Hi poets! Today we are going to turn the cameras on ourselves and write a selfie poem, starting with some timed free writing that will get us sifting through all of those murky, behind-the-scenes thoughts that are running in the backgrounds of our minds. The results may surprise you. Here’s your daily (optional) poetry prompt.
Selfie poem. You will need a timer you can set for one or two minutes, a lot of paper, and a pen. We’re going to do about 15 minutes of free writing, to try to access some deep thinking about a subject we may not normally gravitate to: ourselves. The important thing about free writing is to JUST KEEP WRITING. No matter what. Write whatever comes into your head, even if it makes no sense or is embarrassing, and don’t stop. If your mind goes completely blank, keep copying the last line you wrote until something new occurs to you. Remember, this is not your poem. This is you clearing out the rubbish in your attic so you can turn it into a dance studio.
- Write for 2 minutes. Each line must start with “I am.” Go through all of the obvious things. I am a human. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am a daughter. I am …
- Write for 2 more minutes. You’re lines still start with “I am,” but start to get into less obvious things. I am a perfectionist. I am a list-maker. This is also where you need to get any clichés right out of your system. I am a bridge builder. I am a trail blazer. I am …
- 1 minute. Write lines that fill in these blanks. “I am [AN ANIMAL] [DOING SOMETHING].” I am a rabbit grazing on lettuce. I am a fish swimming in circles. I am …
- 1 minute. Inanimate objects. I am a dog-eared book. I am …
- 1 minute. Scientific phenomena. I am an orbiting moon. I am …
- 1 minute. Plants. I am a creeping vine. I am …
- 1 minute. Moments in your life. I am the moment I drove off in that car. I am …
- 1 minute. Food/drink. I am the last sip of coffee. I am …
- 1 minute. Literature. I am Shakespeare’s lost play. I am …
- 1 minute. Music. I am the bass line. I am the melody. I am …
- 1 minute. Fabric. I am a rusty tweed. I am …
- 1 minute. Works of art. I am a Kandinksy circle. I am …
- 1 minute. Switching things up here. Start your lines with “I make.”
Okay stop. Go back and circle the lines that you like. Choose 8-12 of them for your poem. You can tweak them, change their order, add new lines you think of. Now choose a title for your poem. Or perhaps one of your lines would make a good title.
I did this exercise with my mom last night, who told me she had never written a poem before in her life. What she wrote was amazing!
Here is my poem, which I suspect was better for me than a session on a psychoanalyst’s couch.
I Am Not What I Imagined I Would Be
I am an elephant plodding.
I am a whale straining the ocean.
I am a squirrel darting into traffic.
I am of inconsistent moods.
I am a cracked mirror.
I am a length of coiled string.
I am a tea kettle whistling.
I am almost always happy.
I am a sequoia with a hole in the middle.
You can drive your car through me.
I am always beginning again.
I am full of excuses.
I am about to tell a little white lie.
I make progress.
I make lists.
I make notations over everything.
I make things harder for myself than they should be.