The Mermaid and the Quote Machine

This beautiful mermaid picture is by Toni Pawlowsky. Many years ago, I fell in love with Red Oak Cards, and this image is from their collection.

Ellis Felker, poet and owner of the company, has an awesome website for Red Oak Cards with a quote machine. Here are some creative writing exercises for you to do this week!

1. I want you to visit Red Oak Cards and look at the "Quote-O-Matic" on your right. You will see a quote by Ellis Felker. Your assignment is to write a response to the quote.

Do you agree or disagree? Why?

What does the quote make you think about?

Note: If you don't like the quote, click on the HOME button and a new one should appear.

Here is the link:

http://redoakcards.com/

2. If you had to put a couple of original quotes into a "Quot-O-Matic," what would they be?

3. Write from the picture above. It is called "Mermaid's Boudoir." Go where your thoughts take you!

Good News of the Day: You can send an e-card for FREE from Red Oak Cards!

Thank you to Ellis Felker at Red Oak Cards for granting permission to utilize his "Quote-O-Matic" and to showcase the beautiful artwork by Toni Pawlowsky.

Fortune Telling for Writers

Ellen Bass is an excellent poet. I particularly love how she writes about family. Today she is featured on Poetry Daily with a poem called "Relax."

Here is a small excerpt from her poem:

No matter how many vitamins you take,
how much Pilates, you'll lose your keys,
your hair and your memory. If your daughter
doesn't plug her heart
into every live socket she passes. . .


You can read the entire poem by clicking on the following link:


http://poems.com/poem.php?date=14814


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Here are your creative writing prompt choices for today:

1. Poetry: Write a poem that tells a fortune. Look at the poem by Ellen Bass if you are able, but write yours in your own style.

2. Fiction: Create a dialogue between a character and a male fortune teller.

3. Creative non-fiction: Have you ever had your fortune told, your tarot cards read, etc.? Write about that experience. Did it change your perspective? If so, how?

To learn more about Ellen Bass, you can link to her website below.

http://ellenbass.com/

Summer Blessings

You ought to have seen what I saw on my way
To the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day:
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!

---from the poem "Blueberries" by Robert Frost

Fresh summer berries are one of God's greatest gifts. Some of my poet friends have written amazing poems about picking berries and cherries.

Prompts:

1. Do you have any memories of picking fruit in the summer? Write about one.

2. What kind of summer fruit would you pick to describe yourself? Why?

Relax - Buddhist Meditation Music - Zen Garden - Kokin Gumi

There are numerous benefits to meditation. Here are just a few:

1. It can increase serotonin which can decrease depression.

2. It can slow your heart rate down.

3. It can decrease muscle tension.

Today's Prompt is to meditate to the music and enjoy the images if you would like. (Some of the cloud photos are amazing!) Then write for 5 minutes after you relax. Go where the music takes you!

Life Gives Us Choices

Eleanor Lerman's poem "Starfish" talks about how life lets us choose how we want "our eggs and coffee," then goes on to say:

Then it sits a fisherman
down beside you at the counter who says, Last night
the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder,
is this a message, finally, or just another day?

And of course, there is much more to the poem. You can read it on The Writer's Almanac by clicking the link below this entry.

Prompt for the day: Reflect on life's choices. Start with the small choices of THIS day, then reflect on something bigger if your thoughts lead into that. I hope you'll read Lerman's poem.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2010/07/05

Where Frida's Dress Hangs

Google's feature this morning spiked my interest in Frida. Above is her painting, "My Dress Hangs There."

Here are two prompts from this:

1. If you were to hang your dress, your hat, etc.---in a manner similar to Frida's---what would your painting look like?

2. Free-write from Frida's painting. After a 5 minute free-write, go and research this very political painting and then free-write again. Then make a combo of the two free-writes into a poem of 30 lines or less.