When I’m feeling a bit dry
and uninspired, I set myself a writing task dreamed up a few years ago which
has produced snippets of work both interesting, surprising and sometimes
downright peculiar. Using either the 5 Blind Books or 10 Blind Books approach,
I run my fingers along the spines of books on the shelf without looking, stop,
and whatever title I land on, write it down. With those titles, no matter how
unrelated they may appear, the task is to write a short story, just a paragraph
or two, incorporating those titles. The results are often hilarious, but oddly
enough, the words you are dealt have a way of leading your thoughts to places
often unexplored, weaving the titles into a story sometimes so nonsensical that
it prompts you to think of story and plot lines you hadn’t previously
considered.
So, if it works for getting
the writing juices flowing for story writing, why not for poetry as well, so
for a three-line poem I figured three books was the way to go.
The Divide
– Nicholas Evans
Lucky Jim
– Kingsley Amis
Burning Bright – Tracey Chevalier
I imagine a traveller on
horseback riding through the night over the Great Dividing Range in New South
Wales. Weary from days in the saddle, camp fires from the settlement in the
valley below spur him on to continue his journey, to venture beyond the
mountains which have long seemed an impenetrable barrier.
Lucky Jim. Camp fires
burning bright beacons guiding
over the Divide
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