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Thursday, February 2, 2017

Fireblossom Friday: Looking Beyond The Obvious

"Focus!" screams your personal trainer. "Focus!" you scold yourself at work on Monday morning. "Focus" yells the emcee, introducing the ancient Dutch rock band. Focusing is fine, especially when writing poetry. BUT. Poetry is a funny animal. It isn't like prose, or journalism, where we just pop out the facts bam bam bam starting with the most important. No, poetry is more amorphous, almost dream-like at times, and though it can be in-your-face, it is more often subtle. 

Picture a room. In this room there is a table, a cat, a bowl of fruit on the table, a window with drapes, a rug, a fireplace, and some books. Sitting in the foreground is a woman with some knitting. She's what we see first. Then we might take in the cat, and all the rest. Suppose, though, that the fireplace hasn't been well tended. Suppose a tiny spark has caused a book left too close to the grate to begin to smoulder (way back there, in the background.) NOW what's the most important thing in this picture of ours? 

I want you to try to write a slightly dishonest poem. A little bit misleading. Give us something to focus on--the apparent subject of your poem. But slip in a detail that is really more important. Make it a new poem for this challenge, please. Then link!

 

16 comments:

  1. Thursday night here in the UK but if it's up it's open right? I love the idea for this prompt and as I typed a piece just presented itself. Hope you enjoy.

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  2. Not an easy thing to pull off but I'll give it a try! Working on it now...hugs!

    I wanted to announce (this once) that I'm having a image prompt every Sat. starting this Sat. Ever since Magpie Tales went away I've not found a good place to write about images. We don't do it very often in the groups I write with so I'm doing it myself. Follow the Image Prompts tab on CP or go directly to the website. I used Blogger for ease of Linking.

    Thank you!

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  3. This is a very interesting exercise, Shay. One that requires some thought to get right. A challenge indeed.

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  4. I see a bowl of red herrings... but I wonder if I have time to write... a prompt to think a bit and maybe come with something later.

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  5. A great prompt indeed, warm greetings!

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  6. Luv this challenge ☺

    Much love...

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  7. Not sure my brain is up for it, but will try. A very intriguing prompt.

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  8. ...you are really going to work out my brain... I will start doing warm up exercises...

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  9. This was very enjoyable to write. My whole poem might seem to be about looking beyond the obvious, but the secret detail is less obvious. Tricky, to conceal it and yet make it findable; I don't know how well I succeeded.

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  10. Shay, I'm not sure I got the flavor of your request... but submitted anyways... ~

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  11. Like M, unsure if I captured your object, Shay, but I found the challenge rewarding. Thanks for the nudge.

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  12. Oh, and of course I shouldn't have a 3 after my link (there's only the one). Sorry.

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  13. well, here's mine. let me know if you saw it coming. my apologies for what you see

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  14. I am struggling with the words but I tried, Shay.

    :)

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