There
are days like today when I would swear, aloud, on a Bible and staring into
photos of my children: “I can’t write a word today” and yet when I create a
container where writing prompts come alive for me I am compelled to write,
every time.
Today
I have written from two such prompts with two widely divergent outcomes, both
of which have entertained me, furthered my process and are also image-rich – so
will feed future writing as well.
Neither
of these are edited, they are solely raw and what popped off the edge of my
pencil in the moment.
Do
you see the surprise benefit in working with prompts?
Prompt #1 – A Thought
Starter from JournalingWriting Yahoo Group:
Write about
one situation in your life in which you do not have control. How does this make
you feel?
I
have no control over my ex-husband’s chewing. At the end, it got down to the
very sound of his chewing causing my neck to kink when the sound vibrations
entered my ears and pummel my gut with “Why did I ever procreate with this…
this… this…” and he would sit there, eating. Forkful after forkful of shallow
chews.
I
would sit there, forkful after forkful, losing my appetite. Looking at my
children’s faces. Scooping up guilt with my salad and sadness with my rice.
Chewing, deeply, mourning what never really was in the first place.
What
I can control, though, is whether or not I chew in his presence of he chews in
mine.
That
makes it all a lot easier.
The
latch keeps people out
It
monitors everything, looking -
holding
the fort and the
menacing
people... down
down
down
Something
that looks so simple
so
often gets in the way
Its
mere presence silences
Large
fingered men and
swearing,
clumsy prepubescent
girls
and me? I can manage
it
with three bags of groceries
and
high heels
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