Here is today’s picture prompt. Do you know the most important lesson we learn from prompts? That anything can be an inspiration for a poem. Anything. A poet in touch with his or her creativity need never fear boredom.
Even with an abstract image, I can access a multitude of angles for poem seeds. For an image like the above, there are so many ways to go.
There are the most straightforward ones: A journey. Loneliness. Nature. A character: what is the walker thinking? Where is he or she going? Why?
Oh, but there is so much more. Gestalt theories of dreamwork postulate that everything we see in a dream is a part of our own consciousness. When I look at a picture, I sort of reverse this idea and imagine that anything in it can have a consciousness and a story.
What is the ocean thinking? Or the sand? Or the walking stick? Or the walker’s shoes?
Who or what is seeing this scene from above? What’s the story there?
Is this whole scene happening in someone else’s thoughts? Do they miss the walker or try to imagine what he or she is doing?
Do we want to delve shamelessly into archetypes? We’ve got symbolism from water, mud, traveler/seeker, the rod…have fun.
It may all sound cheesy. One hundred flights of thought may lead to one promising seed–or less.
But contemplating a picture–or any image we see, as long as we do it with conscious intention–invites our creativity in for tea; helps it feel welcome.
And when it feels welcome, it’s more likely to drop by with gifts.
Lori Lynne Armstrong 