makes untethered from a body
tugged at last from the men who hold its reins

will she blame her pastors (like I did)
for Sunday portraits of pooled white gold?

Will she miss the wooden flute of her body
mourn the days corner-propped, cloaked in dust

too pious to disturb a room’s skin cells
and stray hair with her sound

snapped awake at the nightmare of a slip fringe
the private note sung aloud?

Or, unburdened by hell

​will she exhale
and hear the bells?
 
Source: poets.org.  Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 16, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

Writing Prompt #2

Click on the random word generator link, and you’ll get eight words (nouns and verbs).  Choose THREE that immediately jump out at you.  Start to write.  Consider how the random words can give “surprising new containers” for your current obsessions.
 

Writing Prompt #3

• ​Use the name of a candle fragrance to inspire you next poem.  For example: Grapefruit Fizz, A Calm & Quiet Place (from Writer’s Digest weekly writing challenge).
  
• No candles near you? Try some of my candle names: Summit Rising, Moonlight Island, Salt, Neroli Petals, French Vanilla and Bourbon, Lemonade Stand, and Virgin of Guadalupe (I happen to appreciate Mexican votive candles from my home town grocery.  And BTW, it’s rose scented.)

If free-association and random challenges help you break through writer's block, visit our Random & Free Association Poetry Prompts #1 !