Invention Exercise

We’ve talked before about how a good poem (much like a Zen koan) can seem to pull you in two different logical and psychological directions at the same time.  That’s part of the magic and, eventually, you want to be doing it while basically writing on auto-pilot.  Initially, though, it often takes some conscious, concerted effort to get a feel for the rhythms and music that exist in all artistic language but seem to be heightened in poetry.

   

1) So for practice, begin by listing some 1 or 2 syllable words you like, then come up with words that have the same beginning and ending sounds in the reverse order.  Examples: cedar and repose.  Rabbit and temper.  Fort and tariff.  Risk and killdeer.  Russet and tier.  Donkey and yield.  Feel and leaf.  Fumble and bluff.

2) Come up with a few words that have the same internal sounds but different connotations.  Examples: gloom and boon.  Glow and drone.  Bastard and happy.  Jewel and coup.  Rigor and cigarette.

3)  List a few nouns and join them with seemingly unrelated adjectives.  Examples: naked sunrise, screaming whisper, cellophane skyscraper, paper temple, lonesome anthill, purple stoplight, raspberry wrath, plexiglas salvation, disjointed symphony, prehistoric tuxedo, oscillating freeze.

4) Now, take something from #3 and turn it into a simile describing a seemingly unrelated noun.  Examples: the setting sun blinked like a purple stoplight, she was lonesome as an anthill, typewriters rang like a disjointed symphony, he wore the earth like a prehistoric tuxedo.

5) Come up with some two syllable words that have both syllables stressed.  These words add extra punch to your sentence.  Examples: Riptide, whirlwind, whitewash, spendthrift, whiplash, toothpaste, snowmelt, ragtag, cupcake, laptop, stonewall, slapdash.

6) Come up with an elevated, sophisticated image or phrase (or even a bit of scientific terminology).  Sandwich that next to something more guttural, pedestrian, etc.  Another way to think about this: follow a pretentious statement (distinguished not just by overly elevated images or concepts but lots of unstressed syllables) with something blunt and plain-spoken.

7) Now, try weaving these together.  With your words for #1, don’t just put them side by side.  Put them a few words or even a whole line apart.  This creates a subconscious feeling that your lines are connected by an internal rhythm.  Don’t worry about literal meaning yet; you’re just trying to clear up your creative lens and hammer out some lines that have a sense of rhythm, music, and raw imagination.