Word cloud - 20/06/2010

[bodkin]

This is a word-cloud exercise. Click the link below to see the word-cloud (you will need Java working in your browser).

Study the cloud and try to find groups of words which inspire you to some sort of poem. You do not need to use every word and you can add as many extra words as you need to build the scaffolding around them.

You can also adjust the words' exact forms: run -> ran, train -> trained, horse -> horses etc.

Cloud

There is no end-date for the exercise, I will put another one up in a week or so...

Ian

p.s. spot the source of the words

[paisley]

for Whoo?


Under the moon's full gaze
an old bearded owl like him
could preside over her all night
watching her
carry out his instructions
on how to take apart her nest
then command her to rebuild it
before breakfast
using strict stick symmetrics.

It was a just a game, he said,
the goal was to show her
how much she talent she possessed,
his happy little wren. It was
for her own good, he said,
and besides, it made him
feel spry to be so helpful.

Today he's residing over scattered twigs,
for though it began as a lark, a whim,
a small passing fancy, after two,
then four, then twenty new nests,
it became just a skill she learned
before she took flight.








X

It an interesting challenge to be given words to use. The poems may not be of great quality but the exercise itself makes you think using different images than what you would use by natural default.

I have mixed feelings on the value but think it is an excellent way to spend time if stuck in a waiting room or in need of a mental diversion for one reason or another. I suppose it is similar to doing a crossword puzzle.


Thanks to you Bodkin.

[Ros]

I like your poem, paisley.

The merit I find is that sometimes you'll hit upon a line or phrase that you can then take and make into a better poem. Plus, generally, any push to write is good practice.

Ros

[bodkin]

Shrubbery

A man, for larks, built a beard
from disparate components
a bird's nest here, a patch of moss,
two hanks of wool, some candy-floss
and in the very centre
pride of place, as it were,
a stuffed owl with a pained expression.

His wife left him.

[bodkin]

Hi Paisley,

I also like your poem. What I like about these exercises is that they lead you into situations and angles on situations that you would not otherwise explore.

My "Time Spent" poem is from a 10 words exercise and almost unrewritten since, but I would not have had any real urge to consider institutionalised mental patients, or to do in terms of the different sorts of days they encounter, or to represent the staff just as "hands"...

Ian

[paisley]

Thank you Ros and Bodkin
And thanks for the comments on the value and merit of exercises.
I like doing these and look forward to doing more.

You have good images in your poem too.
I will look at your Time Spent poem, I think I missed it.

It is great fun that both our poems had a female absent at the end. Interesting.

thanks.

[bodkin]

Thank you Ros and Bodkin
And thanks for the comments on the value and merit of exercises.
I like doing these and look forward to doing more.

You have good images in your poem too.
I will look at your Time Spent poem, I think I missed it.

It is great fun that both our poems had a female absent at the end. Interesting.

thanks.

"Days spent", sorry. This is what comes of typing replies quickly while doing something else...

Ian