NaPoWriMo Day 2: The prompt given by Maureen is as below:
And now for today’s (optional) prompt! The Romanian-born poet Paul Celan once wrote a series of surrealist questions and answers. Here are a couple of examples:
What is forgetting?
An unripe apple stabbed by a spear.
What is a tear?
A scale awaiting a weight.
Today’s prompt asks you to begin by picking 5-10 words from the following list. Next, write out a question for each word that you’ve selected (e.g., what is seaweed?)
owl
generator
fog
river
clove
miracle
cyclops
oyster
mercurial
seaweed
gutter
artillery
salt
elusive
thunder
ghost
acorn
cheese
longing
cowbird
truffle
quahog
song
Now for each question, write a one-line answer. Try to make the answer an image, and don’t worry about strict logic. These are surrealist answers, after all!
After you’ve written out your series of questions and answers, place all the answers, without the questions, on a new page. See if you can make a poem of just the answers. You may find that what you have is very beautifully mysterious, and somehow has its own logic.
Here are the words that I chose along with their description/ answers
What is Fog: A rainfall of the wishes people made when they turned thirteen
What’s a River: A house made of gemstones in the clouds
What’s inside Oyster: The seed of the apple eaten by Eve, sown in my backyard
What’s meant by Longing: A book that wants to be written, diligently interviewing its author
What’s a Song: A painting that has sued its creator for misrepresentation
What is Thunder: A laptop dancing on waves
What’s a Miracle: Moon and stars queued up at the airport to board the next flight
Who’s a Ghost: An infant meditating at the bottom of the sea
Here’s the poem from answers:
Poem: Some wishes I wish came true!
Moon and stars queued up at the airport to board the next flight
A house made of gemstones in the clouds
The seed of the apple eaten by Eve, sown in my backyard
A rainfall of the wishes people made when they turned thirteen
A laptop dancing on waves
An infant meditating at the bottom of the sea
A painting that has sued its creator for misrepresentation
A book that wants to be written, diligently interviewing its author
©Vandana Bhasin
02.04.2023
Thoroughly intrigued by that last couplet: “A painting that has sued its creator for misrepresentation / A book that wants to be written, diligently interviewing its author.” I really want to know who wins the case and whether the book and its author are still together!
I would say, the painting won the case, and the book is still looking for a perfect candidate. Ha ha! Your questions made it even more interesting to me Romana. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
A very much different from what you write and it’s surprised me alot…
That’s so right Sang! Surrealism…so I just let my mind go whichever way it pleased. Ha ha!
Interesting take, I love the imagery!
Thanks Ipsita! Some weird images that hit my mind 🙂