I’ve been wanting to try a blackout poem for quite some time. And then I found this falling apart, old copy of Pippi Longstocking and decided to give it a try. The thinking and imagining is quite different when one is removing words instead of adding them. It’s a fun challenge!
On Day 29 of Storystorm (https://taralazar.com/2021/01/29/storystorm-2021-day-29/), Amanda Davis shares a fun way to get your creative juices flowing. In the post “Amanda Davis Keeps Creative Juices Flowing with Haiku from Two,” she tells how she started a process of using two books she is currently reading, choosing one word from each, and then creating a haiku from those two words. The resulting haiku sometimes leads to new writing projects.
How fun! I love writing haiku, though I usually pair it with one of my photos. I was immediately on board with trying this creative idea. Thanks, Amanda (https://www.instagram.com/amandadavis_art/)!
First word: solitude
Book: The Powerful Purpose of Introverts, Why the World Needs YOU to BE YOU by Holley Gerth (Revell, 2020)
Second word: moonlight
Book: Lemonade Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word by Bob Raczka (Roaring Book Press, 2011)
What a fun creative writing exercise! Let me know if you decide to try this one. I’d love to read your haiku!
This haiku is inspired by my next-door-pasture mates. Three geldings, only 2 of whom I know names. So I lump them as dark, milk, and white chocolates. My 3 chocolates. Dark is in charge. Dark and milk are highest on the horse pecking order. White comes in last, as youngest and newest to the herd of boys and is always thrust away from attention by flattened ears and threatening postures. He of the white chocolate is the most friendly and curious. He’s always up for hanging out over the fence for a chat and a scratch.
I love them all, my chocolates.
P.S. Not really MY chocolates. A girl can dream…
Who lives in your next door pasture? I’d love to read a haiku about your neighbors. Or you can just tell who lives next door. No haiku required! Do they make you think of chocolate?
Everybody loves Hump Day – Wednesday! Otherwise known as half the week is gone, we’re over the hump, and we’re so close to the weekend we can taste it.
If you enjoy Haiku, join in by sharing a Happy Hump Day Haiku.
How many of you read for pleasure? (“Me, me!” she shouts while waving her hand crazily in the air.)
A paper book? An e-reader story? A tale that lets you escape to a new land, new people, new problems? (Yes, please!)
Oh, the books we can read! Too many books, not enough time, right?
Consider this poem I wrote for a course:
This pleasure,
While reading,
Gives me a poetic mind.
Gobbled, devoured,
Digested words and tale.
Spit out to be
Read again.
Again.
And again.
Dissected, applied to life,
Reassembled with
New understanding.
Reading for pleasure;
A necessity as is
Air, water, food.
I pick up again
The feast of words
To consume the story
Each book tells.
Tell me, tell me please!
What book are you reading right now? What’s your favorite book? What chores have you neglected to read just. one. more. page? (…dishes, laundry, vacuuming, dusting)
I’d love to hear the tale of the words that let you escape.