Before beginning the prompt for the first week of May, I extend my sincerest thanks to all the poets and readers who visited "The Music in It" and who posted their poems and thoughts throughout April. You all made National Poetry Month a richer celebration because of your sharing! (Special thanks go to Basil for posting poems based on the inspiration words every day!)
If there were no
poetry on any day in the world,
poetry would be
invented that day.
For there would be an
intolerable hunger.
– Muriel Rukeyser
Now … imagine yourself in a room:
you stand in front of a window and look out. What do you see? What are
the actual things in your line of sight? What metaphorical images do the actual
things suggest? Is the window open or closed? Do you lean on the sill? Do you
feel the sill’s wood under your elbows? Do you touch the window glass with your
hand, arm, or face? Is it cold or warm? How does what you see compare with what
you’d like to see? What does the window symbolize for you? Do you take a step
back and see your own reflection looking at you? Now imagine yourself standing
outside and looking in through a window. What does the outside feel like in
comparison to what you see inside? Do you see people? How do they relate to one
another? Do you feel left out? Why? How is this “looking in” a metaphor? What
about the window itself: is the glass clean, dirty, clear, smudged, tinted,
broken?
In workshops with students
I use a prompt dealing with windows and ask the students to write a poem
entitled “When I Look Out My Window I See.” I tell the students that their
window views may be real or imaginary. I encourage them to be creative, to
fantasize, to use the window as a vehicle to describe home, family life,
school, relationships, or to use the window as a means of seeking, defining and
clarifying (looking back, looking to the future). Often, the poems are quite
extraordinary. Of course, you know where I’m going with this prompt – the same
suggestions apply but you will, of course, approach the writing with your adult
perspective. Look through a “window” (real, imagined, symbolic, metaphorical,
or in a dream) and create a poem.
Examples:
(Remember prompt #53 in which this poem was the model?)
