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Poetry of the Road

a creative prompt & coaching tool
from Kara L.C. Jones

This week's prompt comes from the poetic inspirations of the writer Rumi. His writing always helps me break my view open, particularly the translations of his works done by Coleman Barks.

In a longer piece of Rumi's, there was a line that struck me recently:

"...now I'm angry at the road..."

There was something about this line that reminded me of those early days of grief when anger is so palpable. For that matter, it reminded me of how the long term effects of grief can sometimes include a shaken foundation that leaves us questioning everything, even as we move forward.

There are just days when I learn of another death, when another friend is struggling, when another impossible deadline approaches, another bereaved parent tells me of a caregiver telling them to "get over it." Some days the litany of this horrid world overwhelms me and I find myself standing in the middle of the pavement cursing the road with my anger.

Rumi's reflection of that shook me out of being stuck in that place. He got me thinking about all the possible features and ideas that could come from the idea of being angry at the road. Examples:

• I hitchhike
• my flat tire
• a speeding ticket
• a flooded engine
• I turned toward the off ramp
• the pavement crumbled
• the melted tar burned my feet
• a machine dug up pavement and dirt

After making a list of as many of these as possible, I decided to write up a little narrative about what happens after I find myself angry at the road. Partly this piece came just from making the list, but the list itself made me recall imagery from a dream I had recently. So the dream landscapes became part of the narrative, too. This is what came:

Poetry of the Road
by Kara L.C. Jones

And now,
angry at the road
I stomped my feet
until the pavement crumbled,
gave way to dirt and dust,
clouding the window glass.

Blind,
on instinct alone,
I turned the wheel right
feeling the off ramp must be there

But it was not.

My flooded engine fell away,
air sailed up to catch me, and
thousands of feet below,
I bounced on the ground,

wheels of a bicycle
acting as cushion.

I rode away from the anger,
pedaling at speeding ticket pace,
just glad the melting tar
would no longer burn my feet.

So now you try it. Take the first line from Rumi. Make a list of all the ideas and images you can think of that relate to "the road." From this list, write a narrative poem that tells a bit about your grief journey, where are you on the emotional road, how do you cope, what protects you from feeling constantly burned?

You can take the prompt to another level by using your narrative writing to then inspire a visual art piece. Draw, collage, paint a scene inspired by your writing. Maybe do a perspective drawing of the road going off into infinity. What is along the road? Where are the off ramps of grief?

Are there lines in your narrative writing that give you particular visions or call to images you've seen in your dreams while on the grief paths? How can you work these things into the visual piece, too?

Just experiment with this prompt in the coming week and then feel free to come share the process and results over on MotherHenna.blogspot.com or Kotapress.blogspot.com or over at the MISS Creation Station forum!

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Blessing to Each of You!

Reiki to you:
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN

_____________________________

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