creative writing – Page 3 – Business in Rhyme

NaPoWriMo: Day 15

April 15, 2017April 15, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: Dare to compare!

Everyone once in a while faces a challenging situation to solve some problem, find an answer to a question; brainstorm an innovative idea. And that got me thinking: what if we challenge ourselves even more? What would happen with our creative flow? Now, I’m not thinking about putting pressure on ourselves, yet we all know we can ‘move’ ourselves towards productive creativity through certain exercises, but creativity is still kind of unpredictable. What I mean by challenge, I mean challenging us by comparing the problem to something else.

In poetry is very well known technique called similes. Its purpose is to compare two things, so examples of simile poems include any poem that makes comparisons using the words “like” or “as.” Two things compared don’t have to be alike (in poetry usually they are not), and they create different images in our mind, making correlations and connections that doesn’t actually exist.

So for this exercise your goal is to use at least one simile in your poem.

Threads

Some threads are broken.
Some threads forgotten.
I am a kitten lying in wicker basket
and I sharpen my clutches.

I want to scratch the sky and catche
a white mice, dragging his daily tail
upon me, always one mile ahead.
I am an owl with wide open eyes
reaching for higher branch with each
midnight hour. Insomniatic heart beats,
dances as dawn approaches. Feathered
in dim lights of a distant city, dusted
with each unspoken breath, space opens
up for rusted wings.

I am a jelly fish, transparent and naked
easy to read like an open book,
hooked by the rustling waves in melancholy
of dark freedom.

Somewhere, there is a shore
with purple sands, forming and erasing all
imagined threads, forming
new ones, under the vaults
of pesky fins, leaking like
sour milk from a plastic tin.

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NaPoWriMo: Day 14

April 14, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: Play with the “what if” clause

Take your problem or writing idea and try to look at it from the “What would happen if….?” point of view. It’s a great way for creativity “spikes” that we all need when we feel stuck and lack inspiration. It’s also a great starter for your writing of a poem, story and will initiate many new creative thoughts to come forth.

What if?

Your dreamy face floats on my pillow.
With smile, it makes me wonder:

What if I am your morning shower?
I would relentlessly bath you in
sparkling silver water, pour over your masculine body
and search for the tiniest pores on your firm skin
to get forever lost in you.

What if I am the button on your shirt?
I would be the one, resting on your chest,
one that listens to whispers of your heart,
and sometimes bounces, jumps and shakes
in the rhythm of your loud, silly laugh.

What if I am your evening glass of wine?
I would caress your lips with shiny kisses
and be the one red drop that tickles your tongue
and inebriates your senses.

What if you and me,
two clenched and shriveled bodies
stay forever locked in this moment?

NaPoWriMo: Day 13

April 13, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: Limit yourself on purpose

This might sound strange at first but when you think about it- it might be true. Often we try to find the solutions to new problems by exploring already familiar models and build our new denouement on old foundations. Furthermore, when we have too many options or resources, we try to incorporate everything and unnecessarily over-complicate solution we are seeking. When we put restrictions on what we can use and what path we should follow, it can actually boost our creative thinking. Here I suggest you improvise a bit with your solution, tackle it from different perspective and simplify your approach. It can be that final “click” you need in your mind to move thinking in right direction. For this prompt, challenge yourself to write a story consisting of only 140 characters, using key words that are crucial for your project, idea or writing. Than you can continue your writing from there in the same fashion, you can tweet about it, play with it and see how it goes. The important thing is to train our mind to work at defined conditions and limited resources.

Spring thunderstorm electrifies the sky above us –
just as the warmth of your hand

my heart.

NaPoWriMo: Day 12

April 12, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: Dive in the absurd

In the paper “Connections From Kafka: Exposure to Meaning Threats Improves Implicit Learning of an Artificial Grammar” authors argue that experiencing (reading, hearing or seeing) something absurd like surreal art or literature can increase pattern recognition of association unrelated to the original meaning threat. In other words, mind always tries to justify, explain what it experiences and “nonsense” art forces mind in faster mode of thinking to recognize what body senses.

So for today’s challenge give your attention to something abstract, surreal. You can visit an art exhibition, read an abstract poem or story and let your mind drift, loosen up from everything you were trying to accomplish. Let your mind “recharge” this way.

Me and the dragon

Two-faced, stringy dragon is sitting on my lap.
A mignonette, a pretend-to-breathe skeleton
with sharp tail and closed eyes.

If I open its mouth shall I find
a jar full of golden coins or flickering
tongue will burn as expected?

With bowed head I shake my new toy,
deflating its empty entrails, frittering
with my small fingers still smiling doll.

Playful eye, khaki button dropped off
facetiously rolling on the carpet.
Precious in appearance, yet deceitful
the first lesson in what real treasure
was over.

f you liked this post, please share. And, If you you are interested in getting more inspiration for your creativity, writing and personal growth, sign up for our free monthly newsletter. You’ll get a free e-book with 31 daily prompts to inspire your writing. For additional tips, follow us on twitter and connect with us on facebook.

NaPoWriMo: Day 11

April 11, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: Acrostic

Write a poem, where the first letter of the verse in the poem spells out a word you choose, subject, and message. You can go even further: write a poem where each starting letter of the line is a consecutive letter of the alphabet, from A to Z.

In poetry it is called acrostic technique and poets frequently use it while experimenting with their own writing.

Poetry is everywhere

Pivotal question
Often stays unanswered:
Even when you
Think you know it all.
Reason tries to rationalize
You, me and all there is.

Intricate words of language
Still firmly wait to be

Expelled out of the mouth of the world
Visioning beauty
Emanating joy, while
Reason yet still alone
Yellow with envy
Wants its explanation.
How am I to discern these words to you?
Even when I force
Reason to
Evaporate and let the words mitigate?

NaPoWriMo: Day 10

April 10, 2017April 11, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: The moment

Go back to some pleasant moment in life – something nice that you experienced for first time, like your first bike ride, first swim, first love, hanging out with friends, moments from your travel: those special events in your life can be an inexhaustible source of emotions for a touching poem. Re-living the moments again reconnects you with your true nature and helps you get that intensity you need to move forward with your thinking and creativity.

The moment

Oh, that moment,
like no moment coming out of nowhere:
sudden crashing collide of uranus and sun
eclipsed by gracious moon

or brief rest of your eyes on my face
and pungent fragrance of your skin,
lingering in the air.

NaPoWriMo: Day 9

April 9, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: react to given act

Remember Newton’s Third Law in physics? Every action has a reaction. That’s simply how Universe works. Thus, use the following statements to imagine a dramatic situation – express emotions, describe scenery, what each of your senses feel and try to write your story or poem. It’s a refreshing activity and your untamed imagination and power of visualization will move your creativity in a positive direction.

Example statements:

You woke up alone, hurt and wet on the sand beach. What happened to you?

You heard a noise on the stairs, behind the closed door.
What made that noise?

A smiling child runs into you. How do you react?

A crowd has gathered below your window. What do they want?

You are in an unknown country: nobody speaks your language, nobody understands you. How do you communicate?

This is a great way to initiate your writing. There are endless options of imaginative situations that can spur your words and keep writing going.

Ocean

I liked the numbing sensation of the sand.
Anesthetized I looked at clouds, blue heavy formations
ready to pour silky rain. In the brushing strokes
drops persistently combed incoming waves,
but I didn’t care.

Melted with my surroundings I finally felt
the warmth of belonging. The ocean also didn’t care.
Just as the clouds didn’t. All they did, is their job.
To mix sand and shells in beautiful patterns and give
us unexpected showers. They just were and are.

I ran for days, until I came to this turquoise border,
everything saying to me ‘it’s enough, rest’.

The tide came and I wasn’t afraid of raising wall in front me.
It’s not another obstacle to jump over.

As water was filling gaps in between my fingers, I smiled
and let the ocean remember instead of me.

NaPoWriMo: Day 8

April 8, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Prompt: Tip – toe through your bag

Touch is one of the most essential senses we have. It translates everything that happens around us through our largest organ – skin. If we are cold, warm, if something is soft or sharp, we can feel it. Our sensors for touch give us that information. So today, simply grab your bag and dig your hand in it: your task is to describe the first object you find (no matter if you know what it is). How does it feel, what’s the color you imagine, is it cold or warm, how does it fit in your hand?

To make it more interesting, ask for assistance. Let someone else pick random objects and fill the bag that you will later explore and use for exercising your creative mussels. Now this is interesting, right?

That random object just might be someone else’s hand as it happened in my case 😉

What is hand?

A hand is not your five fingers
made of bones, wrapped in flesh
and coated in skin.

A hand is not your bluish sinews
revealed just below your knuckles
and joints.

A hand is not only to hold, squeeze,
catch, scratch, write, climb, speak, pretend, hide
show, offer, threaten, apologize or fight.

A hand is to love:
just like your tickle behind my ear.
just like the caress on my hair after tiresome day.
just like the warmth protecting my cold palm in dark winter months.

A hand is a first touch to bring us together
after mute goodbye –
your opened, raised hand in the air.

NaPoWriMo: Day 7

April 7, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: Find a color contrast that appeals to you

For this exercise, let’s play with colors. Observing patterns and how colors interlay can help us train our focus and flexibility.

Look around you and find a pair of colors – any two colors will do. It could be just that you spotted yellow-green pattern on your blanket or the book near you have black-white cover. It doesn’t matter. Look in that contrast and then close your eyes. Write about what you ‘see’, what you feel. How does it appeal to you? Let it inspire your writing and focus on pictures coming to your mind.

New beginning

Those tender petals, pale pink
as they were suddenly kissed by the sun
and hugged by sin
they bend in my fingers and
cuddle the crevices of my hand

As they fade with the day
they fall on the ground in rose-like peachy puddles
feathers of outworn season,
announcing new, heavy coats of
fruitful and sweet deceit.

In contrast, there are soil-stained branches,
once in color of sand and cracked nut shell
that bleed with smile
and proudly wear scratches
of faithfully embossed
cat’s claws.

I’ll leave this innocent flower to silently
purr in my hand as haunting wind repeats:
don’t search for spring in outside reach,
spread your wings, with every breath there
is a new beginning.

NaPoWriMo: Day 6

April 6, 2017 by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, My personal rhyme - from time to time

Poetry prompt: Fragrance in your words

For today, get ready to become nosy. This writing proposal is about object writing. It’s direct and straightforward. Pick a random object and recall memories and associations you hold towards it. What scent does the object invoke in you? What feelings? Use different metaphors, adjectives to do this exercise.

Book – as an object, for example:

It’s the scent of history, of collected words to drive knowledge. It’s the smell of rainy days and warm nights as I’m reading my favorite novel…

Chocolate

I knew I could always find it in the kitchen cupboard, on the first shelf, neatly placed among white plates we used for lunch. It was obligatory item in the house, just as bread. A 100 gr a day was my dose. I didn’t like to share it with anyone. If my sister would ask for a bite, I would rudely say: “One package, one person only”. And she would just smile at my 5 year old naive answer. Somehow she new how to steal last three cubes from my greasy pockets.

This love affair continued in the years of my primary school. Every afternoon, upon coming home, I would kick my books in the corner and run into my parents bedroom to indulge in the new comic and delectable pieces of sweet hazelnuts melting in my mouth. Yeah, my mom did mind that her pillows smelled like cacao, but I was too fast for her to catch me, anyway. And my fingers became very crafty in making small silver ducks and chickens out of foil wrap. But not only did my dark and sweet addiction help me to become an artist, my arithmetic skills improved too – by knowing how to add and subtract any new cavity. A reason for making friends with dentist, a way to kill time and satiate my teenage angst, it meant everything to me: now at 41 my pockets are still greasy, while my sister smiles at my stale lie: “I have non!”.