Freeze a Moment

by Jan Dean

One of my favourite ways of writing a poem is to freeze a moment. Here’s how.

Close your eyes and listen.
Open them and look around.
Check out the moment with your other senses – are you drinking milk/chewing caramel? Is there a hole in your sock so that the skin of your toe keeps sticking to the inside of your shoe? (Note to self – put socks on shopping list…)

Once you’ve collected a few impressions you can begin to write. E.g.

The washing is sloshing

and slapping socks clean

the PC is humming

words flick on the screen

*Thinks* - hey I could make this just a sound poem if I wanted – ‘The Song of The House’ – but for the time being I’ll carry on with the original plan.

            The books on the shelves

have slid and lie slanted

*Thinks* - hmm, I’ve bounced a few follow up lines around in my head, but none of them are very good, so I’m going to ditch these lines.

            There’s a hat on the floor

            and a cat in its bed

            and a large hairy mammoth

            behind next door’s shed…

*Thinks* Ooo, I wonder where that idea came from?  But I do like it.  So Now I’m going to try to tie it in with the original lines.

            A large hairy mammoth?

Yes, that’s what I said.

            So it’s goodbye to laundry

            and goodbye to writing

            Meeting a mammoth is much more exciting           

Well, now I’ve got a first draft.  It may come to something, or it may not.  And if it doesn’t I can always freeze another moment and start again.