Writing prompt: The big put-down

This is the fourth in a series of short writing prompts inspired by Stephen King's "On Writing":

p.44-50
In eighth grade, Stephen King created a self-produced book based on the B-grade horror film “The Pit and the Pendulum” and sold it to his schoolmates. At the end of the day, he was called into the principals office and reprimanded for writing “junk.” He admits to having felt ashamed for years afterward about what he wrote: horror and science fiction stories, complete with sex and gore. In his memoirs, he writes the following: “If you write. . .someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all.” Write about a time someone tried to make you feel lousy about writing, or something else you tried to do.

Poetry grab bag

Yesterday I held a writing workshop for students at my house. We talked about using concrete objects as central metaphors, or as launching points, for poetry. I read aloud a long poem with an extended metaphor, in which the word tongue appeared in every stanza. Then the fun began.

I pulled out a rainbow-colored gift bag (I have to do things with flourish) and let the students examine a variety of objects, selecting one to use as their inspiration point. One student picked a package of 24 little cocktail umbrellas; I had a package of beignet mix from New Orleans; another student grabbed a little stone orange heart made in Kenya. Other items in the bag included a shiny pinwheel, a pack of diner-style condiment dispensers (you know, the squeezy, refillable ketchup and mustard bottles?); an orange votive candle with a witch on it; and a clutch of Indian-stye bangles.

Then we all began writing, and in about 20 minutes we had six poems written. One of them, which played with the image cocktail umbrellas in ways I had never considered (including the futility of trying to ward off a storm with a paper umbrella and paper galoshes), has all the makings of a great poem.

With a little shaping, the poem I wrote about New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, might just have the makings of a good poem.

This grab-bag technique was fun and inexpensive, and getting our hands on. . .well, stuff. . .helped all of us learn how to write about stuff. If a picture is worth a thousand words, so is a metaphor.