This week’s Read Write Poem prompt is from Carolee. She asked us to go places we weren’t supposed to, describe things we weren’t supposed to see. To rubberneck. And report.
That is a tall order. I have been racking my brain. Trying to look. Trying to remember. It’s dangerous business.
What I have for you are American Sentences about something I have been writing in memoir form, someplace else entirely. It’s about water. (I was starting to write something for a qarrtsiluni theme that didn’t develop in time for any submission. But it broke a lot of stuff loose, all the same. So it was a great prompt.)
Want to see what others have done with the RWP prompt? Go here, and be a voyeur* (I can’t spell).
* * *
Fear there can be no future control, today’s bright pain takes aim: a gun.
*
Aunt Barbara floods pink grass while the splattered shed turns white in day’s light.
*
Grandma grasps my right hand, stares at the alter; Mom whispers in my ear.
* * *
Related posts:
- The fleshed out and improbable skeleton So this is
- Confronting Tears The Read W
- An American sentence for this day Pain etche
- American Sentences instead of a confession I have bee
- American sentence for poverty Today is B
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Interesting. I’m loving the American Sentences I’ve been seeing lately. :) I like how yours are all very different, but the structure makes them feel similar.
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 2:59 am
These are so well written, so dark — almost gothic (not the popculture sense of “goth”). A refreshing sensibility in the American sentence form.
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Each sentence is like a snap shot of an evolving nightmare. Made my heart hurt, and scary too. Very well done, deb.
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 6:15 am
“splattered shed” is not so pretty. Poignant. Like this very much.
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Oh, good heavens! Of course, Stoneymoss changed its address. I wondered why you’d gone so silent lately. Doh.
Now to read!
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
deb–it’s a great idea to write american sentences (or other poetry related stuff) as a way of further exploring memoir as you write. i read an article about a novelist who creates diarama (i can’t spell) and collage on every story she writes to help keep her in the story or to explore new things and find surprises!
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thanks, guys, for reading. They are dark and foreboding. I like the diorama idea (I can’t spell, either).
In fact it reminds me of a great writing exercise I might collaborate with you about on PoCo or RWP sometime. Carolee, you are warned!
on Sep 10th, 2008 at 3:59 am
Oh my- I liked these very much. And I don’t know about american sentences… hm… where have I been?!
The last one really resonated with me, even though I never knew my grandmothers… it just seems like something she would have done.
on Sep 10th, 2008 at 4:52 am
it came out great as they link to each other.
on Sep 10th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I love this, the second sentence esecially. As a whole it is very powerful
on Sep 13th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I’m not fond of American sentences, generally, but I like the last a lot, a whole lot. (Is that a typo or intentional, the spelling of “alter”? Either way it works beautifully — I’ve always loved that particular homophone.)