One of the questions I'm asked when I'm frequently outputting creative content is 'Where do your ideas come from?'
A blank page is a terrifying thing. It's easy to wait for the inspiration to come along and pat you on the back, but doing that can leave large periods of time between output. One technique I use is finding prompts, particularly when I'm striving to output creatively on a daily basis (such as drawing during Inktober).
Poetry can work be written using prompts too. My latest piece was produced from a prompt image (posted here). The image is a woman, weeping into her hands, standing amongst some trees. In the background is the sea.
The process I followed was to think about the image, and about all of the elements I could see. The most obvious feature of the image was the weeping woman, but I sought to draw as much from the other elements of the picture as I could. I tried to imagine the textures she could feel, what she could hear, what the air would smell like...
Why was she weeping?
Then the first words came to me: "The waves hid the silent words that screamed loud between us."
These are not the first words of the poem, but they are the words I built the poem around. I listened to the melody in the words as they had entered my head, the emphasis falling on waves and screamed, and the natural break between the clauses which informed the syllabic pattern of the blank verse to follow.
The next words to come to me became the third stanza, and I realised I wanted the poem to be not about a relationship, but about the grief of someone who has just initiated a breakup, and her desire to make the break simple.
Once I had a beat structure and a story goal, all that was left was to mold the narrative.
A blank page is a terrifying thing. It's easy to wait for the inspiration to come along and pat you on the back, but doing that can leave large periods of time between output. One technique I use is finding prompts, particularly when I'm striving to output creatively on a daily basis (such as drawing during Inktober).
Poetry can work be written using prompts too. My latest piece was produced from a prompt image (posted here). The image is a woman, weeping into her hands, standing amongst some trees. In the background is the sea.
The process I followed was to think about the image, and about all of the elements I could see. The most obvious feature of the image was the weeping woman, but I sought to draw as much from the other elements of the picture as I could. I tried to imagine the textures she could feel, what she could hear, what the air would smell like...
Why was she weeping?
Then the first words came to me: "The waves hid the silent words that screamed loud between us."
These are not the first words of the poem, but they are the words I built the poem around. I listened to the melody in the words as they had entered my head, the emphasis falling on waves and screamed, and the natural break between the clauses which informed the syllabic pattern of the blank verse to follow.
The next words to come to me became the third stanza, and I realised I wanted the poem to be not about a relationship, but about the grief of someone who has just initiated a breakup, and her desire to make the break simple.
Once I had a beat structure and a story goal, all that was left was to mold the narrative.
On the Shore
Here on the water's edge
We met for the last time
Where the drops from the seaspray
Could conceal all my tears
Here on the sandy shore
I said goodbye to you
The waves hid the silent words
That screamed loud between us
You'll think that I loved you
No more than a minute
As the pain of our dying
Is dissolved in my song
My reasons are solid
My heart pulses hollow
And the sadness will grip me
For the rest of my years
Here on the water's edge
We met for the last time
Where the drops from the seaspray
Could conceal all my tears
Here on the sandy shore
I said goodbye to you
The waves hid the silent words
That screamed loud between us
You'll think that I loved you
No more than a minute
As the pain of our dying
Is dissolved in my song
My reasons are solid
My heart pulses hollow
And the sadness will grip me
For the rest of my years
Kristine Sihto spends her days writing for an Information Security Consultancy and her nights writing for herself, painting, and playing computer games. She is the author of poetry book Life Wires, available on this site or via Lulu.