Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 22:36:11 EST From: "feel that burn..." Subject: EXERCISE: Mineral, Animal, Veggie--Personal Metaphors Comments: To: "electroshock nights..." [sorry about the delay--this week has been a bit hectic, and today was...less than benign? anyway, I was relaxing at home, letting the residual tremors work themselves out, and I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to post an exercise! mea delinquent, but here we go] might be a poetic exercise, might simply be a mind stretcher, but I think some of you will like it... 1. Take a concept or idea that you want to express. Write it down in a few short words (e.g. I'm lonely) 2. Take some word from the mineral arena. For example, pick a number from one to six and: a) opal b) marble c) iron d) pewter e) lava f) flint Write this word down in column one under the concept or idea. 3. Take one word from the animal world...one to six? a) kangaroo! b) bat c) orangutan d) tiger e) mule f) pig Write this word down in column two under the concept or idea. 4. Take one word from the veggies...one to six? a) cypress b) hemlock c) fuchsia d) bluegrass e) oregano f) ivy Write this word down in column three under the concept or idea. 5. If you aren't sure about them, look them up... 6. Now, for each column, mineral, animal, veggie, think about some characteristics of that specific thing. Make a list of at least ten different points about the piece of marble you are thinking of, the mule hiding under your porch, and the ivy cracking the shingles off your roof... I think this works best when you do ten in column a, then ten in column b, then ten in column c, but do it your way. 7. Now, let your mind wander down the lists. If the sharp edge of your piece of flint reminds you of the darkness under the looming cypress trees--make a note of that. You've got 34 or so words to play with at this point, let your intuition lead you into a web of relationships, similarities and differences, alliances and juxtapositions...mirroring and distorting the concept or idea you wanted to think about. 8. Put that away. Grab a piece of clean paper. Tap your fingers, beat your feet, get a rhythm going--and let words bubble up out of that cauldron of thought you've just immersed yourself in. Write them down, make them fit the beat, fight the beat, bite the feet--and stick to those cracks in the pewter matching those veins in the leaves of oregano that bite in the back of your nose when you sniff the spaghetti--ye olde concrete experience. If you slow down, glance at the lists and notes you made, fit pieces of that in, and keep going. When it slows down and stops, that's okay--that's when you go back, look at what you've done, and polish. 9. Polish, polish, clear away the detritus that hides the shining scalpel of the metaphorical linkages you have created, make it cut... [that's it! oh, the start of a story folken are clamoring? they should get out of those unpleasantly cold and sticky things right now and slip into something more comfortable... "Kill him now," the head cheerleader said, and ran onto the field. tick-tock, marjory-daw, the cheerleading squad has its own little secrets... For those who wonder, the idea is to start with that line, and write a little, write a little, write a lot onward, into the jaws of a climax, wrote the fingered keyboards...] later tink