In February, the Poetry Sisters wrote Exquisite Corpse poems – and invited us to take part. And I did – but never got around to posting! (Story of my life, this year.🤦♀️) But during my travels around the North Burnett recently, I brought the exquisite corpse into Poetry Pep-up sessions. They were a great warm-up/ice-breaker activity. We were taken by the way different punctuation can produce different results; and the variety of visual images the same words inspired amongst participants – which was inspiration in itself, for further poetry. Here are some related to rain, which was in abundance at the time. All of them could be punctuated differently – and I’m not even sure that this is my preferred punctuation. 🙂 (You may have other interpretations?)
Pitter like soft feathers; mist falls. Happy thunder. Slip-bright truck-water.
Plop! Like a scout’s whistle, slippery trees, wading; cold tanks … floods.
Swoosh. Trickle like a treat, constant river splash. Quickly shelter. Verandah.
Over. As heavy as golf balls, washy river rattling melancholy chimney-skipping.
A drip hits the tin roof like splattering stones. Sombre castle; puddling, pattering, umbrella splatter.
Wooosh! I jump like a kangaroo; joyous. Puddle-melting, slippery-cloud gumboots.
Swoosh. As heavy as rocks; dark rainbow, dancing, exploring spit-creeks.
Churning like butter; pelting, swirling cool rainbow.
Clear gumboots. Runny wet puddle-drop.
(I was wanting to encourage playful use of onomatopoeia and creative similes – which you will recognise as the start point for these poems.)
Thanks to Karen at Karen Edmisten* who is hosting Poetry Friday today. I’m sure it will be raining creativity!
Oh – but before I go, I must also share the surprising joy I had this week, with the inclusion of ‘Miss Understood’ on the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards Shortlist. I had not expected that delightful bit of news in the same month that it released! (But I’ll take it.💕🐺💕)
Kathryn Apel 