Pop-Up Poetry

I recently led a Pop-Up Poetry workshop at one of my favorite nature spots, the Whitewater Preserve. Planted in a lush canyon, surrounded on both sides by a high-walled canyon we fine-tuned our observation skills and enjoyed a word gathering walk, writing poetry, and applying alternative sources of inspiration for writing poetry--just through paying attention to our surroundings in nature and allowing poety to "pop up" around us.

Even if you think you don’t have a poetic bone in your body, opening up to these creativity exercises just may surprise you when your inner poet emerges in response. Grab a notebook and a pen and give these ideas a try:

Poetry Path. Take a walk in a natural area with a particular theme in mind, like sounds, blue, textures, patterns etc. Write poem notes (phrases) that describe your chosen prompt which you can use in a complete poem or other writing later. For example, using the prompt “sounds:”

• Describing the sound of wind in the trees interrupted by squirrels chattering: I heard an animated conversation above me, the voices of the leaves chattering with the wind about the squirrels.
  
• Hearing a stream before I saw it: Somewhere beyond the moss the muffled voice of a stream tells old stories to wide-eyed boulders and fallen trees. From this phrase, I tried a version of haiku (5-7-5 poem about nature):

          Beyond the soft moss

          A stream tells old stories to

          hushed, wide-eyed boulders.

Word Gathering. One of the exercises we did as a group was a word gathering walk. For about 15 minutes we walked around the preserve collecting words in our journals directly inspired by everything we encountered. Just words. I suggested participants write any phrases on a separate page. Keep only words on your page. As a group we then exchanged our lists, using someone else’s words to write a poem (returning original lists when done). (Sources: Creating a Word List from Your Nature blog; Word list exchange idea from Liz Lamoreux’s book "Inner Excavation: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry, and Mixed Media")

But if you’re going solo, a great alternative is to cut up your individual words and choose ten of them to arrange directly into a 10-word poem or randomly pick five of your words to use as inspiration in a poem. (Random 5 from Bowl of Random Words at The Odd Inkwell blog) 

Here’s a partial list from a word gathering walk by someone who does not think they are a poet; a reluctant poet: hot, green, soft, crunchy, bark, tree, leaves, water, wet, summer, season, chirping, wings, flight, laughter, blank, falling. See below for their Fallen Poem.

Sensory Overload. Still think you don’t have it in you? Embrace your descriptive words! Take any object and write down at least 5 words or phrases to describe it in detail. Try descriptive words that address your senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) as a guideline. For example, "nest"--downy shelter, wet feathers, warm scent, peppery insects, tiny, hungry calls.

NEST

newly hatched, wet feathers

shifting with anticipation

stretching, reaching

tiny, hungry calls

the warm scent of peppery insects

lands softly

within the downy shelter

feeding time.

Wishy-Washy and Fallen Poems. Creating ephemeral poems can be a great incentive for putting anything down “on paper,” even those poems you think are…well not so great. Just as long as you keep working your poetry muscle. From mistakes come creative masterpieces…

Wishy (rain) Washy: how about Molly Anderson-Childers & Chris Dunmire’s suggestion of chalking a bad poem on the sidewalk and praying for rain! (from Jellybeans for Breakfast: A Guided Imagery on Play)

Fallen Poems: collect a few fallen leaves (not too crunchy) and write bad haiku on them followed by adding them to your garden as mulch—veggies and flowers eat up poetry! Or better yet, leave a lucky stranger your spontaneous prose or a poem note written directly on a leaf inspired by fall leaves, the surrounding scenery, or the tree your leaf came from, leave it on their windshield as an unexpected word gift. (Adapted from "leaf tweets" from my article, Let Nature Be Your Muse--9 Activities to Boost Your Creativity)

The “reluctant poet’s” Fallen Poem:  

 

Chirping and soft wings. Laughter in flight.

 

  

World Turtle Day

Hello creatives! Today is World Turtle Day. Please share something you've written or created that celebrates these beautiful creatures...

I'd like to share with you a poem I wrote inspired by these sea turtle images (and their fellow endangered cousins, the desert tortoise). I hope they inspire something in you.

Click here for free wallpaper image.

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I watched a tortoise investigating dried indigo upon the flat,
varnished cobbles of desert pavement.
It was not as easy for me on the other side of this shimmering lens of heat, baking off the ancient patina.
I wiped my neck and brow.

This endangered creature, in her element, began nibbling the dried,
crunchy indigo bits that littered the parched ground at the base of the plant.
Like a mirage, I watched her easily cut through old, white stems
as she moved her snacking onto the plant itself somewhere within my wavy vision.

I finished off my water. The heat continued to radiate, relentless and heavy.
The tortoise started to glide, effortless, weightless.
Quietly she pushed forward in an unexpectedly fluid movement, rising above me.
She became sleeker. I noticed a glittery cloud of mica dust slowly billow off her carapace.

I stood up to watch her dance a slow, liquid ballet in an endless cerulean sky.
The sun sparkled down in distorted waves creating a halo around her graceful silhouette.
She dove slowly, circling me, investigating me. Both of us floating in mutual curiosity.
I felt a tiny current of movement, the faint tip of a claw brushing my shoulder.

I turned to see her flat plastron arcing into a graceful twist away from me.
I reached for her, wanting to follow in her world of ancient survival--
but she settled out of reach onto the dark floor, resting between veils of dual existence.
I felt a salty droplet fall to my lips.
I wiped my forehead.

~M. Hedgecock



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Poem Notes

It is a new moon night. Irresistible.

"I cup the stars, thirsty for their silvery attention—little muses winking at me—I drink in their luminous whispers."

In Liz Lamoreux's inspiring book, "Inner Excavation: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry, and Mixed Media" she shares the idea of poem notes for revealing your poet within. She explains poem notes can be: notes from a poem you hope to write some day, short lines, phrases, the beginning lines of a poem. The idea is to avoid the trap of feeling you must end up with a finished poem. As a "shy poet" myself, I found this exercise to be quite liberating, giving this tender creative outlet I secretly enjoy permission to come through in short, daring bursts and glimpses! In practicing this exercise I've actually ended up with a couple of poems ;)

Now it's your turn.

Creativity Hike

A couple of days ago I spent the morning with a group of creatives on a La Quinta preserve, exploring sources of inspiration as found in nature. I guided the group through a sampling of creativity exercises designed to get the creative process flowing. The group shared in the experience so openly, and I found their creative expressions and spirit so inspiring!

At the end of the hike, we gathered once more as "non-writers" to create a folding poem--a favorite exercise I like to include in any creativity outing and a great way to end a morning spent in such a profoundly beautiful environment.

Here are the two amazing group poems participants created on the spot--nature truly inspires:

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A fresh breeze brushing the winter desert.

A palette of natural color.
Calming colors –
desert seems still, but signs of motion everywhere
footprints, erosion, growth.

I saw life from all the holes in the ground.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of animals are burrowed there.
I enjoyed different perspectives of the palo verde tree –
up close it is large and grand,
from a distance, small and solitary.

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I wonder about the many forms of life has passed where we are –
Going into Nature today is going into the best art gallery in the world.
Nature is so glorious, I can’t describe it well.
Lizard watching me watching him. Peace.
Sun moving, revealing new crevices, homes to local residents.
And then rubble piles that look like ancient ruins that completes the cycle.

Nature Time: Creating A Word List

Come along for a little nature time. Your task is to generate a word list to keep as a source of nature-inspired word prompts to engage your creative spirit. Bring along a sketch pad and a pencil, find an area where you can take in the pace of nature and let the flow of words begin. Notice which words are common in your daily vocabulary and how your response to them might change once they're associated with a natural environment. For example the word surface. What images come to mind during your morning commute with the word "surface?" How about if you scuba dive? Or take a walk in the desert? What about reading a topographic map? Think about the many "identities" of words as you do this exercise, you'll greatly expand your word-list and your opportunity for creative interpretations. Watch the video below to get started.

In this short video, my 45-word list was compiled during a 20-minute desert walk. I can refer to this list as a source of ongoing prompts for a variety of creative outlets. For starters, I decided to choose the 2^nd, 4^th, 8^th, 16^th, and 32^nd words off my list as random prompts for a poetry exercise (shared at the end of the video): velvety, patina, gravel, sky, surface.

How will nature inspire you today?

Nature Time: Moon and Stars Poetry

With a new "Nature Time" post (sidebar), it's time to move the previous exercise over for sharing and comments...

Bundle up in a comfy chair or hammock (my fave!) and read poetry or quotes about the moon and stars. Return a second night with poems of your own inspired by the night sky :)

You can tape or rubberband a layer or two of red cellophane over your flashlight (or under lens) to protect your eyes from transitioning between the bright flashlight and the star light. (Target/Wal-Mart usually carry a Rayovac swivel head AA flashlight that includes a red lens. Craft stores sell red cellophane and gels.)

The Salton Sea

Inspired by a previous prompt “crunchy.”

The Salton Sea
I shut my car door and walk back upon the
familiar feel of the salty, crunchy blend
of fish scales, bones and barnacles shifting
and crumbling beneath my desert-worn soles.

I stand at the sea surrounded by desert,
yet there is not a grain of sand
at this beach made of 'once living things.'
The sun-bleached remains are prolific.
It is a place poised in death, of desert-worn souls.

Mingling among smooth, mute bones
are coarse stones of frothy pumice,
an ancient colloidal foam of primordial creation,
solid and floating upon a parched and
bloodless beach, a dessicated, worn sol.
~M. Hedgecock

Save the Sea! <--learn about the Sea :)