I was really inspired by Joel's workshop at the staff retreat and have been writing some haiku as he recommended. it's been a really fun way to relax and practice writing for the pure no-pressure enjoyment of it:

ouch
sprain iced with veggies
pebbly potatoes dig in
wish for peas instead

street cleaner
municipal brush
roves, picks up roadkill, rocks, butts;
stop following me

from where i sit
expired light strings
cobra-choke iron railing;
dead footrest cools skin

this morning, i wrote a pageful of any word that came to mind, then tried to use as many of the words as i could in a poem:

Ramshakle rickshaws sit,
Scarecrowed outside Anousha’s bistro
A table of tourists—patsies—bow their shorn, bulbed craniums,
ponder a succulent crumb underfoot
and count the seconds until it is pummeled by
her squatty, asterisk broom.

--and--

Blistered stitches of rug
attempt to dry in the storm
Shorn edges coagulate,
Bulbed with strems of rain

the rug poem made 'sense' to me because i am drying rugs on my balcony and it rained last night. i've found that because i usually journal/read/write on my fire escape, much writing content takes place in that setting. the first poem would have never come out without my from-within word prompts, providing a change of scenery that i wouldn't have imagined otherwise.

incidentally, quite a few of the words that came out on my brainstorm page were nonsensical or combinations of other words: bulbed, prantalot, strem, rixal, agrizement. could be fun to incorporate made up words into poetry, huh?

Here is an article written about the exhibit putting cameras in the hand of some of the kids Word Made Flesh is working with in Sierra Leonne...

Beauty and brokenness

A photo exhibit shows the way young people in Seal Beach and Sierra Leone view their worlds.

By SCOTT MARTINDALE

The Orange County Register

For the 12 teenagers in war-ravaged Sierra Leone who were asked to capture their daily lives with a disposable camera, the exercise was about finding beauty in their broken, hurting world.

read the rest of the article and see more photos...

article on Broken and Beautiful Photo Exhibit