PWoF 2016 - Topic 08 - Sept. 29

[rayheinrich]

(Sorry... was up late with cat, overslept, then the damned word list took forever.)




         PWoF 2016 - Topic 08 - Sept. 29
         
        Standard instructions:
       

         You should attempt to write a poem inspired by this topic -- not a derivative, literal
         interpretation of the topic.   Create a poem that reflects your own true self.
         
         --> Since the officious rules of PWoF 2016 stipulate that you can submit more than
         one poem; may I suggest, if the fit strikes you, that you include, after your major work,
         a second poem consisting of a bit of transient doggerel, a limerick, or a trenchant
         end-rhyming nonsense poem that somehow reflects the intention of this topic.
         
         (And for anyone who's a bit uncertain about starting out here: Ignore my bullshite and
         just string some words together (that's what everybody else is doing ).  
       

        Topic 8:
       

A "word-field" is used in the business world to inspire creativity.  I've used it in the past to
write poetry and I've found it to work really well.  So, I thought, why not make it a damn topic?  

How you're supposed to use the thing:

Get relaxed, center yourself, meditate, slow your brain down, don't think about writing a poem,
just take a look at the field of words below. View them, one by one, don't read them like you
normally read, pause on each word, look at the word, let the different images, meaning,
feelings float off it.  

Look at them randomly, or bottom to top, or right to left, however you want. What you're
doing is feeding them directly into your subconscious, directly to that little hunk of your
brain that some people call a muse.  Now, after you've done this, go do something that
has nothing to do with writing: feed your animals or kids, wash the dishes, fold your clothes
(however that's done, mine never make it out of the hamper). Do something dull, not mentally
stimulating.  

Then come back in an hour or so, briefly look at the word-field again. Then write something
related to, inspired by the thoughts, ideas, that come to you from the word-field.  Or, if you
think this is just plain new-age-huggy-stupid, ignore it all and write anything you want.

And damn! I forgot to say this before merc got to it: This is NOT a word game. While you
are free to use the words in the word field, concentrating on using as many as you can
tends to defeat the purpose of the technique. I guess this is one of the problems I hadn't
considered when trying to convert it to use in the word-based environment of poetry...
Oh well...

So, in a relaxed sort of way, get busy.

Word field:     (It's not supposed to line up evenly.)

telescope     stockings     carrier         presents       ventured
directions   rug               nonsense       golden         poison
  garden         hopeless       cry             moment         curious

shedding       gallant       tears         pattering     splendidly
  trotting       savage         yesterday   puzzle         sherry
ringlets       puzzling     geography           letter         jobs

alone           measure     shrinking         narrow         fountains
escape         cheerful       knife         burst           cats
  shrinking     hastily       narrow         garden         bottle

splash         sea             wooden         lodging         punished
  drowned     spades         mouse         grammar         beasts
knowledge     pardon         lazily         bristling         fitted

offended       cupboards     marmalade     underneath         tumbling
brave           house           miles         aloud         earth
  school         degree         knowledge   longitude         grand

  downwards     antipathy     curtsy         saucer         sleepy
dreamy         question         earnestly       sticks         overhead
passage       hanging         locked         wind             whiskers

And, should you be interested, some additional info:

1. Your subconscious has been infected by the word-field and anything you write can't
help but reflect it. For all I know it will affect you for the rest of your life. (Luckily, it's
pretty much impossible to hold me legally liable.)

2. Word-fields, when they're used in business, are generated from a customer wish list
(in lieu of formal specifications) involving the solution being worked on.  In our instance,
I took them from a famous literary novel.  But, not wanting to bias you, I'm going to wait
until later to post its name under this button here.

3. Method of generation:
The words were selected from the first 3500 words of the novel.  I used the random
number generator at random.org to select a number from 1 to a 3500 and then got that
word from its text.  (My text editor allows me to put a number in it and it will get the
word for me.)  I eliminated any trivial words such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions,
and most terribly common ones.  I also removed any character names and proper nouns
that might identify the specific novel. And if I'd known how much damned work this
was going to be, I might not have done it.

It will be interesting to see in what ways, if any, the poems correlate with the novel.