Writer's Block Cure #2

What, still can't write?  No inspiration? You poor thing.

Try thinking like a horse. Clear your mind, just focus on the art...

Antiques and Jewels: A Winning Poem!

Here is a jewel of a poem submitted for the 'Antiques and Jewels' writing challenge on January 9. Congratulations gaye gambell-peterson! She comments, with her submission, "Who knew this photo would inspire a love song, ... this tiny wedge of a poem?" Indeed.

We approach our wedding anniversary

a matched pair

replendent and oh-so golden. We

are reflective, proud and tall. We

dare expose our incandescence

to scrutiny's glare, our dazzle

undimmed even as

our glaze crackles, peels.

We're trying to cope

by envisioning smooth,

by ignoring

any unpluggedness.

So, side by side, we

are sitting pretty,

as always-

here together.

And there,

waiting :

a door,

open.

by gaye gambell-peterson

Thanks again to AAA Antiques (Peoria, Ill.) for the great photos.

Antiques and jewels for your writing pleasure

Looking for a writing prompt? Here is a treasure chest of objects and jewels. Pick a photo at random and suddenly you are in a room of fascinating nouns.

Take a trip to AAA Antiques and open a room. Send me your poem (email address here) by the end of January and I will blog-publish two or three of the most irresistable ones.

Poetry Bingo

New Year's Eve here in the midwest usually ends up being an ice-bedecked beautiful wonder that is dangerous to travel through. So I spend it at home. If you are looking forward to some quiet hours during the year-change, here's a poetry game you can use to wind down the hours.

This spreadsheet is a good tool for cracking open a writer's block, or a new year, whichever comes first. It's virus-free, but if you share with anyone please rescan to make sure you haven't added a virus to it, and please leave the attribution information on it. This is modified, only slightly, from John Walkenbach's MeetingBingo, a spreadsheet to generate ideas for business meetings. I think poetry is a better use for it, but the original MeetingBingo spreadsheet gets credit for the idea, design and function.

Get your copy here: http://www.box.net/shared/67hh748ux1
The directions are on the 'Sheet1' tab, where you can change any and all of the words in the first column to create your own list of inspirations. My intent is that you use each row of the bingo card as 'word seeds' to create a stanza of a poem. You can do whatever you darn well please with it, though.