3 Blind Books #1

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