Writing Prompts: Sound, Texture, Taste, Color, Animal

So last night I went to my new writing class. I'm not sure if I will continue with the whole series, but the teacher was an excellent facilitator-- open, warm, nonjudgemental, quirky, spontaneous. I think seeing those qualities in your writing instructor enables you to do those things more readily yourself.

The class is meant to almost help you start over in your head- to lose all the preconceived notions about how to write, or what good writing is- to turn new soil and allow fresh ripe fruit of the imagination to become full and juicy in the greenhouse of your mind.

Her technique is rooted in the sensorial experience so we did a writing prompt that focused on Sound, Texture, Taste, Color and Animal. We used each of these as platforms to do a writing exercise describing ourselves. Aerobacize the mind, Leslie said.

I'll share my rapidly scribbled stream of consciousness jottings here:

I AM THE SOUND OF....

fire before it's made, the waiting as the wick leans its ear into the lick of heat

clouds forming

isolated droplets of the lightest, most gentle intermitten rain, hitting the waterskin drum surface of an enclosed pond, sometimes hitting a lily pad, sometimes not

I AM the sound of....

the furthest furthest imperceptible echo of an animal that has barely escaped its predator, the hooves and fearhorror lingering as dissipating palpables in a distantly reverberating terrain

I AM the sound of.....

a piano lid being slammed shut.

I AM THE TEXTURE OF....

tracing paper, the way fog obscures mountains in the distance

melted icecream disappearing down the drain, escaping, not something you'd want to lick up off the dirty sink surface yet are still sad to see go

I AM the texture of.....

a slightly bruised dark red cherry- one that you are on the fence about as you're scooping up cherries at the grocery store and decide, oh what the hell, and toss it into the plastic bag

a glacier cracking, revealing the electric blue slush of water below

I AM the texture of.....

melting wax that's almost too hot, pooling in your palm, except it's perfect to burn a little, like that.

I AM THE TASTE OF....

saffron rice, both cooked and uncooked
the taste of water is the pot with the rice, minus the water the pot, and the rice

I AM THE COLOR OF....

turquoise, but minus the kick, more seafoam, less committment, a little toothpaste, with a whole assortment of things dropped in: the sun, a volcano, broken pieces of firetruck, pieces of conch shelles, stained glass, cathedral buttresses, bricks from the Great Wall, angles of the Jewish star, a moonbeam as a strawstick, stirring the mix, blinding, breathtaking, and dull, when stirred long enough.

I AM THE ANIMAL....

part goldfish. little. unassuming. iconic. dumb. somehow with a unicorn brow, with gazelle spirit, gazelle timidity, tigress temper, dolphin in the eyes- empathy, playfulness, if you can get into the waters deep enough.