Prompt-Based Poetry and Creative Writing | March

 

Prompt-Based Poetry and Creative Writing

On 25th February, 2024, Lampshade Writers had a prompt-based poetry and creative writing session to nudge the poet/writer in each of us. The prompts ranged from words and phrases to illustrations by artist and musician Shravan (fourth from left in the top row). 

The prompt-based writing was followed by sharing of poems/stories written by the participants. There was much interaction, constructive feedback, fun and laughter. Hopefully, this will be the start of many more such online prompt-based sessions at Lampshade Writers!

Here are some of the pieces that sprouted from creative minds that day.

Poems/stories based on visual prompts:

VISUAL PROMPT 1

Illustration: Sharavan

The Rock

 By Raghav Prashant Sundar

"Where are the eyes. I don’t see any eyes," said the girl with the pigtails and the white dress.

 

"Keep your voice down, chellam," said the man.

 

"By the way. I don't see any ears either. And it looks nothing lik—"

 

"Keep moving," interrupted a shrill voice a few bodies behind.

 

The man nudged the girl forward. "Remember that thing you made with the doh-play?"

 

"Play-doh," she corrected.

 

"Yes. Play-doh. This is something like that. A symbolic representation of an idea."

 

The girl shook her head. "I don’t know what that means."

 

"As long as you believe that your," he looked for a phrase, chose one and began again. "A long as you believe that your craft project is a duck. Then a duck it shall be."

 

"Everyone believes in my duck!" concurred the girl.

 

"And everyone believes in her." He pointed to the rock covered with garlands, jewels, and the accumulated vermilion of a thousand years of worship.

 

"Even if she doesn’t have any eyes or ears; and looks like this?"

 

"Especially if she doesn’t have any eyes, ears, or form."

 

They duo had reached the end of the line. They closed their eyes and pressed their hands together. A prayer was said. A bell sounded. A coin was dropped into a plate.

 

They kept moving. The rock remained. 

A Wannabe Cloud

By Ashrita Damera

I want to be a cloud

Floating around

Painting windows 

How beautiful I would be

When you would look at me

Through branches

I would be dressed up in leaves

I would kiss the peaks of mountains

Cradle the sun

I try to shapeshift myself

I churn the cloud elements out of me

My kindness

My equanimity

My resilience

My free spirit

I weave them into

An Aerodynamically able body

To float

But I can't be a cloud

I am still a mass of

Confused matrices

Of swirls 

But at least now

I am floating.

Is It a Knot After All?

By Ananya Sarkar

My life in knots...

One, two, three

And suddenly, they're endless

Distress turns to amusement

And untangling them

Becomes a game

A jigsaw puzzle of sorts

And I'm no more than a piece.

VISUAL PROMPT 2

Illustration: Shravan

Fragments

By Dhanisha S

Dispersed across the orange red sky

Stream of consciousness flickers by

Fractals of memories trying to combine

Bubbles of thoughts forming a line

Shards of moments that puzzle,

With pieces that don't fit.

Like a square peg in a round hole,

Unsteady as a newborn foal

I see you through the glint

Reflected by sharp edges that hint

You're not as put together as you claim

That's fine as long as you keep burning bright like a flame.

Beginning of a story based on the visual prompt

By Riddhima Sen

The orangish red rays of the dawning sun spread across the horizon. The turquoise sea seemed to entangle with it. Maya was sitting by the couch, reading a book...

Untitled Poem (based on both the illustrations)

By Nivy N

One had a glass eye

The other skated in the sky

The glass-eyed one wished to fly high

And the other, roll down the sky

Untitled Hindi Poem

By Varsha Sharma

Teri hai prakhar udaan

Ye tapish se na le tu haar maan

Jod le tu apne bikhre tukdo ko...

Ek boond pyas hai hus..

Ruk mat, thak mat..

fiala le apne pankhudo ko..

~~~

Poems/stories based on word prompts:

Beginning of a story based on the prompts "armless teddy" and "Book of Answers"

By Nivy N

Today, I am going to a shop to buy an armless teddy.

“Why?” you ask

Many years ago, my cousins and I stuffed an encyclopedia inside the zipper tummy of a teddy. One Sunday, just like this, we fought over the book of answers. We ripped the teddy apart but what remained was the arm of the teddy. Oh, poor teddy, remained so for many years!

Today, I am going to a shop to buy an armless teddy to fix with the rest of what we have.

Poem based on the prompts "unsent letter" and "perfumed handkerchief"

By Dhanisha

Hot and humid,

An assault of smells,

Overcrowded bus

Crushed in between

Your perfumed handkerchief in hand

Faded like memories

Travelling everyday

A deserted post office

Red and black box

Crumbling courage

I make my way home again

With an unsent letter

Regrets aplenty

A vicious cycle

Like No Other

(based on the prompts "slice of heaven" and silver thimble")

By Ananya Sarkar

When I take my silver thimble

And sew a quilt to

Snuggle in, with my worries

And my fears and my hurt

I taste a slice of heaven

Cool and sweet

A bliss like no other.

***