Poetry Challenges

My friends that know me from the poetry groups know that I don't get involved in challenges the groups usually offer. It's mostly for a personal reason - I just don't like being told or directed on what to write about. I really have to feel something from inside for me to write a poem about it. It's difficult for me to just work with a list of words or a phrase and try to make something from them. Kind of feels like I'm building a puzzle that I don't really care to build, I'd rather be off raking leaves or dusting my ceiling fans. But I know such challenges can have their benefits - they can help a writer with writer's block get going again, they can introduce new words and thoughts to someone's repertoire, and they can provide exactly what they are - a challenge, to a writer looking for something to do.

For me tho, I already have things in my head and heart that I want to write about, things that matter to me, that I feel. So, I tend to ignore the challege posts and just keep doing my own thing. Maybe it's an equivalent to keeping my head in the sand, I don't know, but it works for me.

Still, the other day at work I got to thinking about challenges... and wondering what kind of a challenge I would offer other writers to try. I knew I would want to offer them something beside just a list of words, or a simple idea, to riff off of... I would want to somehow make them find something within themselves to write about, something they would feel and get excited about. So, here's what I came up with.

Take a newspaper and read an article.

Simple.

Then write a poem... but, not a poem about the subject of the article. See... aye, there's the rub. And here's the reason.

To just write something about the article would be easy - your topic is right there, and I've led you to it.. but that's almost the same as giving you just a list of words to play with.... and remember, I'm after something more... bigger game... I want to stir your mind a little.

Instead, I'll wager that as you read this article, something popped into you mind, something triggered by the article, something unrelated even maybe, to the story. Maybe a street mentioned in the article will click with you because you know it well, and remember how the telephone poles there are all leaning to one side, like a row of drunken men. Or maybe the name of one of the people mentioned in the article reminds you of a teacher you had in junior high, and one day you and some of your friends... well, you get the idea... I'm saying, use the article as a trigger to stir something in your mind... a memory, an idea... maybe an image from a word... I'll bet anything that something will come to you... something exciting.

I feel that when you read, you relax your mind, you open it... and tho' you follow the article and its subject, your mind also flows on its own... little tangents pop into play... and I know from personal experience, many a poem has come from such mental digressions. Another reason I keep a pad and pen next to me at all times... heck, I've even read Star Trek novels and gotten ideas... they are there, inside of you... and there are ways to find them, and hear them.

So there's my idea for a challenge, and I hope maybe it will do something a little different than if I just gave you some words to play with, or a phrase to start you off... read two articles if you need to... or a magazine, or short story... something will come, I'll bet, and hopefully it will be something you'll feel and run to put it down for posterity... and for yourself.