Writing Prompts: Knowing & Imagining (1)

Image: ColossalBean

First Mentor Poem

When we don't have direct experience to guide us, we have imagination as a bridge to the knowledge.  In the first poem, Susan Mitchell poetically imagines what she can't know first hand about the dead, mixing the ordinary with the fantastic.

​The Dead  
BY SUSAN MITCHELL

At night the dead come down to the river to drink.
They unburden themselves of their fears,
their worries for us. They take out the old photographs.
They pat the lines in our hands and tell our futures,
which are cracked and yellow.
Some dead find their way to our houses.
They go up to the attics.
They read the letters they sent us, insatiable
for signs of their love.
They tell each other stories.
They make so much noise
they wake us
as they did when we were children and they stayed up
drinking all night in the kitchen.

Writing Prompt #1:

Write a poem wherein you imagine the details of the things you don’t have direct experience of.  Robert Frost said, “no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”

Second Mentor Poem

Poetic Image is not just visual but an activation of any of the five senses.

How Would You Live Then?
BY MARY OLIVER
 
What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks
     flew in circles around your head? What if
the mockingbird came into the house with you and
     became your advisor? What if
the bees filled your walls with honey and all
     you needed to do was ask them and they would fill
the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just
     past your bedroom window so you could listen
to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if
     the stars began to shout their names, or to run
this way and that way above the clouds? What if
     you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves
began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang
     from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw
that the silver of water was brighter than the silver 
     of money? What if you finally saw
that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day
     and every day – who knows how, but they do it – were
more precious, more meaningful than gold?

Source: https://workthoughts.com/2019/09/06/the-friday-poem-
how-would-you-live-then-by-mary-oliver/
 

Writing Prompt #2

Take one image from Oliver’s poem (or your own first one) and write a page (poem) about it, not limiting yourself to what you see and hear and smell directly anymore, but allowing the sensory input to spark other thoughts, memories, images, story, and emotional weight. Use your poetic imagination to bridge any gaps.
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 OR Write a poem answering Oliver’s question, “What would you do if . . .?”
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Something Extra

​See Regine Verougstraete's pomegranate flowers image in the PoetryBones banner!
Share a few of your poetically imagined lines in the comments section.
Tell me about the poems you read today.
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