09-25-2016, 04:04 PM
PWoF 2016 - Topic 04 - Sept. 25
Standard instructions:
You should attempt to write a poem inspired by this topic -- not a derivative, literal
interpretation of the topic. Create a poem that reflects your own true self.
--> Since the officious rules of PWoF 2016 stipulate that you can submit more than
one poem; may I suggest, if the fit strikes you, that you include, after your major work,
a second poem consisting of a bit of transient doggerel, a limerick, or a trenchant
end-rhyming nonsense poem that somehow reflects the intention of this topic.
(And for anyone who's a bit uncertain about starting out here: Ignore my bullshite and
just string some words together (that's what everybody else is doing
).
interpretation of the topic. Create a poem that reflects your own true self.
--> Since the officious rules of PWoF 2016 stipulate that you can submit more than
one poem; may I suggest, if the fit strikes you, that you include, after your major work,
a second poem consisting of a bit of transient doggerel, a limerick, or a trenchant
end-rhyming nonsense poem that somehow reflects the intention of this topic.
(And for anyone who's a bit uncertain about starting out here: Ignore my bullshite and
just string some words together (that's what everybody else is doing
). Topic 4:
While it's obvious that too much constraint decreases creativity, it turns out that
(backed up by numerous scientific studies) a moderate amount of constraint increases it.
An example of this in writing is the famous "blank page problem", in which writer's block is
induced by the freedom of being able to write about anything in the universe (though you're
not totally without constraints, as you at least know that you're trying to write a short-story,
novel, poem, essay, etc.). In poetry a typical constraint is adopting a poetic form, such as a
sonnet, a villanelle (horrors) or a limerick. (See, free verse really is hard to write as you
must labour to find and remove the boat-loads of cliché too much freedom engenders.)
In PWoF our given constraints are: Writing to a particular topic, and having to do it within
24 hours. For this topic we are going to adopt an additional constraint.
This days topic: Write a poem inspired by death.
Additional constraint: All the words in the poem may not contain the letter "e".
(This particular constraint comes from a Wikipedia article about "constrained writing" which
you can find here.
I'm already experiencing brain-weirdness, maybe the result of all that extra creativity pouring in?
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions