What is Left Behind

I think it is safe to say at this point that writing poems has become a habit if not a hobby of mine these past several years.  It’s likely no coincidence it began during my time serving as a medical officer in the Army with a deployment to Iraq.  It provided a kind of consolation in moments of near total isolation and high stress, necessity being the mother of invention.

But then I can jump back even further to my freshman year of high school in English class.  We had a poetry book project due that was supposed to entail finding images from magazines or other collage materials to illustrate 10 poems that we were to write and bind them together.  Trying to come up with 10 poems ex nihilo was proving to be too difficult after writing maybe 2.  That’s when my mind reversed the process by first finding and combining compelling images and then writing poems about what I felt the images were conveying to me.  This was the key to unlocking that particular project.  

Fast forward 30 years and this kind of reverse engineering has been a major driver in many of the things I’ve written whether poems or short stories or creative non-fiction/fiction hybrid pieces.  The image is the starting point and my mind draws a story or poem from it.  This has been my go-to writing prompt on many occasions.  That’s not to say I don’t write things first sometimes and then find images for it, but the process can be bi-directional.

So for those of you trying to find a good stress reliever or a way to better understand yourself and the world around you I highly recommend this type of writing prompt.  It will surprise you what your mind will find in images and how they can draw out some innate wisdom.

And here is an example of the process from yesterday.  I took this photo which I did not find particularly compelling but then I started to think about what it might be saying and out came a kind of morbid poem that is not very good, but it made me laugh to see “teen” and “keen” juxtaposed and I love the alliteration of “waking world of sleeping souls.”  

When I lie down 

for my last nap

and fail to awaken

what will be 

left of me in this 

waking world

of sleeping souls?  

A vintage metal sign

*DRINK Coca-Cola*

purchased at a

Flea Market 

when I was 

a teen keen 

to collect stuff.

A prayer shrine

made from

scrap wood and

leftover paints

during the isolation 

of a pandemic

hung on our fence.

But now they 

keep each other

company, hanging

on my garage wall

where they’ll likely 

remain until my 

efforts end.

***