Journal Assignment #1

JOURNAL 1 (20 points)

In describing the importance of language in creative writing, Burroway writes: “If you write in words that evoke the senses, if your language is full of things that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched, you create a world your reader can enter.”

Complete all three of the following prompts from your textbook. Your purpose here is to practice creating imagery in your writing; however, the slightly informal nature of this assignment should not be interpreted as permission to write inattentively. Creative works you complete for the journal activity may be significantly expanded and revised for later work.

1. Contrasts can evoke strong emotions and images in creative writing. Re-read Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Facing It” (page 42). Make note of the ways Komunyakaa contrasts ideas and images: white and black, night and morning, stone and flesh, solid and air, movement and stasis, reality and reflection, past and present. These contrasts create a sense of confusion and tension. Write two paragraphs of your own in which you describe a brief fictional scene that is full of contrasts. Make the contrasts meaningful to the character in your scene.

2. A stanza is a group of lines in poetry. (Billy Collins’ poem “Snow Day” on page 41 is eight five-line stanzas, for example.) Write a poem of three-line stanzas that follows this pattern: The first line consists of an abstraction, plus a verb, plus a place; the second line describes attire; and the third line of each stanza summarizes an action. Let it flow. Each stanza should make sense by itself; all together the poem does not have to make absolute sense. See the examples on page 27 of Imaginative Writing. Your completed poem should be at least eight stanzas.

3. Quickly list as many clichéd metaphors as you can think of: the path of life, eyes like pools, crazy as a bedbug, nose to the grindstone, and so forth. Provide the list. Then switch half a dozen of the comparisons: eyes like bedbugs, nose to the path, the grindstone of life. Then, write a brief poem (at least 20 lines) using your merged metaphors.