Author: carolyncordon

Vision – looks can be deceiving! Visions can be true, or not true. What you see isn’t always what you get …

Adelaide Plains Poets runs a national poetry every year, and this year, the theme is the same as this writing prompt – Vision. So if you’re interested in having your poem considered for a national competition, check out these guidelines, and send in your entry, in accordance with the guidelines.

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 Entry form and guidelines are available here: http://carolyn-poeticpause.blogspot.com/2020/02/adelaide-plains-poets-competition-2020.html

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This writing prompt/competition theme could cover how you see your life going, or it could be about eyes, eyesight, beautiful things, seeing things, dreams. Visions can be imaginary things, or big dreams for great things.

I have a vision of this month of writing prompts bringing me many amazing new and wonderful new poems to put in my next poetry collection!

So, seeing, dreaming, imagining, ‘a vision of beauty’, eyesight, perception, view, and so on. A leader with vision, what a fine thing that is, they will look into the future, and work hard to make their vision come into being.

Do you have a vision of some fine thing happening in the future? Is there something you imagine that you’d like to write about, a vision of loveliness – that could be a person, a car, a landscape, or many other things.

Some people may have visions if they have some kind of mind altering drug … Pink Elephants anyone? Visions might be frightening too, of course, seeing things that aren’t really there … Heat hazes can seem real, visions in the desert …

I hope you will find this writing theme inspires you, and inspired to write interesting things about – ‘VISION‘.

Writing prompt for today – Philosophy, finding meaning for being

Looking into what life is all about, could there ever be a bigger and more important subject than that one to write about? But writing about ‘big’ things, can be done in looking at the small things in life. 

For instance, I have some photos of ants, taken at various times, in various places at my place. And when I have sat on my back veranda, at times, I watch the ants going about their business, steadily going from here, to there, around in circles and back the other way, all over the place. 

I can’t say what they’re doing, but would imagine each ant has a task they’re performing, finding food to take back to ‘base camp’, that would be a main task. I’ve seen ants carrying dead insects at times, and those little ants sure can handle a mighty weight, comparatively speaking.

When I see the ants working, I think about burdens taken on, and worked at, and about resoluteness, keeping on keeping on. I think about humans versus insects like these ants, and ponder the possible options if ever a creative ant came along, wanting to do something different …

Maybe that already happen, and there are ant colonies, where those who go their own way in life, can live and work in more individual ways? Perhaps those ants I see who go in circles, or head off in a different direction than the other ants, are those more individual ants, but, being human, I can’t really know …

Assumptions, ideas, imagining, playing with weird and way out notions, these can lead to interesting ways to be. Do all philosophies in life come from wondering about ways to be, and how things could, or should be to make for ‘the best way’ to live.

Do ants have the philosophy that the ant nest is the most important thing in life? I would think that philosophy is one that many humans would believe in. I personally am quite taken by the philosophy of Stoicism, 2000 years old, and still going strong … I write about it a little on another of my blogs – My Stoic Life

So the writing prompt is – Philosophy, finding meaning for being.

Underneath – Today’s theme

Underneath what? Underneath the blankets, the ocean, the river, underneath society’s gaze? There are so many things going on ‘underneath’! 

A good journalist knows this, and hunts down the things happening down where we ordinary citizens won’t or can’t explore. All writers, though, whether non-fiction or fiction writers, can find some of the most interesting things whey dive in and go ‘underneath’.

This writing prompt could assist any writer, I would say. Going underneath any subject can find the interesting things not normally portrayed in writing. So whether you write poetry, fiction books, or non-fiction books, or blogs, of course, think about going underneath your subject matter. Your readers will thank you!

Exploring the hidden things in life brings hints of welcome mystery and intrigue to your writing, get in there and get writing about what goes on Underneath!

“It’s getting closer! Are you ready?”

What is it that’s coming, and yes, are you ready? What is it, and what is entailed in ‘getting ready’ for it? Is it a road trip, your retirement from work, birth of a child, or moving into your new home?

Or could it be a holiday, Christmas, Easter, or a birthday, yours or that of a significant other? These events can definitely cause a bit of emotion, excitement or stress, and the need to get things organised for them. Going to school, uni, or your child doing one or other of them for the first time, more things that need a lot of thought, perhaps.

Or could the ‘thing’ that’s on it’s way be a sad or bad thing? Getting divorced, or your child leaving home. Or could it be the anniversary of the death of a loved one, that can be an emotional time, that requires emotional readiness.

So this writing prompt may inspire tears, so take care – hanky or tissues at the ready, and hopefully someone close by to help, if needed. 

Getting emotional is not always a bad thing, necessarily, but it can be, at times. We all must take care for ourselves, and look out for our emotional well being. Getting to the guts of things, in our writing though, that’s an important thing too. It’s a matter of weighing things up, and thinking hard about it all.

Looking at this photo, maybe this man has to get ready for the hay fever season, and needs to make sure he has his appropriate meds, and tissues, lots of tissues! That’s not funny, for sufferers, but it is still funny, if not affected … Or maybe he’s forgotten to get flowers for his loved one on Valentines Day and now that he’s remembered, hasn’t got the money to pay for them … Who knows? Take a guess, and write about it!

 So the writing prompt for today is the phase: “It’s getting closer! Are you ready?”

I hope this writing prompt is useful to you, in your writing, and please, if you are enjoying these prompts, and finding them useful, why not share the good news with some writing friends! 

One prompt will never lead to exactly the same response, from my quite broad experience. The poetry reading event I help organise on the last Sunday of every month, has a small competition, using five words, with a bottle of wine for the winner, with the winner chosen by our Guest Poet, always a fun time!

This prompt today, is one that could well bring some lovely poems into the world. Emotions are important in poetry, and the prompt for today sure has emotion, love?, hate, a bit of jealousy, but one hopes, with best of friends, mostly respect and much affection, bordering on love.

There’s not much more intense than the relationship you might have with friends. As kids we learn about taking turns, sharing, and these things remain into adult friendships too, but ‘big kids’ have many more emotions happening in friendships. Love is a much nuanced thing.

Is is it wrong to call our pets ‘friends’? Can humans be friends with animals? I know what I think, what do you think? And the relationship animals have with each other, is that friendship? Dogs together, is that a pack or are they friends, what things make that friendship. if you think it IS friendship? And what if you throw a cat in there too? Friends?

What are friends, and do acquaintances become friends in time, or are they tow different things. Does shared experience make people friends, and if so, why? Shared understanding, appreciation, helping each other, being successful together, all good things, or can some of those things make a friendship sour, go off? Or even end?

Lots of things there, and here’s some more – Did you have a best friend as a child? Are you both still friends? If so, what’s that like, and if not, the same … Can we be friends with our parents? Or is that relationship just not the same? Can we morph from child and parent, and then become friends with a parent when we become adults? If so, when? Nuance, nuance, nuance, I say!

Have a friendly time, thinking and writing about friendship.

(oops, in my excitement with the writing prompt, I accidentally posted it a day early!)