Thursday, September 12, 2013

New ideas or new words

Yesterday , while on twitter I read this tweet by Coyote :

If you want to figure out why someone writes better, try seeing how they write differently, how they use words differently.

 Immediately I was reminded of a discussion between me and my close friend some days back. We were returning from another poetry meet and reflecting upon the poems we heard when he commented that most of the poems , though appeal to heart and mind , are basically plotted on love , feelings , nature . Rarely do we see some one writing very differently on the same topic or writing on a unique topic.

Later that night I logged on to my blog and read the poems on the front page. And then skipping few pages each time , I read about 10 posts in last one year and indeed i could see a pattern. When read together , only a few poems stand out. Some times it were the way words were linked or other times it was the unique title that prompted a whole new direction of thought.

If I talk about myself , I found that trying to write one post for multiple prompts usually result in an amusing mix.

Sample this post which was an idea based on the image , the word transition and a prompt - "what is the rest of the story" :

The only name he smiled at,
the only eyes he looked for,
the very smile to flatter him,
the only girl he wished to live for -
today she remains in heart and mind,
a memory of a long-lost time.
From everything to some one special,
the transition happened without cause;
the face was never captured in photo,
it was meant to stay as a muse unknown.




Another poetry tool that usually resulted in a different sort of poem is using a wordle. Sunday Whirl is the weekly wordle prompt site and trust me , it is so much fun trying to use as many words as possible in a single poem.

A sample wordle from the blog :



As I finish this post , I realize that the idea is to write something and then try to make it appear different or unique to your own eyes and ears .

Work on a set of ideas and try to eliminate all ideas that you think you wrote about before or have read recently. hopefully a new thought , a new verse will take shape in your mind and on paper too .

~ Nimue



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