14 September 2013
After
touring Tiwi with fellow writers, Kaye Aldenhover and Bronwyn Mehan we arrived
at Kaye Hall’s muffin perfumed house and had a writing session.
We
did three exercises writing for ten minutes for each. The first was writing to
the question I was finding hard going as mentioned in the previous blog: Over all, what purpose do you believe poetry serves in
2013? Is it speaking a language that finally will be heard?
The second exercise we chose from random words we had all
written being careful not to choose one of our own words.
The third exercise was taken from ‘The 3 A.M Epiphany’ Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform Your
Fiction by creative writing teacher Brian Kiteley http://www.amazon.com/The-A-M-Epiphany-Exercises-Transform/dp/1582973512
Here
is my ten minutes of writing from the second exercise. I chose the word PIANO.
As I child I
knew I could play the piano, I didn’t need to learn. Just like my daughter
years later, who didn’t have to learn to read, she could read already. She lay
on the lawn her leg across her cocked knee, ‘The Water Method Man’ held above
her head, upside down, blocking out the sky. She could read and I could play. I
knew this although we didn’t have a piano in our house, I had heard pianos on
the radio and seen the kindie teacher’s fingers dance along the keyboard as the
class trotted or skipped or hopped and I knew
I could play.
The
opportunity to prove my skills came one holiday at my aunt’s house. Her piano
was in the front room, there never seemed to be an occasion where this room was
used for anything, entertaining was always done in the kitchen with the cricket
blaring. Our ancestors stared down from the walls, a heavy curtain kept out the
heat and the light. The piano was in the corner, dusty, keys cracked, probably
untuned. I only knew I could play —nothing about tuning.
For hours each
afternoon when the adults wilted with the summer heat and napped the hottest
hours away. I opened the piano and played concertos, sonatas, lullabies. My
enthusiasm grew, I created operas, film scores, wrote new nursery rhymes and
love songs. I knew I could play. For
one whole summer I could play.
Hopefully I will be able to add some of the other writing pieces completeded at the informal writing session.
Watch this space.
Watch this space.
What happened in the night? This appeared on Facebook at about bedtime.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1234620_10151591441650598_1421953276_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1234620_10151591441650598_1421953276_n.jpg
