Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Writing Challenge Week 1

And the all seeing eye keeps watching..

I am approaching the 3rd year of my Literature degree with the OU, Next module A215 (Creative Writing) starts Octber - 2weeks before my due date!!!! Wonder how that one will pan out? So a fellow A215er, Paula has set a pre-module weekly challenge, via our facebook support group, to get our creative juices flowing and get us used to writing on demand and writing to a deadline...Thanks Paula :) You can follow her blog here http://paulaklewis.blogspot.com/.

Tonight's challenge..to be completed by next Tues 16th Aug, for those of us who wish to accept the mission, is to write a poem 40 lines or less around the theme of brutality. WOW!!! I'm used to being asked to write about 'safe' or 'nice' things like love or the seasons or hope etc, this one feels kinda unnerving, but in a good way..I'm looking forward to this challenge.



Well it's certainly got me thinking and my brain has exploded onto a million different tangents..as soon as I saw the word all I could think about first and foremost was the domestic violence and abuse of which I suffered almost 10yrs before leaving..hard hitting stuff, excuse the pun. Then I think in other areas of my life where brutal situations come to mind, like losing my mum when I was only 16 and supposed to be sitting exams..so I left school with no qualifications. Brutal! And losing the daughter I'd always wanted..she only got to see 19 days in this life, this world. Brutal! The word brutality goes hand in hand or cuff in cuff with the police, with police brutality being a much coined phrase these days and a many repeated event..so brutality goes with power and control..or lack of it. Thinking of police brutality forces to mind, by association, quite the opposite, brutality of the average joe such as we are experiencing in Britain at the moment. We are in the midst of anarchy with full scale riots and looting spreading like the plague throughout the country. Scary stuff!!! The biggest thing this word has conjured up for me is a haunting image in my mind's eye of a pair of dying swans, necks intertwined. Elegant, graceful, poignant, yet disturbing in equal measures. I'm not sure where this image is coming from as I don't readily connect swans with brutality..I shall have to peruse and ponder a while - overnight at least and see what I can come up with in the way of poetry. I'm not procrastinating, honest :)

Sweet dreams followers..I'll be back before you know it. T  xx

1 comment:

  1. Netty here! You have had a tough time chic but you're a fighter! I'm looking forward to the status saying your little baby is in your arms! I look forward to reading your challenge! Let me know when you post it! :-))))

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