Tag Archives: microfiction

When In Doubt, Write Poetry By Erasing Words

Posted on December 16, 2014 | 4 comments

Diving back into the classics for more blackout poetry.

You’ll find my first two attempts here (Moby Dick – Herman Melville) and here (Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad)

I have taken the first page of a range of texts and used the tone and ideas to create something new.

Epistemology

from Frankenstein – Mary Shelley (click image to enlarge)

Who I Am

from The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (click image to enlarge)

What Your Mind Has Made

from The Picture of Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde (click image to enlarge)

A New Situation for Families

from Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (click image to enlarge)

Like Ivy

from The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson (click image to enlarge)

4 Comments

Posted in Ars Poetica

Tagged black out poetry, creativity, erasure poetry, experimental, fiction, flash fiction, just because of thoughtfulness, micro-fiction, microfiction, micropoetry, poetry, sketches, writers, writing

Blackout Poetry – Another Questionable Attempt

Posted on December 9, 2014 | 3 comments

Between us
the bond of
periods of separation
and
a box of dominoes
toying
with
the anchor
we did not begin that game of
placid staring
The day
was a benign unstained
mist
Only the
brooding
somber minute
angered by the
curved and imperceptible
heat
a change
more profound
unruffled dignity
that comes and departs in the
abiding memories. Indeed nothing’s
easier
than to evoke
its unceasing

After yesterday’s modicum of success with blackout poetry, I tried my hand at another (need to do something creative at the moment while I get my head back into shape to tackle some significant writing projects in January).

This page comes from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” I studied this text in high school last century and thoroughly enjoyed it. Admitting at the time I didn’t quite understand the colonialism and inherent racism, it still holds as a powerful metaphor. Tie it with Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” and you have a teenager’s existential orgasm.

So, with that in mind, I wanted explored the idea of relationships through the text.

It’s a diversion from writing Post It Note Poetry (and a couple of other major works in progress) but I posit that flogging someone else’s idea to pursue something creative is better than nothing. Blackout, or erasure, poetry makes you look at words, their order and the meaning created. It opens your mind to see other possibilities, limited as it is by the choice of text, to create something new.

I encourage you to try it yourself. Or buy a colouring book and pencils. Do something to stimulate your brain.

3 Comments

Posted in Ars Poetica, Creativity, Post It Note Poetry

Tagged black out poetry, creativity, erasure poetry, experimental, micro-fiction, microfiction, micropoetry, poetry, post it note, post it note poetry, slice of life, writers, writing

Blackout Poetry – An Attempt of Questionable Merit

Posted on December 8, 2014 | 7 comments

I have loved Austin Kleon’s work (@austinkleon) and I own his book, Steal Like An Artist (It’s fabulous. Get a copy). I follow his tumblr and love reading his work.

So I decided to give it a go. Armed with my iPad, a digital copy of Moby Dick and Notability, I ripped into the first page of Herman Melville’s tome.

What does it mean? I. Have. Absolutely. No. Idea. I like how it sounds. And I’ll be adding this to the collection of poems I have on tumblr (even if it’s not a Post It Note).

7 Comments

Posted in Ars Poetica, Creativity, Post It Note Poetry

Tagged Austin Kleon, black out poetry, creativity, experimental, microfiction, micropoetry, poetry, writers, writing

Small Achievements – Best of Vine Leaves Literary Journal 2014

Posted on December 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

Earlier this year I had a poem, Elihu’s Meditation on Questions Unanswered, published in Vine Leaves Literary Journal.

And now it is being published in the Best of Vine Leaves Literary Journal.

I would encourage you to support small press and publishers as they are pushing boundaries and discovering brilliant new literary voices. This edition is full of remarkable vignettes, poetry and art.

Follow Vine Leaves (@VineLeavesLJ) and its editor-in-chief, Jessica Bell (@MsBessieBell) on Twitter.

Orders can be made directly through the web site. Order HERE. It would make for a wonderful Christmas present for the book lover in your family.

Throw Out Thursday – 99 Word Stories

Posted on October 9, 2014 | Leave a comment

Recently I came across a site 99fiction.net running a monthly competition for stories no longer than 99 words.

I started to write a couple of pieces but ended up abandoning them. It was a good experiment and writing exercise but they were taking away time from other projects that needed priority.

I will share them below as I intend to adapt them into poems in the future.

1.
He pulled up on the footpath, bringing the scooter to a halt before the STOP sign in literal, simple obedience. A first trip around the block without Mum or Dad. He waited with an understanding that permission needed to be granted before he could GO.

He waited, hands hung loosely over the handle bar, one foot on the deck while the other poised to push off the concrete footpath, shifting feet when one became tired of bearing weight.

Cars pulled up to the intersection, stopped, proceeded and he wondered who gave them permission. Looking around, he rebelled.

2.
I wait for the days when the four lanes of road outside my house are silent. When I can stand in the middle of the road, one foot on each of the parallel white lines, and watch the road bend and dip to the right when facing south. Or turn north, feet still planted on the parallel lines and see the road rise towards the crest and veer slightly to the right again. It is when I imagine I am the only person. Today I intend to stop traffic.

You may want to have a crack at writing your own very short stories or using one of these as the prompt for your own piece of writing.

Remixing is the New Creating Part 2

Posted on September 29, 2014 | Leave a comment

Earlier in the month I mentioned I had a piece listed on the if:books Australia Open Changes project titled The Storm. It was a remix of a previous work, Jodi Cleghorn’s poem, ‘Later.’ I took the line, “born up on the cicada chorus.”

In good news, I have another piece featured in the last week. You can read ‘The Naked Rose‘ here.

I took inspiration from Jodi Cleghorn’s piece, ‘She Would Be Grass.’ In particular, the line “On the ninth day, green patches of turf appeared.”

Now the project is closed, it will take the form of a story tree. I will let you know when it is up for you to have a goosey gander at.

I Found More Poetry Under The Lounge

Posted on August 20, 2014 | 6 comments

I find poetry in all kinds of places, often under the lounge and I found some more there recently.

Right now the end of winter is approaching here in the southern hemisphere (not that we had much of a winter where I live – what happened to those good old fashioned frosts we had as kids?) and with it the promise of hay fever, runny noses, itchy eyes and a cursing of all things frolicking. The first and last poems assembled here, Magnolias and Windy Days, are inspired by the wintery season.

Magnolias

As I drive past
The magnolia blooms
A thousand sunrises
Of pink to white and
A thousand sunsets
Of white to pink
Simultaneously

Standing By

I stand in the longest corridor
possible, pretending I’m Red 5
barrelling down the trench
avoiding laser blasts
to my office door

The Last Page

When you close a book
Do you think it will be
The final time?
Never to peer
Between the pages and
Read the tongues of men
Again

My Companion

I walked in darkness
But was never afraid
For I felt your hand
In mine, or around
my waist, looped over
my shoulder as my light

Generations

She watches
grandmother’s knitting
learns the art of rhythm
the pulse of long thin bones
curses the dropped stitch
like her grandmother

Windy Days

I imagine with each

breath of wind

the trees ask

for our silence

a gentle ‘Shhhh’

simply to listen

to our own

heartbeat

Which poem resonates with you?

6 Comments

Posted in Ars Poetica, Post It Note Poetry

Tagged art, creativity, experimental, just because of thoughtfulness, life in general, micro-fiction, microfiction, micropoetry, poetry, post it note, post it note poetry, reflection, slice of life, writers, writing

Throw Out Thursday – Showing Your Work

Posted on July 24, 2014 | 2 comments

For this week’s Throw Out Thursday, I’ve collected the random poetry I wrote with Year 8 last term. The focus was on haiku.

It’s a great way of introducing students to a poetic form and while there is a beautiful simplicity to haiku, there is also great depth and complexity in the form when explored.

But this is about throwing stuff out. And these are haiku I wrote on the board while my class was working. I believe it’s important for my students to see my writing, correcting, experimenting and exploring creatively.

Haiku with Year 8

Winter Haiku

Summer Haiku

Noodle Worms

Noodle Brain

Creativity is about experimenting, exploring, examining, and having a whole lot of fun.

These are brief experiments and part of the process of improving my writing craft. As Austin Kleon says, “Show your work.” You get to see a little of the word wrangling I do to.

Dare you to have a go at something creative.

2 Comments

Posted in Ars Poetica, The Writer's Life

Tagged creativity, experimental, just because of thoughtfulness, life in general, micro-fiction, microfiction, micropoetry, poetry, throw out thursday, writers, writing

Scraps of Paper Under the Lounge

Posted on July 18, 2014 | 3 comments

Another set of #micropoetry gleaned from my twitter stream, collected here for your reading pleasure and deconstruction.

I like writing them because they are often quick, spur of the moment ideas, thrown down on my Ipad and sent out into the nebulous ether of the interwebz.

It’s a form of disposable creativity, like Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs behind for others to follow my example. Later this year I will be relaunching posts on creativity and why I think EVERYONE should be creative.

I hope something like this inspires you to do something creative.

Cameras For Eyes

The camera downloads
Our memories
Stored in another brain
So we can promptly
Forget
And cannot prove
We ever existed

Boredom

Bored, he watched sands
Trickle through the waist
Of the egg timer. Paused
Between starting anew
And waiting for it to finish

Making It Better

But a Band Aid makes
everything better, he cries
offering up the token.
I’m sorry, says his father
But Nanna has died

Musical Mayhem

In her hands
A wooden spoon
and metal mixing bowl
struck together
a ringing, pleasing tone
striking again
she discovers music

Burning Bridges

He flicked the switch
Burned the bridge
Op’ed a gaping chasm
Then offered tools
To build a better bridge
Than the one before

I Give You My Heart

I handed over my heart
To my beloved
In the most convenient package
A plastic bag
Grabbed from the pile
Behind the kitchen door

The Journey

The journey
Of a thousand miles
Begins not
With the first step
But in firstly
Packing a pair
Of clean undies

Do you have a favourite, or if you were to rewrite one, how would you do it?

3 Comments

Posted in Ars Poetica

Tagged creativity, experimental, fiction, just because of thoughtfulness, micro-fiction, microfiction, micropoetry, poetry, reflection, slice of life, writers, writing

More Loose Scraps of Paper – Further Collected Micropoetry

Posted on June 27, 2014 | 4 comments

Looking back through my posts I have collated more of the #micropoetry posted on twitter and posted here.

Stay tuned in the future for a book of micropoetry.

Outside

when did Outside
become an
undiscovered country?
whose unfenced boundaries
spark greater imagination
than the couch’s confines

Mandala

She draws on the concrete
a chalk mandala
of wonky butterflies,
stick-figure people.
Tomorrow she will
draw another
cycle.

Training Wheels

I’m too old for these
she said
pointing to
the training wheels
He prays she will
never be too old
to trust
and hold
his hand

Knowledge

The gaining of knowledge
deteriorates with age
because we know
everything at 18
and realise
we know nothing
the older
we become

Toilet Seat

Sometimes
I deliberately
Use the bathroom
After you
And absorb the warmth
Of the toilet seat
To believe you
Still care

It Is Written

It is said,
“It is written”
The oral tradition
Of received wisdom
In a fortune cookie
Platitude while we
Forget to read
The written truth

Any favourites?

4 Comments

Posted in Ars Poetica, Creativity, Post It Note Poetry

Tagged creativity, experimental, just because of thoughtfulness, life in general, microfiction, micropoetry, poetry, post it note, post it note poetry, slice of life, writers, writing

Tag Archives: microfiction

When In Doubt, Write Poetry By Erasing Words

Epistemology

Who I Am

What Your Mind Has Made

A New Situation for Families

Like Ivy

Blackout Poetry – Another Questionable Attempt

Blackout Poetry – An Attempt of Questionable Merit

Small Achievements – Best of Vine Leaves Literary Journal 2014

Throw Out Thursday – 99 Word Stories

Remixing is the New Creating Part 2

I Found More Poetry Under The Lounge

Throw Out Thursday – Showing Your Work

Scraps of Paper Under the Lounge

More Loose Scraps of Paper – Further Collected Micropoetry

Do you really want an answer to the question, ”Who are you?”

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Pages

Enough Posts to Make A Fence

Minutiae

Adam Byatt – Writer

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