Hey,
Was I pleased to find alliteration with Friday and fragments? Oh yes I was. So easily pleased.
And what of this week’s writing prompt. Was it pleasing? Somewhat. The image is of me sat with my fragments ready to get snipping and scribbling. I didn’t give myself a theme or topic. I just cut myself out some slips of paper and started collecting over the week. Lines which my children said. The way the clouds looked one evening. Light (always light). And that made me feel uneasy if I’m honest. All the time I battled with the narrative, “hmm but how will these fit together?” and, “this all feels too sprawling” and the worst, “what if everyone feels like this has been a total waste of their time?”
And yet one fragment was intriguing. I wrote a little more about that one. And I tried writing a couple out backwards and that was kinda weird. And then two ideas, two completely random thoughts actually came together to create something, dare I say it, vivid. The start of something perhaps? I tried to keep my children in mind and how they would have no problem whatsoever playing in this way. This was interesting to me. The unease I felt was curious.
I am sharing just one poem this week and it is by someone whose poetry I think can feel exceptionally playful and who begins his every day observing and writing poetry. Thank you to Katie who shared this podcast with Fearne Cotton speaking to Lemn Sissay. It’s well worth a listen.
Lemn Sissay’s most recent poetry book, Let the Light Pour In, is a book celebrating the morning practise of noticing. It’s made up of snippets. Charming, enlightening, the whole concept is wondering:
Ok, I want to know how you found our prompt this week?
How did you find the process? How did you approach the bringing back together (if indeed you did bring anything back together)? Manage to wangle any poetry? Find a place to play freely?
Nelly x
I didn’t really have a theme I just took phrases that stuck in my head over the week. Some song lyrics, some things I said, some things others said or wrote. I think a theme may have been easier. I did pick and choose what to use as star trek quotes didn’t quite fit anything. I will list them on my post on my substack so the process is more transparent.
What I ended up with (as well as two other poems inspired by a couple of the phrases) was
*
Found Fragments
-
I write from my heart
what happens in-between
morning teaseful feelings.
Become intellectually stagnant,
broken and of no use.
Living slowly to the
constant drumbeat of a world
that won’t see me
unless I open my eyes
and wend a weary wend to
write from my soul.
I chose to write fragments on mini post-it notes all week with no other plan except a trust that they would come together somehow. They became more like observations of things that were causing me distress or questions of fear. I considered a found poem and I may still do that but when I sat down with them the poem became a response to the fragments themselves.
.
Fragments feel fitting this week
with my self scattered
there not here
overwhelmed with questions
not of the curious kind
panic like a vice
I’m tightening
seriously, why do I do this?
there’s enough
pressing in
must I contribute
to my own misery?
still carrying the weight
of the whole world and all its inhabitants
as if the holding
will ease the load.
.
Step back
please
I need a little - or a lot
more space
and a basket
for collecting
all the pieces
I’ve left
there not here.