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Exercises EXERCISE 1: (You say) Write about how it feels to be a weeping willow tree in winter, or the whole park in winter. Example--Naked, my hair trails against the ground, thin and brittle, not lush like in the Spring. My Spring tears of joy are gone, replaced by tears of anguish that freeze on my face, my hands, the tips of my fingers. I look around me at this empty park. All my sister trees stand naked, abandoned like women in concentration camps. Does anyone remember us in this lonely gray landscape? EXERCISE 2: (You say) Write about a color in a way that describes the color for a blind person. (Write for 10 minutes) Blue
Then show an easy rewrite that tightens the writing to have a nice, simple little list poem. Blue
EXERCISE 3: (You say) Write a list of colors, but not ordinary colors like red, yellow, blue. Go for the unusual that add dimension to color, such as, wheat, cranberry, eggplant, mustard. Write for five minutes and read them back. Example--My house nourishes me, in safety, in warmth. I decorate my house to feed my soul. The living room is wheat, the rug eggplant. The plants around the room are the color of greens, turnip, lettuce, spinach. The kitchen is the color of corn. I've painted the bedroom walls the color of water, of sky. EXERCISE 4: (You say) Students, close your eyes. Hold something under their noses to smell (like horseradish, Scotch, onion, Vicks, incense). This sense exercise brings up more memories than any other. Example--Horseradish. I put horseradish on roast beef, on fishlets. Horseradish reminds me of bitter herbs on Passover. I don't eat spices, but I do heap on lots of horseradish, or the equivalent, Wasabe, the green horseradishy taste one puts on sushi. I make my Wasabe so intense that sometimes my tongue is so on fire, I hang it in my glass of icewater like a dog. I also mix horseradish with catsup to make a kind of sauce for shrimp. I never talked much about being Jewish. In college my friends were mostly Catholic or had at least gone to Catholic girl's schools. I was paranoid, paranoid to be singled out and tortured. My difference scared me. I tried to blend in, to be invisible. EXERCISE 5: (You say) Close your eyes. Have them feel a texture wet noodles, sandpaper, fur, corduroy, ice, an egg. Example--In high school I played field hockey, and sophomore year GAC, the Girl's Athletic Club, invited me to join. Of course, there was an initiation. The old members took us out to some cabin in the middle of nowhere, blindfolded us, and tested our endurance. They made us stick our hands into containers of slimy wet cold noodles covered in Vaseline, I guess to make us think of worms. I didn't react. Maybe growing up with an older brother who pretended to be a monster called The Hand, and watching all the old horror movies, I did not react to their game. Then they took us outside, still blind folded, and led us somewhere. Blindfolded, they sent us to find our way back to the cabin. What we didn't know was that one of the members watched each initiate to make sure nothing bad happened. The problem was that someone must have counted wrong or lost track of Debbie. With her blindfold, she walked into a telephone pole and knocked herself out. EXERCISE 6: (You say) Close your eyes. Have them taste something pudding, lemon, raisin - make it safe. Make sure no one is allergic to anything. Example--(I place a piece of bread in my mouth.) I remember as a kid making bread sandwiches with white Wonder bread, helps build strong bodies in 12 essential ways. I'd take 2 slices of bread and put a third one in the middle. Another thing I liked to do with the Wonder Bread was make bread balls by tearing the crust off the bread, eating that, and rolling the rest of the piece into a solid ball of dough with my, I'm sure dirty, hands. Sometimes it stuck to the roof of my mouth. I eat much heartier breads now, wheat and rye and nine grain, which must mean I'm doing better financially than some and don't have to buy the cheapest bread. EXERCISE 7: (You say) I'm going to give you a first line or phrase, then you write two more lines, the first two lines that come into your minds. Do not worry about the new lines making sense or being connected to the first line. Example--
or
Next, you can have students drop the first line and make a two-line, haiku-type poem from the other two, such as:
or
and
or
Interesting things happen and these exercises are fun. EXERCISE 8: Riddle (You say) Write a riddle about an ordinary, everyday object. Example--Okay, choose a chair. It has arms, legs, a back, a seat. Those are the basics. Now impose the restriction of personification, and choose to make it female, object as woman, personification. Make every word count; make it tight.
Make it a riddle by not naming the object, rather by giving clues. The poem works as either a separate poem with no answer, suggestions of a type of woman, or as a riddle, a chair. The best of riddles works both ways. EXERCISE 9: (You say) Write on the word 'refrigerator' for fifteen minutes. The point is not to stay on the subject, but to see what associations come up in the first draft. It's more important to fill the page with writing than to confine students to topic. Example--The camera average, the lighting terrible, I might look like I'm standing like a crucifix in front of an angelic white backdrop, or even my back to the camera, an artist's interpretation of meaning in the crucifix. In reality, I'm hugging the ice box, huge white burly abominable snowman of an ice box, his round bear shoulders hulking and hunching over me. His arms hang by his sides, shy Frankenstein of the ice box genre, old dinosaur with fold-down vegetable tray that closed like a Murphy bed into the door. The freezer lived below, opened with a kick pedal that green baskets rolled out on. Daily, like a surgeon, I faced the arctic buildup with surgical instruments of blow dryer and screw driver, melted and chipped away at the glacier. Yes, he was flawed, much older than me and someone I hesitated taking home to meet mother. He wheezed and sputtered in emphasemic trembles, and yet he was my sentinel, my guardian, the monster who waited for me at home. (This was a first writing, a first draft) (This is a final draft, the poem that came from many rewrites of the original writing) Ice Box
EXERCISE 10: (You say) Write on the topic school. Example--When I think of high school, I remember that girl who was so wealthy, she never wore the same dress to school twice. She handed them up to her mother when she finished with them. She had the same name as a male pop singer who was famous then, in the mid-60's. I hated wearing dresses. School was like a fashion show, and I wanted no part. I wanted no part of the dating, mating ritual either. Except for English, or Language Arts, nothing really had anything to do with my life. I take that back; I loved Drama classes, tolerated gym, but hated getting sweaty during the day and having to change clothes, to shower in front of all those girls. I still hate that, when I swim laps at the YMCA. EXERCISE 11: (You say) Write from the point of view of the lawyer suing on behalf of Humpty Dumpty's family. Example--On behalf of my client, I plan to prove to the jury, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Humpty Dumpty's numerous injuries, cracks, fissures, and the like, were caused by several factors outside of the power of Humpty Dumpty, heretofore referred to as H.D., and thus were unavoidable. We are suing for medical bills, rehabilitation, loss of time at work, and punitive damages in the amount of $30,000,000. We bring this suit specifically against The Kingdom and all its subsidiaries, particularly, all The King's Horses and all The King's Men, as well as, but not limited to, the carpenters who con structed the wall from which H.D. fell. EXERCISE 12: (You say) Write an essay on the death penalty, pro or con or neutral. Support your position. EXERCISE 13: (You say) Write about an imaginary older brother or sister, or younger one, but make it fictional, what you want that sibling to be like. Example--I wanted Annette Funicello to be my sister. She was pretty, but not beautiful. She was sweet, kind, everyone liked her and I knew she'd be nice to me. I wanted her to be my older sister, because I didn't have one and always felt as I was doing something wrong because I was such a tomboy. EXERCISE 14: (You say) If you were an animal, real, imaginary or combination, what would you be? Use all your senses and be very descrip tive, showing, not telling. Example--I soar high above the earth on wings that span two football fields. My eyes see mosquitoes seven miles away. I land on water light as a snowflake, or break through ice like an explosion. Quiet as a whisper or loud as a tornado, I sing or roar. EXERCISE 15: (You say) If you were music, a song, an instrument, a genre of music, what would you be? Example--You hear my voice in the strumming of six strings, three voices intertwining in harmony. I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see. Grace. Amazing. EXERCISE 16: (You say) Write on the topic lunch: eating it, fixing it for yourself, for kids, whatever. Example--I don't usually eat lunch, a midday meal. If I worked a 9 to 5 schedule, I might, but my schedule is sporadic, changing daily, sometimes staying up very late and arising late, or teaching midday and again in the evening. When I do that, I usually eat breakfast, then teach, then eat again at 4ish or 5ish. Then I won't even eat a real dinner, but just fix a snack, popcorn, pretzels, if I need it. Since I don't have kids, I can eat when I'm hungry. If I was a mother, it would be a completely different story. I feel it would be best for my daughter to have a routine she can count on, a regular breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time, bed time, with room for some flexibility, like summer vacation. I try to eat healthy, so I would want the same for my kids; fruits, vegetables, healthy breads, pastas. |