Tuesday Try Winter Out

8:04 a.m. — Walnut Creek

Hello, all. Is it my imagination or are the days slipping by even faster than they already seemed to slip by? Not fast enough, you say? Bring on neutral weather with comfortable temperatures? I’m with you there. How about we start with this week’s prompt which mirrors the one we did on summer. Let’s give winter a turn.

It’s no longer a new party trick, but you can still do it. Write, without thinking, a list of all the words and terms you associate with winter: cold, ice, icy, freeze… come on, no censoring to save a word… snow, hot chocolate, mittens… What’s that? You wouldn’t have thought of hot chocolate and now you have? Ah, well. Fireplace, Christmas, skiing… Write winter out of your brain onto the paper. Remember the fresh and original poem you wrote about summer? To reach it, you had to write summer out of your system first.

All done? Okay, remember that you may not use any of those words in your poem. Consider what it is about winter you want to convey. Those of us undergoing weeks unending of heat, might want to convey  the bone-chilling cold of a winter day; those undergoing the bone-chilling cold of that winter day, might wish to convey their view of a perfect summer day. Decide if you want to write a universal, or a personal, truth about winter; if you want to describe a scene, or an event; if you want positive, or negative; if you wish to recall a memory, or create a fantasy.

Freewrite your thinking as you are doing it. Jot notes about what, as well as how. Write down words, images, and sensory details. Think about the best form [this does not mean you have to use a form as opposed to free-verse, but you do need to decide which] for the winter poem you have running through your mind, now. What form complements your content?

Write, post, come back and read others or, read all of last week’s entries now, and this week’s entries next week! That way you will catch several poems to read. I will see you Friday for the Freeforall and next Tuesday for an image. I know: Ooooh!

Happy writing, everyone.

P.S. Should you have the kind of brain that automatically runs possibilities by, when you glance at my Tuesday and Friday attempts at different titles around the same words, feel free to let me know!