Yesterday's prompt asked you to write in a sequence: yesterday, today, tomorrow.
Today's prompt is another way to look at the future.
Who is the YOU you want to become?
What are they like? Can you reach for metaphors that can capture the self you want to be in your future? Is it a rocketship? a smooth pond? Mardi Gras beads?
I suggest making a list of aspects of yourself you'd like to foster. Can you come up with 10? Then create a metaphor for each (or as many as you can).
From there, select one metaphor for a deep dive, or a few to link together.
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At 61, I think for the most part I have "become" the me I wanted to become. As I considered this prompt, I thought about how I'd like people to remember me after I die. This is the poem I wrote:
You know when
you’re digging through a drawer
looking for a AA battery
or a birthday candle
or a safety pin?
and your fingers
rub across
a salmoned tenpenny coin
from a trip to Ireland years ago?
In that moment
you see
the hedged roads
sheep grazing
hear the lilt
of memory
tinkling?
I don’t know what I can still become.
Perhaps my dear ones,
as their
fingers of thought
touch the
heft of battery
brief candle
pinprick
or smooth coin,
will think on me.
I will have become a memory;
may it be an Irish road.
The me I want to become
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to become is still a mystery to me
Like you complete the things on your list
But you still feel like you could add something
I have no idea what I can become
My mind is like the water of a pond
When it's agitated it becomes difficult to see
But if I can settle and be calm enough the answer might finally come to me
I might be thinking or doing a chore
When suddenly bam! it hits me right to my core
Someday I might realize
And see my future calling
Like a lightbulb that turns from dark to bright with an idea
There are endless possibilities to what I could become
I'll just wait and see, if I become rare or like someone
I will have become a mystery until yet
When I find what I should become
Parker, I appreciated the metaphors you used: the pond, the light. Your honesty and openness to the eventual discovery gives the reader a sense of hope and calm.
DeleteI stare at the blank page
ReplyDeleteWords fitting in my mind
But not in my hands
Not in my fingers that clack, clack, clack
I try to imagine what they would do
How would they react, how they would feel
But nonetheless, the character stays still
My block keeping them inanimate
Stuck in the middle of a fighting time
Stuck in the middle of their character arc
I want to continue the character
But they just stay stuck
I go through the story, looking for my answer
Scanning every word, line, paragraph, chapter
Looking, searching, gazing, skimming
For that one thing to keep me going this way
But my character has reached a dead end
I cannot write when they act like this
I need to start over, erase their path
And create them a new one, better than the last
Trashing the document, I close the computer lid
Stand up from my chair, leave the desk
I leave the house, run down the path
To the pond, with a bag full of bread
For my future, I want to change
I don’t want to continue this way
So I must delete my path, and start anew
Start again, start again
Oh MY! Your final stanza turned this poem on its head! I love how YOU become the character who is stuck. I also really liked the specific image of you running to the pond with a bag of bread. Awesome poem.
ReplyDeleteI want to become..
ReplyDeleteThat feeling
when you realize
your big test
is cancelled tomorrow.
The tension
that spills out,
and the knots
untying from your stomach.
That soothing feeling
that runs down to your toes.
Trickling into the floor.
Oh this is fabulous! I, too, want to become that feeling! I love the concrete examples: the cancelled test, the knots untying. SAVE this poem. It's a gem.
Delete