Prompt Prompt #15: The Sailor

Exercising with The Sailor

On Tuesday I attended a workshop at The Hive in Birmingham, run by Poet Rick Sanders (aka Willis The Poet) focused on poetry in response to art. Visual art specifically. While this is not my first dalliance into this form of poetry, I did find it trickier this time around. Possibly down to the fact that last time I had the luxury of context direct from Sue’s own newsletter, while this time all I had was a title and an image.

Am I disheartened? At the time I was, a little. It’s hard to share words that you know aren’t your best, especially with strangers who don’t know your work. But I very quickly moved from disheartened to excited. Really all that had happened was that I was shown a muscle I had not exercised. A muscle I did not consciously recognise as existing. I could do this. I just need to practise!

The second activity, that allowed us to chose an image from a selection was an easier exercise, we could choose one that called out to us, one that sparked a small light of inspiration. I still wouldn’t say any of those poems were good, and I don’t think I’ll revisit them in their current form. But they’ve certainly given me fuel for other poems, and ways to write them.

So, with The Poetry Nook being my playground for poetry, and Prompt Poetry in particular being a communal playground for us all to play in (although you’re very welcome to play in all areas!), I decided to continue playing for this week’s prompt.

I am hoping to do more of this, and I intend to reach out to artists on Substack to use their works as prompts, and introduce you to new artists. For today though, I’m using a photo I took a few years ago, entitled The Sailor.

It’s been a while since I’ve tried a haiku, so I decided to give that muscle an exercise today as well!

---

The Sailor

High speed chase down river,
Swerving both swans and geese,
Don't forget to duck!

---

Thank you for reading, I hope would love to see your own poetry or creative responses to this prompt. Feel free to share by either replying to this email, or clicking the button to leave a comment.

I’ll see you next week for the next Prompt Poetry!

Ivy-Rose Opal