A Dark World and Wide

Posted on September 24, 2003 in Poems Writing Exercises

For the Wednesday Cafe Writers, I set a condition for all the pieces which we wrote: there could be no reference to anything visual. I had us begin by just listening to the noises where we were and listing them. Then we wrote a poem, a dialogue, a description, etc. based on that list. Then I had people write a list of sounds from a place they liked to visit. Following that, we spent five minutes creating a list of nonsense words — words that we wanted to be. Finally, combining the results of the last two exercises, we wrote a poem, a dialogue, a description or whatever.

To inspire them before we set out, we read John Milton’s Sonnet: On his blindness. I had them pay particular sentence to the five words that conclude the second line “this dark world and wide”. “That’s what we are striving for today.”

I wrote this for the last exercise:

Gravity pulls you down toe-ways

as the shout to your rear comes

surfing on the wired zeer of wheels.

“On your left! On your right!”

Following your feet you choose a way to lean:

towards the tlock-tlock-knock-knock-knock

coming from the creak and the foosh on your right.

Immediately to your left comes the battering wind.

You tilt more to the right, so much that you

put out your arm to catch yourself

should you fall into uncertainty.

The rush plits you twice.

You wonder “Will it be flat or will it slope?”

“Thanks.” “Thanks.”

A unique voice barks after each pass.

The twin continual clicks tick down to silence.

The Doppler Effect witnesses that what was here is gone.

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You can blame Yule for setting me onto this idea.