Magnets attract and repel, they can be used to drive electric motors, they always have two parts which you can’t separate – two poles.
Use this concept in reference to some relationship issue. Try to avoid the obvious romantic connotations; maybe go for politics or teacher/pupil or something like that.
Talismen – a good luck charm or something containing guardian spirits. An object of power or a mental shield?
People from many cultures and times have carried them – how far back in our history does this go? Will it continue into our future or be wiped out in a digitally sterile existence?
Spend ten minutes writing down what you think – then summarise it, cutting out 50 % of the content (keep the original piece if you think it has merit or can be used for future writings!).
What you are left with after the word cull may well be usable for poetry.
Triangles are an interesting shape. They can make up structures such as monster teeth or be seen as three points that are joined in a complex array of relationships:
Day, night, twilight
The Holy Trinity
Good Luck etc…
What do the shapes suggest to you?
A triangle on it’s own may represent a mountain or tree, simple shapes can build to form beautiful designs such as mandalas. Spend some time contemplating the triangle – if you want to get funky try thinking of curved surfaces like those on a child’s bouncy ball. Is it still a triangle? Does it contain your standard triangularness?
Now start writing what pops into your head! And don’t stop until you run out of ideas.
Review what you’ve got, there may well be some intriguing imagery and novel ideas that just beg to become poems.
Things in balance or out, reincarnation and the concept of well being. Think on these, do they fit with events either global or personal to you?
Spend five minutes jotting down a stream of conciousness about them. Now counterbalance the list with positives or negatives. You may end up with three lists! These can provide inspiration for a poem or three 😉
Those suffering from things like Post Traumatic Stress may want to skip this exercise or make sure they are in a secure position to attempt it.
The Mind can be seen as the thing that keeps prisoners free but it is also the very thing that can keep people locked in misery. Or maybe the words suggest an actual physical trap to you?
What ever the imagery this term conjures up for you – write it down and use it!
Dinosaurs have always held a fascination for humans, wheather it is through legends of dragons and monsters turned to stone or through scientific inquiry.
With recent discoveries it even turns out they are not extinct but a branch of the dinos is flying around feather-covered in the sky and regularly turns up on the dinner plate!
Think on these magnificent beasts, gargantuan and as thick as two short planks. They ruled the Earth for an amount of time that dwarfs the whole of human existence!
Now spend fifteen minutes writing down what the dinosaur means to you. At the end of it you may have the beginnings of a poem.
Image Copy Right belongs to Sarah Snell-Pym
To see a larger version just click on the image
This oger appears to have a cunning plan – will the children notice in time?
Spend 20 minutes writing from this image.
Taste is one of our senses,. Within poetry the senses are an invaluable tool to use for imagery. Try describing an event purely through taste, then try describing a meal using inputs from the other senses as if they were taste. Lastly think on the meaning of the word “bud” as something that grows into a flower and combine the concept of a Taste Bud with your two descriptions!
All of us are restrained by limits – sometimes these get in the way of a fantastic things but at the same time are needed to prevent catastrophe in general – these are lamentable limits.
Think on the concept, think of a time you were so hampered in your creativity, in your job, in your life – now write non stop for 20 minutes at the end of the time put the writing away and come back to it another day. There should be some interesting stuff in it, if not a first draft lurking!
Write Soup at the top of a page then draw two lines from it. At the end of each line write a different word you associate with soup. From each of these words draw two lines and write words you associate with them!
If you turn an A4 piece of paper sideways (so it’s landscape instead of portrait) you can get quiet a few layers in.
With a coloured marker pen trace a route through the words making a decision on which way to go at each ‘branch’. Write out the words you have selected in a line – now use the words to start and end sentences – you should get some interesting word pairing and imagery which may well spark something poetical.
A dice/die can be used to pick which branches you pick on the diagram too. Odd numbers go left, even numbers go right.