Look at your hands, or pictures of hands….. what do you see? How are they constructed? What colour are they, are they rough hands or cubby young hands? Are the nails dirty? Bitten? Painted fabulous colours? Are the hands covered in sleeves or henna, jewellery?

What have the hands done? Who and what have they touched, made created, destroyed? Are they loving hands? Neglected?

Think on all these things and what the hands could be – do the hands belong to you? What if they didn’t? What if they had a life of their own or where replacements, how would they behave?

Do they work properly and if so what are they used for?

Spend 20 mins writing on the theme of hands, do not worry if you abandon several ideas, just keep writing whilst the timer is ticking – you may find some poetic forms appear in the writing, take these and edit them into full pieces.