Creative Wordshops Writing Newsletter July 2021

Bouncing off Basho

The temple bell stops
but the sound keeps on coming
out of the flowers (Matsuo Basho)

One of the writing prompts – what I call ‘lit matches’ – that I enjoy involves responding to lines from another poet, entering the conversation implicit in the images. Such as a haiku (3 line poem with a 17 syllable count arranged 5 -7 -5) as in the one above. A talking into the silence. Like bouncing off a trampoline. Yet seeking simplicity. Minimalist. A brief moment, often juxtaposing two images, and creating a sudden insight similar to William Blake’s “to see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower.”