This month Linda had our Inklings challenge. Sharing a prompt from redroompoetry on Instagram, she invited us to “Find a poem you like, or one you don’t like. Write the first 6 lines of the poem. Under each line write your own response. Delete the original lines, use what you have as a beginning for your poem.”
This was a fabulous and productive prompt, and I found the process a bit addictive. I played around with a number of poems, thoroughly enjoying myself. Once removed from the original poem I found the responding lines to be fertile ground for tinkering. Here’s one I wrote in response to Rachel Field’s poem, which is a perennial favorite of mine.
by Rachel Field
Something told the wild geese
It was time to go,
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered, “Snow.”
Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,…
My response (which went in a different direction than I had anticipated):
In Autumn
As if a far-off warning bell had rung
arrowed masses depart in arcs across the sky
shot from summer’s bow
The orchard trees hang heavy with the harvest
Their leaves quiver in the chill-tendrilled breezes
holding autumn gold but briefly
before the release, the spiral downward
Meanwhile, the sweetness of berries
turns pungent on the vine
and the wild, keening call of the geese fades
Fog twists and rises amongst the tombstones
©Molly Hogan
Thanks so much, Linda, for a rewarding prompt. If you’re interested in seeing what the other Inklings did with it, check out the links below. Margaret also is hosting Poetry Friday this week.
Mary Lee @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche (Click on this one to access Poetry Friday!)
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Catherine @ Reading to the Core
