Another day in National Poetry Month, another post from a prompt by Rachel McKibbens. In case you hadn't guessed, I am a big fan of her poetry so I really like to do the prompts she came up with over the years. I hope you are attempting these prompts whether you post them or not. If you do want to share them, put it in the comments or post a link to your blog. Happy NaPoWriMo!
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Alive Inside
The broken bricks of her stare
took space in omniverses outside
blistered bones beneath a tired surface.
Life as defined by beat and breath
continued.
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From Rachel's blog:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2009 WRITING EXERCISE #17
Today's ghost line is:
Wall me up alive in my own body.
_ _ _ _ _
(This ghost line is from Margaret Atwood's "Helen of Troy Does Counter Dancing")
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My personal note on the process... aka "the back story"...
I've done ghost line poems before... but somehow this one gave me trouble. I did notes on the idea... Wall me up alive in my own body... skin/scales/bricks... trapped/secured/safer?... hiding/hidden... voluntary? The imagery was in my head but would not come out as poetry per se. I turned off my usual soundtrack in an attempt to find the "her" that this poem is about... somehow it had to be a "her"... a woman inside of herself, aware of the world, but not interactive with it... I tried to read the original poem the ghost line came from. An excellent poem but not really the point of the prompt... and so... how to BEGIN???
What is her story? Rapunzel comes to mind. Trite, I know, but there it was. I didn't like the Rapunzel idea so I didn't go with it. I ended up with just the short stanza posted here. I would love to expand on this thought, but if my years of poetry writing is any indication, I will leave it as is indefinitely.
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