PROMPT #45
BY ELIZABETH METZGER
Prompt for an ordinary day.
Take a random object that you do not usually have with you outside its interior environment (hairbrush, paperclip, water bottle). Ideally this is an ordinary object you live with and take for granted aside from its utilitarian function. Observe it carefully and jot down 12 things you notice. Then close your eyes and hold it, noting its texture and your sensations. Write down 12 new things you noticed that make the object feel different than you expected.
Write down 3 ways in which you are similar to this ordinary object.
Take the object outside on whatever your daily routines are—work, a walk, the gym, grocery store etc. Take the object out in one or all of these place and note down one new observation.
Take the object home and put it back in its regular location. Then considering some of the notes you’ve taken and your experience with the object, name one way this object changed your day and changed some sense of your self in the world, however small.
Now write a poem using any of your observations from the day. The object is no longer inanimate. Address it as a thou in present tense, let its qualities be the qualities of a spiritual being that has something new to observe about you, how you live in time, how you change from inside to outside.
The object is holding you. Let yourself receive the poem as passively as possible. You are being examined.
When you revise, take out any lines that you feel are willed by you are make the object a recognizable object. The object is divine, demonic, holy, full of secrets. Replace the willed lines with questions or assertions the object would make about you. I hope you feel vulnerable, beloved, and surprised under its scrutiny.