Daryl had us each bring in a photograph of ourselves as a child. We were then to write what we, as that child, would say to an adult. One of my photographs was pre-verbal, of both hands crammed into the icing of my first birthday cake, but I know perfectly well what I’d said shortly after the second. I didn’t want to get off of that pony!
Rob gave us an essay he had published in the Oct/Nov 2000 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle, “On Emotional Investment & the Objective Correlative.” He also recommended “Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg” by Richard Hugo.
He then gave us this exercise (in class):
Write a one-page description (approx 250 words) of one of the following:
Describe a landscape as seen by an old woman whose disgusting and detestable old husband has just died. Do not mention the husband or death.
Describe a lake as seen by a young man who has just committed murder. Do not mention the murder.
Describe a landscape as seen by a bird. Do not mention the bird.
Describe a building as seen by a man whose son has just been killed in a war. Do not mention the son, war, death, or the old man doing the seeing. Then describe the same building, inn the same weather, at the same time of day, as seen by a happy lover. Do not mention the love or the loved one.
Concentrate on selecting concrete, particular details and images that convey the particular emotion experienced by the character through whose eyes the reader sees the landscape.
Jeanne recommended essays on “How a Poem Happens,’ but when I googled that, the main thing I found was a blog. Jeanne, help! Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, by Jane Hirshfield, was easier to find.
She then had us take our list from yesterday on “How to write a Paula Bohince Poem” and try to write one. She also handed out a list of suggestions for our planned afternoon trip to the Georgeson Botanical Garden.
Lunch bites had two readers from creative writing. Jeanne read several poems from her book, Gorrill’s Orchard. I read a scene from the middle book of the trilogy I’m working on.
I have to admit I did more photographing than writing at the gardens. But watch out for blog posts on some of the plants they’re growing!
Buy Homecoming from iUniverse
'Homecoming' Blog 
Thanks for sharing this! I love these writing exericises and can’t wait to try them! They are so creative! And the picture! The pony! So great.
The creativity is all that of our guest instructors. The pony was owned by the itinerant photographer, and I understand my parents had to pry me off it. I’m going to try some digital retouching some day and see if I can clean up the spots where the emulsion has cracked.
Great exercises. Jut thinking through the scenarios, I immediately received the lesson on point of view.
Not so much just point of view as how the way the surroundings could be viewed to show the emotional state of the character.