When I was participating in the Poetry Bus poetry workshops, one of the members asked us to follow these directives:
1: Think of (or find) a sentence.
2: Delete the second half of it.
3: Think of as many different ways of finishing it was you can.
4: Now, delete the first part of the sentence, leaving only a collection of "second halves".
5: Play with these and compose a poem out of them. You'll probably want to mess about with the grammar, leave bits out, put bits in, etc. Feel free.
6: Post the poem.
I used a quote from Albert Einstein, and below is the result.
I used a quote from Albert Einstein, and below is the result.
Photo of my window's view in Reims, France
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. ~ Albert Einstein
I am Enough of an Artist...
To make my way through this airport
and appreciate the artistry
in each human utterance and smile
creative impulses within,
felt without
To hear music
in the laughter of children,
the voice of God
in the knowing timbre
of an elderly sigh
To feel this train race, passing French villes,
A phantasmagoria of anxious yearning
in the muted colors of graffiti
blended with determined drops
of spring rain
To enter a darkened hallway,
and know that the painful hole
bitten into my lip from fear
will heal,
bleeding into fortitude
So, I taste the blended harvest
in a bowl of vegetable soup
and ready myself for another day
with cherished goodness
of a night’s rest
upon clean, white sheets.
© Jeanne I. Lakatos
