Wreck This Journal: Poetic Whimsy

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Sometimes inspiration is a subtle little creature that wanders through your subconscious.  This was the lesson I learned after completing a Wreck This Journal page that instructed me glue down a page from a magazine and circle the words I like.  I dutifully finished this page a long time ago, but the significance of what I had done didn’t hit me until this week.

Grab a highlighter or a pen and start circling words that speak to your muse!

I literally followed instructions and circled words I liked without really thinking that they could or might fit together.  And there they sat for months until I read through them the other day.  To my complete surprise, the words I circled actually fit together to create two interesting little poems.

experience antique country
passion beauties
character past
roamed feisty skies

– – –

symmetry beautiful
flowing array
authentic faux
enable discerning
create luminaries
learning

– – –

Granted, these aren’t perfect lines, (my inner editor wants to revise so badly), but they still have something interesting to say. My voice is there and speaking very loudly!  To me this little exercise really showcases the power of random association and free-writing!  If I’ve learned anything, its the importance of shutting off my filter every now and again in order to explore new possibilities.

Stay inspired!

– – –

c.b. 2012

21 thoughts on “Wreck This Journal: Poetic Whimsy

  1. Very nice. I LOVE doing this. I get old books at the thrift store just so I can cut out pages and do the same thing. It opens the mind in a new way and could even be used as a warm-up to each day’s writing session. Your layout is very nice, as always.

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    • I remember we did something very similar in WIG a couple weeks ago, but I got caught up in needing to find words that go together instead just a random selection. I think this only worked because I had no inclination to take it any further until much later. Hopefully, one day I will learn to let go more often! 🙂

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  2. I love this! Free-writing is one of my favorite things ever. That’s where my poetry comes from. It’s amazing what our minds will tell us when we let them express themselves without hindrance.

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    • Free-writing is fun, but I do struggle with it. Poetry is something that usually strikes in the middle of the night or is triggered by an image. I was quite surprised at how these two stanzas turned out. It makes me wonder what else my muse has hiding up her sleeve! 🙂

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  3. Pretty neat! This reminds me of Wordle. Have you used that app (wordle.net)? You paste in a bunch of text and it creates a graphic of the words, omitting the common words (the, it, and). I used it tonight to create my writing quote for Sunday (Ray Bradbury).

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