Turning to poetry – Hysteria writing prompts for August
I hope, like me, you’ve been finding it easy to write this summer. It’s lovely to have those bright mornings (best writing time for me) and long evenings that just seem to slip away when we’re busy. I know so many people have been turning to poetry to help set down their thoughts about the virus and the weird way we’ve had to adapt our lives and our relationships. We’ve been switching between fear and hope, worrying about things and feeling confident at times.
The Hysteria competition invites you to write stories of 600 words maximum or shorter (100) word flash pieces. Maybe you can write about something that has happened to you or someone you know in the last few months: people have been doing extraordinarily kind and helpful deeds: shopping for neighbours, baking for NHS workers and sewing scrubs for doctors and nurses. Some people have been dealing with loneliness and mental health issues, families have suffered under the strain of being locked down together. Strange things happened in queues and on the walks and bike rides that became out daily routine.
If you’re a people watcher, like me, you may have seen lots of interesting characters in the queues, or sensed the tension in the groups as they reached the shops and foubd what they were looking for. You may have been made anxious by people getting into your personal space (as I was when people did not give way on footpaths).
There are many stories to be told. In terms of poetry, I have tried another form for recording some of the things I’ve been seeing and experiencing. I’ve been using the triolet form; it’s straightforward and quite easy to apply to a simple thought or idea. A triolet is a poetic form consisting of only 8 lines. In a triolet, the 1st, 4th, and 7th lines repeat, and the 2nd and 8th lines repeat as well. The rhyme scheme is simple: ABaAabAB, where the capital letters represent the repeated lines.
Here’s one I wrote after one of my walks and I was lucky to have this one accepted by Aloe magazine: @Aloe_Mag
Walked by a different lake today
in covid stillness – pale morning night
escaping lockdown’s weary workaday
walked by a different lake today
greylag goslings, green and fluffy, bright
played on the path and blocked our way
walked by a different lake today
in covid stillness – pale morning light
I’ve been really busy with writing this blog and my magazine page for Write On! magazine. We had to cancel our print run in March and managed to keep turning out daily pages celebrating and showcasing writing. We’ve been looking forward to being back in print. You can read the magazines online: at Pen to Print.org and https://pentoprint.org/introducing-write-on-extra-daily-posts-for-difficult-times/
And I was editing the Thoughtful Tuesday page: https://pentoprint.org/?s=thoughtful+tuesdays
Happy writing
Eithne