Pictures and Words

Top of the World

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:13:00 +0000

I'm listening to this song right now, Patty Griffin's "Top of the World." Its so sweet and I just want to put it on repeat here at work! Here's some of the lyrics, but go here to listen to it online:
Myspace Music Discography for Patty Griffin.
The album is "Impossible Dream." Select it from the discography list in the left section of the player.

For writing, read over the lyrics and imagine the scene. What song is being sung by the songbird? Why did she break the songbird's wings? What would you do? What kind of bird? What are others doing, wanting, singing?

"Top Of The World"

There's a whole lot of singing
That's never gonna be heard
Disappearing every day
Without so much as a word
Somehow

I think I broke the wings
Off that little songbird
And she's never gonna fly
To the top of the world now
To the top of the world

....

I wished I'd had known you
Wished I had shown you
All of the things I
Was on the side
But I'd pretend to be sleeping
When you'd come in in the morning
To whisper goodbye
Go work in the rain
I don't know why
Don't know why

Cause everyone's singing
We just wanna be heard
Disappearing every day
Without so much as a word
Somehow?

Gonna grab a hold
Of that little songbird
And take her for a ride
To the top of the world
Right now
To the top of the world

Prompts from a friend

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:22:00 +0000

More writing prompts sent to me by a writer-friend early in December.

From Naming the World:

1. Write about a secret from the perspective of someone with the below statement:
* I never told anyone.
* I did tell one person. God help me.
* I never told anyone, but I’ll tell you.

2. Try writing about something you do every day and take for granted.

3. Starter: "She didn’t want to go, but..."

4. Choose an object that interests you enough to suggest it could be someone’s centering symbol. Why does it carry a metaphysical force?

5. You found a feather on the ground on the way over. Start talking to a person you know about this feather.

6. Pick a character that you hate and find something you love about them.

7. What is your character's obsession?

8. Destroy something you love.

Sentence and Phrase Prompts from Marge Piercy's Hard Loving:

1. I was a rabbit with twigs for bones.

2. Sometimes an old buffalo man... stares from your face."

3. Succulent as a burst apricot

4. A phosphorescent smear

5. Peeling an orange

Lines of Poetry

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:44:00 +0000

Its been forever since I last updated the blog here, so here's a few writing prompts in the form of quotes and poetic lines:

"The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing." - Eric Berne, psychiatrist

"I dreamed a knife like a song you can't whistle." - Frank Stanford, "The Singing Knives"

"Which failure cannot cast down nor success make proud." - Robinson Jeffers, "Rock and Hawk"

"...at night he remembers freedom And flies in a dream, the dawns ruin it." - Robinson Jeffers, "Hurt Hawks"

"I'd sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk." - Robinson Jeffers, "Hurt Hawks"

"We are safe to finish what we have to finish." - Robinson Jeffers, "The Bed By The Window"

"Be angry at the sun for setting." - Robinson Jeffers, "Be Angry at the Sun for Setting"

"Stark violence is still the sire of all the world's values." - Robinson Jeffers, "The Bloody Sire"

"Old violence is not too old to beget new values." - Robinson Jeffers, "The Bloody Sire"

"wore down on their wings" - Robinson Jeffers, "Their Beauty Has More Meaning"

Autumn prompt words

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:02:00 +0000

Go with the flow: Choose a prompting word or two from the following list and write about whatever comes to mind for 15-20 minutes without stopping.

*Prompting Words List:*
Season	pumpkins	fall	autumn	acorns	leaves
leaf	vibrant	red	yellow	orange	green
brown	branches	twigs	aroma	burning leaves	crunch leaves
gourds	pressing leaves	energy	beauty	woods	ghosts
feathers	corn	popcorn	arts and crafts	gifts	forest
apples	orchard	cranberry sauce	potatoes	cornbread	stuffing
green beans	apple pie	cooking	warm	harvest	cinnamon
abundance	thankful	cold	frost	snow	football
snowflakes	raking	leaf piles	campfires	hiking	nature

Lyric Prompts from Ryan Adams

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:12:00 +0000

Use these lyrics from songs by Ryan Adams as prompts!

"If I could I'd fold myself away like a card table." -- from "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc."

"But the light of the moon leads the way to the morning." -- from "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc."

"Its a little too late for goodbyes. Good morning. Open your eyes." -- from "Rip Off"

"Treasures that s he misses makes the man." -- from "Bartering Lines"

"You and I together, but only one of us is in love." -- from "Everybody Knows"

"Everything she says, oh, I've heard it all before." -- from "Two Hearts"

"Like a bad idea on a beautiful day." -- from "Two Hearts"

"Three words is all it takes to break your heart in two." -- from "Two Hearts"

"When they smile I get hypnotized and wanna go to bed." -- from "These Girls"

"I've been stranded on the doorstep." -- from "These Girls"

"We are only one push from the nest" - from "The Sun Also Sets"

"Sunset's just my lightbulb burning out." - from "Oh My Sweet Carolina"

"All the sweetest winds, they blow across the South." -- from "Oh My Sweet Carolina"

Bob Dylan Lyrics as Prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:07:00 +0000

I've been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately and so I decided that this Wednesday's writing prompt will include single lines from various Bob Dylan songs. If there don't work for you, visit bobdylan.com and find a line or two that click with you.

“I saw a white ladder all covered with water” - “A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall”

“Spreading their wings 'neath the falling leaves.” - “Changing of the Guards”

“Were handing out the flowers that I'd given to you.” - “Changing of the Guards”

“But the next time I looked there was light in the room.” - “Day of the Locusts”

“I been lookin' at my shadow, I been watching the colors up above” - “Dirt Road Blues”

“it's hard labour and cold beans” - “Endless Highway”

“A place where there is no pain of birth.” - “Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking”

“Stand in one place till your feet begin to hurt.” - “Hard Times in New York Town”

“Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door” - “Highway 51”

“The next time you see me comin' you better run" - “Highway 61 Revisited”

All quotes above are from Bob Dylan songs.

Primer prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:52:00 +0000

Sentences from old primer and grammar books... Use as prompts!

The river talked all night in the shoals.

My life is ghastly, the told the grass.

What kind of word?
Just a word.
Whatever. Hush.
Whisper it in my ear.

The cottonwoods went by like rows of bones.

There are no absolutes in human misery and things can always get worse.

Old whiskey bottles with their bleached labels lying on the wet tar of the rooftops.

I have been waiting for you for hours.

Does your brother dance well?

Why are you sitting here alone in the dark?

A little bit of common glass sometimes glitters like a diamond.

I see the man in the moon.

Mr. Jones bought a knife for his little boy.

Of all beasts he learned the language.

The two strangers were really Jupiter and Mercury.

A shaft of song, a winged prayer

Iris always wore a chain of raindrops for pearls, and a cloud for a robe.

The meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

I met a little cottage girl.

Writing and Small Images

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:48:00 +0000

Take any one or combination of the ideas below and insert them in your writing. There are no rules.

RADIO:
song on the radio, old transistor radio, broken radio, found radio, etc.

TEACUP/COFFEECUP:
chipped cup, cracked handle, saucer broken on the floor, found cup, something else in the cup other than tea or coffee, etc.

APRON:
pockets empty, pockets always have something in them, stained apron, crisp clean apron, ripped apron, etc.

CHAIR:
wooden chair with a loose bolt, chair with a worn seat cushion, chair with initials carved in the back slats, someone sitting in the chair, etc.

MAILBOX:
beaten mailbox, brick mailbox, empty mailbox, waiting by the mailbox, put in mailbox letters to nonexistent/lost/forgotten people, etc.

CHESS PIECE:
chess piece found under a couch or floor board, chess piece thrown at someone, chess piece carried in someone's pocket, chess piece given as a gift, etc.

Prompts from 1 Giant Leap

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:17:00 +0000

Most of these prompts are quotes from the film 1 Giant Leap. There are two quotes from a novel by Truman Capote I just finished reading, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Enjoy!

"This is what comes through to us." - from The Greek

"It's God making contact with itself." – Ram Dass (in reference to creation of art)

"While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die." – Leonardo da Vinci

"When you can't find the rhyme to fit the beat, You can't find the answer to feel complete." - ?

"There will be time to put on the face to meet the faces that you meet." – T.S. Eliot

"Every man and woman has their place. They have their entrances and they have their exits." - ?

"I have to learn not to waste everything my forefathers earned in tears." - Maxi Jazz

"Last night I went to sleep as a child
Only to wake up this morning finding I was a man.
In my hand I discovered the tools and the rage of my father.
In my heart I found the love and fears of my mother...........
We are not walking with the ghosts of the dead...
We are alive... In the spirit of our passion"
- Michael FRANTI, from 1 Giant Leap (film)

"...for anger seemed, if anything, more unsafe than love: only those who know their own security can afford either." - Truman Capote

"...he is no rose dependent upon thorn or root." - Truman Capote

Truman Capote quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:33:00 +0000

Use the quotes below to spur your writing into a direction by either finding an image or idea in the quotes to spur on your writing, or write about something the quote reminds you.
------------------------

"...for so few of us learn that love is tenderness, and tenderness is not, as a fair proportion suspect, pity; and still fewer know that happiness in love is not the absolute focusing of all emotion in another: one has always to love a good many things which the beloved must come only to symbolize; the true beloveds of this world are in their lover's eyes lilac openings, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, remembered conversations, friends, a child's Sunday, lost voices, one's favorite suit, autumn and all the seasons, memory, yes, it being earth and water of existence, memory."

p. 141-142, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Truman Capote

"...there was always between us something muted, hushed; still our silence was not of a secret kind, for in itself it communicated that wonderful peace those who understand each other very well sometimes achieve..."

p. 143, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Truman Capote

"...this was not a hotel; indeed, had never been: this was the place where folks came when they went off the face of the earth, when they died but were not dead."

p. 118, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Truman Capote

Writing prompts from a novel

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Dear Laura,
I finished this book last night and saved some lines that I thought might be useful for prompts for a couple of sessions. See what you can salvage.
- Vicky H.

Where do we go when we die?
I don't know. Where are we now?

In the middle of life, he said, I drew the path of it upon a map and I studied it for a long time.

In any case it is difficult to stand outside of one's desires and see things of their own volition.

But then if we don't know ourselves in the waking world, what chance in dreams?

How comes she to own a world of night at all?

When you look at the world is there a point in time where the scene becomes the remembered?

For each event is revealed to us at the surrender of every alternative course.

I think you got a habit of making things a bit more complicated that they need to be. Why not just tell the story?

The stars which were belled above them against he eternal blackness of the world's nativity.

In any case this was a deep dream for the dreamer and in such dreams there is a language that is older than the spoken word at all.

He thought he saw in the world's science a great conspiracy.

Yet it is the narrative that is the life of the dream while the events themselves are often interchangeable. The events of the waking world are forced upon us and the narrative is the unguessed axis along which they must be strung.

But in dreams we stand in the great democracy of the possible and there we are right pilgrims indeed.

Every man's death is a standing in for every other. There is no way to abate that fear of it except to love that man that stands for us.

The dust of the few cars hung in the dry air long after the cars were gone.

It was just this big whispering sound all over. Geese by the thousands... They blacked out the moon.

I wouldn't have the crazy bitch on the place, he said.

He gathered her black hair in his hand and spread it across his chest like a blessing.

Writing inspirations and quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:58:00 +0000

1. Write about a time when the power went out? Did you use candles? Did you need them?

2. Where does a smile come from? Write about the person from your past or present who made or makes you smile the most.

3. What place do you think of when you think of total darkness? Write about that place.

4. "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." - Sri Chimnoy Ghose

5. "A choice, right now, between fear and love." - Bill Hicks

6. "The eyes of love, instead see all of us as one." - Bill Hicks

More quotes for writing

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:50:00 +0000

Quotes for writing...

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus

"In summer, the song sings itself." - William Carlos Williams

"A life without love is like a year without summer." - Swedish Proverb

Tom Waits Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Quotes from a Tom Waits interview...

1. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.

2. We are monkeys with money and guns.

3. Real beauty: oil stains left by cars in a parking lot.

4. False teeth in pawnshop windows

5. A homeless man with an operatic voice singing the word "bacteria" from an empty dumpster in Chinatown

6. It was a train station of music with all the sounds milling around...

7. "Fire is the sun unwinding itself from the wood." - Bucky Fuller

8. A man you'd want in the boat with you at the end of the world

9. Headlights hit by a shotgun

10. Bacon frying

11. Piano lessons coming from an apartment window

12. He is a giant among men

Writing prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:20:00 +0000

"The old man kept talking bout his life and his times.
He fell asleep with his head against the window.
He said an honest man's pillow is his peace of mind."
- "Minutes to Memories" by John Mellencamp

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."
- Oscar Wilde

Write a Fable

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:52:00 +0000

1. Write a fable.
Fable: a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim. A fable's purpose is to impart a lesson or value, or to give sage advice. Fables also provide opportunities to laugh at human folly, when they supply examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated.

A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of humankind.

Or use one of these fable quotes to spur on your writing...

2. "I am sure the grapes are sour." Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes

3. "It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds." Aesop, The Jay and the Peacock

4. "Do not count your chickens before they are hatched." Aesop, The Milkmaid and Her Pail

Insert this into your writing

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:32:00 +0000

1. A character thinks about a fear. This could be something practical, like the upcoming results of a medical test, or something vague and indefinite... Write their thoughts, or describe their thoughts through their actions.

2. Write a nonfiction or fiction scene that has a lot of people in it-- a crowd or a group. It could be a party, a church dinner, a class, a bar. Describe the scene using the people as part of the setting: colorful clothes, or a mass of unfamiliar faces, etc. Don't forget the sounds and smells as well as the visual details.

3. Put a knife in your piece of writing. If it is fiction, have someone set a table or find a hunting knife in the barn, etc. If you are writing memoir, consider your own experience with knives: scaling fish? polishing the silver? spreading peanut butter?

Robert Penn Warren writing prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 24 May 2008 18:11:00 +0000

Writing prompts!

"infinite motion of sky"

"And tomorrow would rise and do all the old things to do"

"To lay ear to earth for what voices beneath might say"

"Into the blind and antiseptic anger of air"

"And in the forgetting to make it all more true?"

All above lines are from Robert Penn Warren poems in the collection, Now and Then.

Artist Statement prompt

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:22:00 +0000

Here's Brandon Smith's artist statement. I thought it'd make an interesting writing prompt. :)

"Often staring, large and distorted, the cow within my work occupies the role of artist, the hero and subjugated victim... They become metaphors for the human condition in its dichotomy of frailty and power." - Brandon Smith, quoted from his artist statement, 2007

Various writing prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:16:00 +0000

1. Write a natural prayer. You may use any definition of natural, any form of prayer, whether that be overtly religious or spiritual without any religious attachments.

2. Look for a sign to be the starting place -and the title - of a poem or story. Examples: roadside sign, store sign, advertisement in a newspaper, magazine or on TV, etc.

3. "Peace" by C.K. Williams looks at a kind of peace, but the word holds different meanings for each of us at different times. In times of war, the absence of war is likely to be the first definition to come to mind. When "we fight for hours", as in his poem, I would guess that tranquility, quiet and harmony in our relations would better fit the bill. We also use the word at times to ask for silence or calm or as a greeting or farewell. What does the word mean to you right now in your life? Is it a place, state of mind, something you long for or have found? Do your thoughts turn political? Use this abstract noun as your starting point and, following Williams' lead, avoid the obvious definitions.

4. Look specifically at how we let someone go from this world. What is it that we say or do that allows us to let go?

5. Tercets are any three lines of poetry, whether as a stanza or as a poem, rhymed or unrhymed, metered or unmetered. The form has Italian roots. Dante's The Divine Comedy is a common example. It uses three line stanzas with every first and third line ending with a rhyme. (This is known as "enclosed" as the rhyming lines enclose an unrhymed line - the scheme being aba. Get really classical and use iambic pentameter and you have a sicilian tercet. Fancier still - interlock enclosed tercets by having the middle line rhyming with the first and third lines of the following stanza so that the pattern is aba bcb cdc ded ...)

Five May Prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:38:00 +0000

1. Write about a first time, ie, first time on a swing, on a bus, visit to a city, swimming in a creek, etc.

2. Write about a last time, ie, last time you talked with someone, last time went hiking, etc.

3. Write about something you don't recall about yourself but others retell the story about you.

4. "How _____ Behaves." Insert a word or phrase in the blank & write about it.
(example: song title by Feist, "How My Heart Behaves")

5.
"What rises high
springs from deep."
- Harry Brown, "To Tell the Truth"

Six writing prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:06:00 +0000

Six writing prompts to use to get started.

1. When I turned the corner I came face to face with . . .

2. Think back to the first place you remember living as a child. Pick a room in the house, any room, and describe it in detail.

3. Write about something you've lost.

4. Pick a day that didn't end the way you wanted to and rewrite the ending.

5. What happened? (reference photo below)

6. What's his story? (reference photo below)

more prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:29:00 +0000

1. Someone wakes up in a strange place. The person observes the place in some detail, then begins to piece together how this happened...

2. Looking down from far above, I see half snow, half grass.

3. I looked out over my city. I had been watching this city for a long time. I decided it was time.

4. “Hear thou from thy dwellingplace…” - 2 Chronicles, 6:21

5. “brown as a the mouths of rivers” - from movie, Angels in America

6. “the world is full of broken wings” - Marvin Bell, “Why,” Georgia Review, Spring 2007

Fairytale prompt

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:18:00 +0000

Which fairytale or childhood story has your life most resembled?
Have you met your prince charming, the big bad wolf, the evil step-mother, the Wicked Witch of the West? Are you a warrior, a princess, the Queen of Hearts? Did you become a graceful swan? Will you live happily ever after?

Four Writing Prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:29:00 +0000

Writing Prompts: Use one or several to prompt your writing for a few minutes.

1. Describe yourself when you were a child of 8.

2. "I wish I could see..."

3. Setting: In a busy kitchen

4. Your character is on the roof and acting "strange"