Poet and publisher Di Slaney’s debut pamphlet from Stonewood Press, Dad’s Slideshow, will be launched 11th April. We’ve asked her to give us a writing nudge for you. Here it is.
My dad is a shy, unassuming man who currently feels a little uncomfortable at the attention surrounding the arrival of my new pamphlet collection ‘Dad’s slideshow’, particularly as I’ve ‘borrowed’ his voice to create several of the poems.
Nudge # 13
Find a photo taken either by your dad, or of your dad. Or remember one that you know well, and hold that in your mind’s eye. Now write a poem as your dad, at that exact moment in time when the photo was taken and the shutter clicked. What is he thinking? Who or what is he looking at? Who is he talking to? What does he do next? What did he do before? Be unexpected – this version of a visual truth is up to you. I won’t tell him if you don’t …
– Di
(from Brittle Star editors – you can also use this nudge to write stories)
“A rhyme must have in it some slight element of surprise if it is to give pleasure; it need not be bizarre or curious, but it must be well used, if used at all” Ezra Pound from ‘A Retrospective’.