Sunday, March 7, 2010

a couple of writing prompts



1. Write a poem about a lost love. This can be any kind of love. It can be a love of someone, romantic or otherwise. It could be the love of a stranger, or an ideal love (that you have theoretically, or maybe actually) lost. It can be a love of an animal, stuffed or real. It can be the love for an inanimate object, such as a piece of furniture, an article of clothing, etc. Write about a lost love, in which you don’t say “I miss you everyday, like the sun misses the moon”. Write about a lost love in a way that describes your appeal to the person/place/thing, and what has happened since you are no longer together. You can write about the interactions you had (try to be creative here, use words that will help us feel your loss—without saying directly that you are at a loss). You can write about hopes for the future, perhaps a new love or a rekindled love. If you choose, you can write about a person/place/thing without ever telling us who/what you are writing about. The goal here is to elicit emotions, to show us how you feel, without having to explain it word for word. Try to avoid clichés. It is okay to use an idea (of a cliché), but avoid the actual wording.



2. Many people find it easier to write when they are sad, depressed, or angry. It is often a challenge to write about happy experiences, but this documentation can prove very useful in the future, especially when one is feeling down. Write about a time when you felt detached from the world. If possible, write about a positive time. For example, if you run, think back to a time when you had an amazing run. What made it different? How did you feel? Did you feel part of your body? What did it (the run) smell like? Taste like? Was there a breeze? Sun? How did nature’s elements affect your body, your mind, and your run? Rather than say “the sun warmed me from head to toe”, think about the cosmic/deeper ways the sun moved you. Did it energize you? If so, how? Did it inspire you? How? How did you feel when you were on your run? Did you see other people? Did other people see you? What made it so memorable? If you had this experience and it was not on a run (perhaps it was during meditation, or a mindless activity like shoveling snow or cutting the grass), note that. Dive in to how you felt doing this mundane activity, and why it mattered? What changed (either in you, or in the activity)? The idea here is to remind ourselves of what our bodies are capable of, and how far we can push them (or pamper them). We want to try to connect the spiritual and physical parts of our existence, in a way that is poetic and reflective, but not superficial or fluffy.



3. Write a letter to God. It can be any god, or multiple gods if you’d like. In this letter to god, feel free to ask questions. You can ask about the afterlife or about your present life. If something is not going well, tell god about it, and ask for guidance. If you don’t believe in god, tell him/her why you don’t believe in them. If you do believe in god, tell him/her what they mean to you, and how they play a role in your life. In your letter to god, it’s okay to be angry. If you want to tell god a joke, that is fine too. It is an open letter to god. Think of this as similar to writing a letter to “Santa”, but without the North Pole and reindeer (and hopes of a 5 year old thinking that Santa exists). Your letter can be serious, funny, sad, argumentative, or cautionary. We wont share these letters with the class (unless you really want to), and I will read them (privately) unless you don’t want me to. If you don’t want me to read your letter to god (since I am not god), that is okay, but you will have to write something else (for me to read) in addition to writing your letter to god. Since we are at a public school, I can probably get into some trouble for having you write letters to god, so here is my preface/warning. I am not saying that you need to believe in god to complete this assignment. God (for this assignment) can be anything, or anyone. I do not care if you believe in god or think he/she is bogus. The purpose of the assignment is to get your mind thinking about the ideas of “greater powers”, and to ask questions. There are no right or wrong answers, just lots of questions to be asked. You will not be graded on your views of god, or your questions of god. All that is asked is you put an honest effort towards listing and asking these questions, and don’t hold anything back.

3 comments:

  1. just wanted to apologize to folks, for getting this out (online) late. i didn't have internet connection for a couple of days.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Asha...I really like your third poetry entry. I like it that your taking on a sometimes controversial subject and encouraging your students to think about God/god because one day they're probably going to want to have a viewpoint on this and it helps them to start or continue building that foundation now. You did a good job of keeping them focused on the task and not the "controversy." In all three, you ask good questions of the students to get them to think about the topic. Your writing parameters aren't really stated, but I don't think that's your goal here. I think students would appreciate writing about these topics, which is often the hardest part for them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really like this idea of writing to God. It kind of reminded me of a movie coming out soon called "Letters to God" and the postal carrier to needs to figure out how to deliver those letters for a sick child. This is definitely a bold project to work on class and some students might be more open to it than others even if you have the students talking to their own "god" whoever that may be. When my wife and I took our daughter to her kindergarten class to meet the teacher and get a feel for what it would be like for her in the fall, this is the type of project that the students had just finished and had hanging on the wall. What made this easier was that it was at a parochial school, so the God part is expected. Also the letters where a bit unrefined since kindergartners were writing it.

    I hope you try all three, they sound like great ideas!

    ReplyDelete