Shira Erlichman Writing Prompt
THROUGH THE DOOR
Find a quote you love, a piece of advice, a proverb. Number your page 1 to 15. Write the quote you love in the 15 spot. For example, my quote is “Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” Then, on line 14, mishear your quote through a door. So for example, my line 14 would be “Sue the fear it takes. Share the gun.” Do the same from line 14 to 13. Mine would be “Brew the tear-lit cakes. Bear the sun.”
Do this, moving backward up the page all the way to the 1 spot, moving backward up the page. When done, erase the numbers. Where you end up is the beginning of your poem.
The point is to get loose, stretch your ear, hear something new. The point is for advice to grow from the crooked places, the jumbled, the mistaken. This is underwater gossip. Dive and gurgle.
Lauren Zuniga’s Writing Prompt 11/30
What is the most elaborate lie you ever told? What were the sensations in your body? Was it discovered? Did you get away with it? Was there any point where you believed it was true?
Teacup of shhhhhhhhugar.
Shira Erlichman’s 30/30 Prompt #1
(a): If this photograph is your life, which character are you? The leaping tiger? The ladder clinger? The bike rider? Or, are you the ladder itself? Is the ladder clinger your worries? Is the tightrope music? Is the cyclist the girl you met that urged you out of your suffocating town? Write yourself in to this picture. Let one (or all) objects represent a struggle, a helper, a dare.
Or: (b) Title this photograph after a desperate time/situation in your life. It might be: “When I finally realized it was Bipolar, not prophesy” or “Mom and dad split when I was 10.” How does the image illustrate that? Write the poem based on the tension in the image. Imagine who is who. How would events unfold? Who leapt, who watched, who risked, who led, who barely made it out alive?
(Note: This photograph is real and taken at a zoo in China.)
Shira Whirlichman sings us a song! Its a song that you already know. Brooklyn is a feast.
Angel Nafis and Jon Sands perform their collaborative poem, Black Girl White Boy. Oh my, its so slick and dirty and intense. Yes. Watch it again.
Amy Everhart has a Tumblr too. More action than you can squint at. We will all be posting on here soon. It will be a slippery ramp of gorgeous.
Shira Erlichman in a short piece called Walk on Occupy Wall St. Filmed by Rattapallax.
Dirt Choir’s Lauren Zuniga performs a poem at Living Arts Gallery in Tulsa, OK.
Dirt Choir’s Shira Erlichman performs “Bend of Your Spoon” at Urban Roots in Oklahoma City.
