Anyhow, to maintain sanity and also keep the creative juices flowing, I went on a Found Poetry Adventure today. For those of you who are new to found poetry, this is basically the art of finding words/phrases in the world (on signs, in advertisements, in books, in somebody else's poetry, etc. - anywhere really!) and rearranging them to make a poem. I walked from Hampstead to Camden and made a note of different words/phrases that caught my eye. Once I got home, I rearranged the words until they seemed to tell a story/make some kind of sense. I'm no poet by any stretch of the imagination, but it was great fun to play with language in a way that I'm not used to. I'd highly recommend this practice to anyone looking for a short, fun creative project to fill the space between larger writing projects (or even if you just need a small brain break from your MS).
Here's the result (and I'd love to see your results if you do this, too!):
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
The void
A wall of glass separated me from the rest of the world*
Harmony - receive your free bottle at the edge of tomorrow!
For access to the elephant house,
ring with two tings
L'art de vivre en remontant la rivière** -
Be careful at bends and entrances
Jam with the maniacs
Adopt an object
Get rich or try sharing the world's end
The wound is the place where the light enters you***
Nothing ever stays the same****
*/**** These phrases both came from Eva Schloss's memoir, which I'm reading at the moment, called After Auschwitz.
** Translation: "the art of living going back up the river"
***: This is a quote from Rumi