Velvety thwap of the present
Raw chatter of my heart
Sugary breath of Tuesday
Octagonal starlight of my imagination
Pendulous flush of summer
Aqua slouch of confession
Knotted cloud of confusion
Notes: This poem is the result of an exercise from Karen Benke’s book, Rip the Page! Adventures in Creative Writing. The subtitle of this book gives you a good flavor for what you’ll find inside: “includes wordplay, open-ended writing experiments, encouragement from writers and poets, and enough blank pages to let your words roam.” For this exercise, you fold a piece of paper in half, make a list of words you like from word lists provided by Benke, and then flip the paper over to copy the words and phrases Benke suggests. Then you unfold your paper and see what kind of curious juxtapositions you end up with.
I first learned of Benke’s book and this particular juxtaposition exercise at Reading to the Core. I don’t think I’ve ever done a word matching exercise like this before, but it was a fun (and quick!) way to find a poem today. I think it would be a very appealing activity for students. Catherine provides more detailed instructions (and shares a lovely poem she wrote inspired by the exercise) at her blog, or leave a comment below for the opportunity to win a copy of the book! I’ve never done a giveaway before, and I’m sure there’s some formal way to do it, but…. that’s not the kind of blog this is, and I find myself in possession of two copies of this book, and I’d love to give one away. So. If you’d like a copy of the book, please leave a comment, and I will randomly draw a name out of a hat next week.
the dirigible plum 
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